Our colleague Mart Verwijmeren has successfully defended his PhD thesis on interspecific facilitation and critical transitions in arid ecosystems, for which he did lots of heavy fieldwork in Spain (as can be read in a previous blog).

Last Friday he was, as is customary in science, questioned by a committee of professors. The questions touched upon the different subjects he wrote about in his thesis: theory, field experiments and the model he created using his experimental data. Even a question that bordered on social/political science was asked by one of the committee members. We are very proud, as Mart kept his cool and did not let himself be coaxed into giving answers outside his comfort zone. He kept to what he knew based on his research. Overall: very well done and congratulations! He was handed his diploma which was received with loud applause and cheers. His daily supervisor, Prof. Dr. Chris Smit, gave a nice speech, which of course featured the story of Mart, the rental car and fifteen goats. The day was completed with a nice party.

Mart will continue working in our group as a junior lecturer, combining teaching with research. We wish him the best of luck!

By Ineke Roeling

It is a strong image. Search online for 'Dutch grasslands' and you will find pictures of green grass, black-and-white cows, a ditch and a mill. These are agricultural grasslands. However, when I think of grasslands, I think of semi-natural grasslands, basically nature reserves. These are grasslands filled with grasses and herbs, many of them also endangered plant species. These semi-natural grasslands have been protected for years, but are still threatened. For the past years I have been studying the effect of eutrophication on the species richness in these grasslands.