Progress beyond the state of the art:
Publication on dispersal of wetland species by waterbirds, highlighting secondary dispersal in Biology Letters
Publication on the potential of alien species to interfere with zoochory in aquatic systems, highlighting the overlooked status of this process in aquatic systems (as part of bridging terrestrial and aquatic research, WP1) in Frontiers in Plant Sciences
Developed new experimental protocol simulating digestion by waterbirds for use in many future projects
Supervised PhD student Peiyu Zhang, Utrecht University (graduated 28/09/2018)
Supervised PhD student Antonella Petruzzella, Utrecht University, The Netherlands (graduation planned 12/06/2019)
Thesis committee PhD student Victor Martín Velez, Doñana Biological Station, Spain (graduation expected 2021)
Supervisor PhD student María José Navarro Ramos, Doñana Biological Station, Spain (graduation expected 2022)
Expected results until the end of the project:
Manuscripts in preparation:
- preparing a manuscript linking seed dispersal effectiveness among frugivory, granivory and herbivory (result of symposium workshop 17th April, WP1)
- preparing a manuscript showing trait-based dispersal potential for 48 native European plant species based on the newly developed experimental protocol (WP2/3)
- preparing two manuscript modelling seed dispersal by fish and birds (WP4)
- preparing an editorial manuscript for the Research Topic in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Socio-economic impacts and societal implications so far:
The socio-economic and wider societal impacts stem mainly from my activities to organize multiple wetland-oriented symposia that form deliberate bridges between academia and society. These symposia attract a lot of media attention, are visited by a diverse range of people and are platforms that highlight the importance of wetland conservation. They provide networking opportunities that broaden my own network, but also facilitate long-lasting interactions among societal groups such as consultancy agencies, waterboards, engineering companies, applied scientists and fundamental scientists. Economic benefits of these interactions are that scientific knowledge is transferred to end-users. Twitter also serves the purpose of forming bridges among these groups. For this reason I communicate via Twitter about scientific knowledge from myself, from the wetland symposia and from the Research Topic in Frontiers (that highlights the overlooked status of zoochory) that we organized.
Main output in the public media directly based on my own publications:
1. Darwin was right about bird vomit - Discover Magazine (17/11/2017)
2. Visetende vogels verspreiden indirect plantenzaden - Vroege Vogels (13/10/2017)
3. Vissende aalscholvers bewijzen theorie van Darwin - NatureToday (11/10/2017)
4. Aalscholver verbindt plantpopulaties via vis - Bionieuws (07/10/2017)
5. Storskarvens spybollar bekräftar Darwins teori - MyNewsDesk Sweden (04/10/2017)
