Our research group is very diverse in nature, which will be reflected by this blog. Some of us construct computer models, to get an improved understanding of the systems we study and explain their past behaviour and assess their future development. Other researchers spend a lot of time gathering data in the field or in the laboratory, while yet others analyse large, existing databases to test hypotheses (or disprove them…) and formulate new hypotheses. The strength of our research group lies in combining these methods and applying them to different topics.
A wide variety of topics is studied within our group. We study the climate in the Roman period, but at the same time try to predict how the climate will be in the future. We also investigate the potential role of pesticides in enhanced bee mortality, and how environmental change can push drylands towards a critical threshold beyond which these ecosystems develop to a bare desert. We carry out studies on the eco-hydrology of flood plains in Thailand and Poland. This is only a small selection of the topics that we study and that we will write about in the coming months.
We would like to tell you about the who, what, why and how of our research. Why are we doing the research that we do? What are the practical day-to-day things when doing research? Where are the systems that we study? What are our findings? Very soon you will be able to read all about it.