Naturalis offers opportunities for students at both bachelor's and master's level to do an internship at one of our research groups. During such a research internship you focus on one research project, and you help a researcher at exploring and answering one or more research questions. Some of these research projects are part of a larger project, while others stand on their own.
The available research internships are listed below. For each project, a description of the research topic is provided, along with the contact details of the coordinators/supervisors.
AvailableResearch projects/internships
Tracking the accumulation of heavy metals in seaweeds through time
Certain seaweeds are known to accumulate heavy metals, making them useful bioindicators of heavy metal pollution. Using material from the Naturalis herbarium, this project examines how heavy metal accumulation in seaweeds has changed over time. Seaweed…
A challenging puzzle: Reconstructing the genome of coral reef foraminifera using genomic and transcriptomic data
While coral reefs are vital hotspots of marine biodiversity, they are currently facing significant threats from human activity. Tracking reef health is critical, and often-ignored organisms like large benthic foraminifera (forams) could offer key insights…
Taxonomic and functional diversity of sandy beach meiofauna
Sandy beaches are highly important ecosystems for a wide range of species. The most diverse group of animals inhabiting sandy beaches is the meiofauna, which consists of species smaller than 1mm. Due to difficulties in species identification, relatively…
Impacts of coastal management on the coupling of species and functional richness in beach and dune meiofauna
This project investigates how beach management impacts small coastal animals (meio- and mesofauna) inhabiting the sediment. By combining DNA megabarcoding with ecological trait analysis, the study explores whether a decline in species richness leads to a…
Impacts of coastal management and habitat quality on bird diversity along the Dutch coast
This project investigates spatial patterns of bird biodiversity across nearshore, beach and dune ecosystems along the Dutch coast using citizen science data, remote sensing and ecological modelling. It focuses on how habitat quality and coastal management…