The day of the PhD defence: Richa Kusuma Wati
In November 2015, Richa Kusuma Wati started her PhD research on wild orchids at Leiden University and Naturalis Biodiversity Center, in collaboration with the Hortus Botanicus Leiden and Bogor Botanic Gardens.Today at a quarter past eleven she will defend…
Corona waste kills animals throughout the entire world Dutch scientists want to know how bad the problem is, exactly
Face masks and gloves designed to protect us are, in fact, dangerous for the animals around us. Scientists from Leiden warn that throughout the world, on land and in the water, animals are ingesting corona waste, or getting entangled in it. The two…
Research grant for Jan Macher
Naturalis marine biologist Jan Macher has recently earned a BEN research grant worth € 100,000.-. He will be using it to study very small organisms that live in sandy beaches. The Biodiversity-Ecology-Nature grants are awarded by the German Bauer-Hollmann…
Sea butterflies already struggle in acidifying Southern Ocean
Due to increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the Southern Ocean will acidify in the upcoming few decades. This will affect shell growth in sea butterflies, useful biological indicators of ocean acidification, and important and abundant…
Frederic Lens: building bridges in biodiversity research
Naturalis researcher Frederic Lens will start in a new position at the Institute for Biology at Leiden University (IBL). This marks an ongoing integration of research into evolution and biodiversity, both at the local and the national level. “In Leiden…
DiSSCo’s first all-hands meeting: how it went
DiSSCo’s first all-hands meeting (AHM1) took place last 18-22 January. The event was a great opportunity for all of us to really look closely into DiSSCo: the scope of the project, its different dimensions, all the activities, the expectations… It was also…
Consultation on the Convergence of Digital and Extended Specimens
We are pleased to announce a community consultation on the convergence of DiSSCo’s digital specimen and BCoN’s extended specimen concepts for enhancing global access to biodiversity data. The consultation will begin next February 16 and is organized under…
DiSSCo presents its PID consultation results
Less than a week ago, we had the pleasure of welcoming more than 65 experts from all over the world to DiSSCo’s Digital Specimens PID Seminar. During the online event, DiSSCo’s technical team presented the outcomes of the Consultation on Digital Specimens…
Caspian Crisis sinking sea levels threaten biodiversity, economy and regional stability
The water levels of the Caspian Sea will be 9 to 18 meters lower than they are now, German and Dutch researchers calculate. In the Nature-journal Communications Earth & Environment they urge the world to act. Coastal nations are rightly worried about a sea…