1: What is the relative importance of alfa and beta biodiversity in polar ecosystems, and how does intraspecific variation influence this? 2: How can we use remote sensing to determine functional biodiversity (within communities) in polar ecosystems? 3: Temporal and spatial scales of functional biodiversity:…

What are trait-trait relationships in wetlands? To what extent the so-called leaf economics traits deviate from terrestrial ecosystems? How traits specific to wetland plant relate to plant strategies? What’s the relationship between wetland plant traits to the ecosystem functioning (e.g. productivity,…

Promotores: J.A.van Veen, P.L.G.Klinkhamer. Co-promotor: E.E.Kuramae

How can we organise society so as to keep our planet habitable for us and for all other life forms around us? To answer this question, Leiden researchers collaborate across disciplines, from biology to data science, and from environmental economy to archaeology.

How can mega sand nourishments, such as the Sand Motor, be designed and managed for optimal ecosystem services provision ?

What are the behaviours of plant traits throughout various points in the growing season in a radiative transfer model framework and how well can this knowledge be integrated through data assimilation to provide priors for robust local and global vegetation products and analysis?

Which traits and/or trade-offs determine benefits of being deciduous or evergreen?

This project investigates memorisation strategies that were employed in the fields of painting and calligraphy in imperial China, with a focus on the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

Which adolescents are more at risk of developing social anxiety disorder later in life?

Recent publications

An international team including Peter van Bodegom shows how trait variability can be incorporated in Essential Biodiversity Variables to allow monitoring how organisms respond to global change. They published their results in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

PhD Defence

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Danhof, Co-Promotor: J. de Jongh

Promotores: Prof.dr. M. Danhof, Prof.dr. D.R. Stanski

Promotor: Prof.dr. B.R. Katzy, Co-promotor: R. Ortt

Promotor: P.J.J. Hooykaas, Co-Promotor: E.J. van der Zaal

New and reemerging infectious diseases call for innovative and efficient control strategies of which fast vaccine design and development represent an important element.

Which genes are involved in woodiness and associated traits such as drought stress resistance, flowering time, stem elongation, life span, and plant herbivory, and how do these QTLs overlap?

Although each Dutch university has its own culture and tradition, there are some practices that are common within the academic approach in the Netherlands. Four things you need to know about our academic culture:

Promotores: Prof.dr. C.A.J. Knibbe, Prof.dr. M. Danhof, Prof.dr. K. Allegaert (Leuven)

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, Co-promotor: B.I. Florea

For a successful implementation of an educational reform, teachers need to regard the proposal as being practical. I used a modular, success-oriented approach to make a context-based reform practical for implemtentation in Duthc biology education. educational reform, modular, teachers, biology, success-oriented,…

The center:

Questionnaires or concentration tasks can be used to screen for anxiety, but so too can EEG recordings – at least indirectly. The frequent mind wandering of anxious people can also be seen on MRI scans. These are just some of the findings of clinical neuropsychologist Dana van Son. PhD defence on 24…

Including modelling as part of software development appears to have various benefits.

Promotores: Prof.dr. H. S. Overkleeft, Prof.dr. G. A. van der Marel

Lysosomal glycosidases are acid hydrolases that fragment glycoconjugates in lysosomes.

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, Co-promotor: M. van der Stelt

How do museum visitors interpret the authenticity of museum objects? How can we support visitors' meaningful interactions with real objects?

On 29 January 2019, Robbert van Eijk defended his thesis 'Web Privacy Measurement in Real-Time Bidding Systems, A Graph- Based Approach to RTB system classification'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. H.J. van den Herik.

This thesis describes the use of an activity-based proteomics method to study the endocannabinoid system.

How soil microbial composition impacts structure and composition of the aboveground plant and animal communities?

Lecture, LIBC Sylvius lecture

Promotores: Prof.dr. W.J.G.M. Peijnenburg & Dr. M.G. Vijver

How can teachers be motivated by their students’ data in making stepwise changes to their teaching practices?

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, J. Neefjes, Co-promotor: M. van der Stelt

Promotor: Prof.dr. W.J.G.M. Peijnenburg, Co-promotor: Dr. ing. M.G. Vijver

How presence, abundance and enzymatic activities of AM and EM fungi differently affect soil carbon sequestration processes?

Together with a large international team of scientists, researchers Peter van Bodegom and Nadia Soudzilovskaia of the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) have created maps of variability in plant trait distribution across the globe. The new maps have been published in Proceedings of the…

Glycosidases are essential in fundamental biological processes and are responsible for the degradation of most (oligo)saccharides, glycolipids and glycoproteins.

On 7 May 2020, Jolanda van der Vliet defended her thesis 'The International Legal Protection of Environmental Refugees. A human rights-based, security and State responsibility approach'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.J. Schrijver and Prof. J.J.C. Voorhoeve.

In the last decades, activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) has emerged as a powerful chemical tool that may aid the ever-challenging drug discovery process.

Glycosidases are important enzymes in the turnover of polysaccharides and glycoconjugates, and are involved in a range of human pathologies including genetic disorders such as Gaucher and Pompe disease, but also in various cancers.