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Project properties |
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| Title | Grasslands - threatened hotspots of insect biodiversity |
| Group | Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 12 |
| Supervisor(s) | Reinier de Vries & José van Paassen |
| Examiner(s) | José van Paassen |
| Contact info | reinier.devries@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2023/10/03 |
| End date | 2024/02/01 |
| Description | Grasslands host widely diverse communities of bugs, flies, bees and many other insects. But these buzzing habitats are under heavy pressure of human land use. Especially intensive agriculture has detrimental effects on grasslands ecosystems, for instance because of nitrogen loading. But how exactly does farming intensity affect grassland insects? What groups are affected? And are there different responses between diversity and abundance? Many insect groups are understudied and we don't know this yet.
To gain insight in these questions, we have collected insect samples from grasslands in South-Limburg; one of the most diverse landscapes in the Netherlands. The sampled grasslands range from intensive farmland to species-rich natural grasslands. In this Bsc thesis you will investigate these samples. Then, arthropod abundance and diversity can be related to land use intensity, floral richness or other grassland characteristics. This will improve our understanding of what drives grassland biodiversity and what we can do to better protect it. |
| Used skills | working with arthropod samples, species identification, statistical analyses |
| Requirements | |