Projects

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A genomic approach to study parasites from invasive Nile tilapia in Africa Hasselt University

Maarten VANHOVE
Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology
Nile tilapia is an important aquaculture fish, introduced in many countries, where it can threaten indigenous fish. Invasive species are the second leading cause of species extinction and endangerment worldwide, in part through introducing alien parasites, but parasitism in this context is understudied. Nile tilapia introduction in Africa is ill-documented; its impact on native fauna in parasitological terms is largely unknown. We propose to ...

Biocultural diversity of herpetofauna in South Africa: State and relevance as a science-based policy tool for conservation and social inclusion Hasselt University

Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology
Globally, there is coincidence in the occurrence of biodiversity and cultural (e.g. linguistic) diversity. A growing body of transdisciplinary research is investigating the link between the two diversities as a phenomenon called biocultural diversity. This study recognises that this growing research field is often too broad in its focus and biased in its selection of taxa chosen for analysis. As a remedy for the above-mentioned shortcomings, the ...

The Flemish contribution to the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC-ERIC) Hasselt University

Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology
EMBRC-ERIC, or the European Marine Biological Resource Centre, is a distributed European Research Infrastructure Cluster, which provides and supports large scale and high quality marine science in Europe. It was established to bring together the distributed infrastructures and HR in European marine research groups to answer Europe's challenges related to food, health and global change. With 9 members (Belgium, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, ...

Ecological speciation in orchids: the contribution of mycorrhizal divergence to reproductive isolation KU Leuven

Hans Jacquemyn
Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation

The major aim of this research project is to disentangle the absolute and relative contribution of specific adaptations to distinct habitats and mycorrhizal divergence to reproductive isolation in closely related Epipactis species. Adaptive divergence due to habitat differences is thought to play a major role in formation of new species. However the extent to which individual reproductive isolating barriers related to habitat differentiation ...

Eco-evolutionary study of geographic patterns in the pace-of-life syndrome KU Leuven

Robby Stoks
Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation

To understand how species respond to global warming we need to know how their trait values evolved along two geographic axes: latitudinal gradients and poleward range expansion fronts. This asks for an integrated multi-trait approach. Therefore, we will follow as framework the pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) which states that individuals/populations align along a fast-slow continuum with animals with a fast type showing a fast life history ...

Effects of tropical rainforest disturbance on gene flow, genomic diversity and introgression in understory trees: the case of Coffea canephora in the Congo basin. KU Leuven

Olivier Honnay
Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation

Tropical rainforests cover only 7% of the earth’s surface, but they are by far the richest biomes in terms of vascular plant diversity. To ensure the resilience and long-term stability of tropical rainforests, fostering the regeneration of the occurring woody plant species is critical. Yet, crucial aspects of gene flow, including pollination and seed dispersal, have become strongly jeopardized through ongoing large-scale anthropogenic ...

Managing plant species translocations: using genomic tools to unraveling interactions between adaptation to climate and adaptation to habitat fragmentation KU Leuven

Olivier Honnay
Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation

Global warming is occurring to a rate that exceeds the potential of most species to evolve phenotypes adapted to warmer climates. Assisted migration, or the deliberate northward translocation of individuals, is a widely discussed conservation strategy aiming to introduce phenotypes pre-adapted to projected climate change. However, there is a critical lack of assisted migration studies integrating the effects of habitat fragmentation, another ...

An Evo-Devo perspective on reproductive division of labour in wasps KU Leuven

Tom Wenseleers
Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation

The evolution of sociality in insects is an example of a so-called “major transition in evolution”, whereby previously solitary breeding insects went on to live in social groups. The question of what ancestral reproductive ground plans (RGPs) from solitary breeding insects have been co-opted in the evolution of their social behaviour is a topic of active study. Earlier, we have shown that conserved queen signals help to regulate the ...

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of the extended pace-of-life syndrome in a range expanding damselfly KU Leuven

Robby Stoks
Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation

Investigating one trait at a time is insufficient to understand the responses of organisms towards changing environments. This is because life history, behavioural and physiological traits integrate and align along a fast-slow axis, called the pace-of-life syndrome. For example, bold individuals with a fast metabolic rate live fast and die young, whereas shy individuals with a slow metabolism live slow and die old. We don’t know (i) which ...