Welcome
The Animal Ecology and Physiology department addresses multiple levels of biological organization, from molecule to organism, from individual to population and community.
We focus on fish stress adaptation and calcium physiology, but also on how ecophysiological trade-offs interact with the environment and impact population dynamics and macroevolutionary processes.








News

Friday 17 February 2023 at 15.45 uur, Professor Dirk Maes will give his inaugural lecture: 'Insectenbescherming van landschappen tot genen (en terug)' (in Dutch). His professorship is facilitated by the Uyttenboogaart-Eliasen Stichting. Please register for the event as soon as possible through https://www.ru.nl/maes

The Faculty of Science of the Radboud University has awarded its senior lecturer award to Juriaan Metz for his long-standing effort in developing and teaching excellent courses in animal physiology.

Tens of thousands of animals around the world are monitored using GPS trackers to protect wildlife and study animal behaviour. The collected data are also useful for biodiversity research, but are seldom available on platforms used for this purpose. Researchers have developed a workflow to make GPS tracking data available in biodiversity data portals, and applied it to publicly archive GPS tracking data for hundreds of birds across northwest Europe.

On Monday 19 December 2022, starting 16:30, Naomi Thunnissen will defend her dissertation "Quantifying Ecological Risks of Environmental Stressors. The Development, Application, and Evaluation of methodologies" in the Aula in Nijmegen.

On Thursday 15 December 2022, starting 10:30, Felix P. Leiva will defend his dissertation "Thermal Biology and Cell Size. An Oxygen Limitation Perspective in Ectotherms" in the Aula in Nijmegen.

Professor Rob Leuven who holds the chair of Invasion Biology, shall give his farewell address during an academic ceremony on Friday, October 28, 2022 at 3.00 pm entitled: Booms and busts: alien species surprise! The lecture will be able to be viewed via live stream: www.ru.nl/aula/livestream It would be greatly appreciated if you could attend the lecture online.

On Wednesday 14 September 2022, starting 10:30, Magali Frauendorf will defend her dissertation "Causes for Spatiotemporal Variation in Reproductive Performance of Eurasian Oystercatchers in a Human-Dominated Landscape" in the Aula in Nijmegen.

Monday 20 June 2022, at 14:30, Maryam Semsarkazerouni will defend her dissertation "Time-Dependent Effects of Heat Stress and Physiological Responses of Ectotherms: Implications of Global Warming" in the Aula in Nijmegen.

The numbers of hoverflies and hoverfly species have decreased drastically in recent decades. Compared to forty years ago, in 2021 on average 80% fewer hoverflies were counted and 44% fewer different species were found in a forest in the Dutch Veluwe region. This is the first time that the numbers of hoverflies have been quantified in the Netherlands. Researchers publish about it in Insect Conservation and Diversity on April 12.
Recent publications
Checklist of the Endeostigmatic mites of the Netherlands (Acari: Sarcoptiformes: Endeostigmata) NL Faunist Med
Priorities for translating goodwill between movement ecologists and conservation practitioners into effective collaboration Conserv Sci Pract
Trends Ecol Evol Emerging technologies revolutionise insect ecology and monitoring
Ecol Monogr Scientists' warning on climate change and insects
PNAS Compensatory recruitment allows amphibian population persistence in anthropogenic habitats
Glob Change Biol Body mass and cell size shape the tolerance of fishes to low oxygen in a temperature-dependent manner
PNAS Impact of warming on aquatic body sizes explained by metabolic scaling from microbes to macrofauna
Sci Total Environ The conservation paradox of critically endangered fish species: Trading alien sturgeons versus native sturgeon reintroduction in the Rhine-Meuse river delta
Glob Change Biol Climate-driven range expansion through anthropogenic landscapes: landscape connectivity matters
PNAS Warming temperatures drive at least half of the magnitude of long-term trait changes in European birds
Front Mar Sci Increased thermal challenges differentially modulate neural plasticity and stress responses in post-smolt Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Aquaculture Exposure to cold temperatures differentially modulates neural plasticity and stress responses in post-smolt Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Ecol Engin Limiting burrowing activity and overland dispersal of the invasive alien red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii by sophisticated design of watercourses
PeerJ Targeting fibroblast growth factor receptors causes severe craniofacial malformations in zebrafish larvae
Glob Ecol Biogeogr Bioclimatic context of species' populations determines community stability
Nat Comm Bird population declines and species turnover are changing the acoustic properties of spring soundscapes
Mar Pollut B Invasiveness risks of naked goby, Gobiosoma bosc, to North Sea transitional waters
Sci Total Environ The impact of imidacloprid and thiacloprid on the mean species abundance in aquatic ecosystems
Remote Sensing Ecol Conserv Geomorphological development of aquatic mesohabitats in shore channels along longitudinal training dams
BMC Ecol Evol Large mammal telomere length variation across ecoregions
Front Environ Sci Underwater macroplastic detection using imaging sonars
Biol B Integrative approaches to understanding organismal responses to aquatic deoxygenation
BMC Biol Regenerating zebrafish scales express a subset of evolutionary conserved genes involved in human skeletal disease