PE&RC Afternoon Event Winners 2020

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PE&RC Afternoon event 2020 

Wednesday 18 November 2020 

 

PE&RC Afternoon event 2020 - Collaboration Call Winners

We were lucky enough to be able to grant all 6 projects funding but these are the top 3 scoring projects.

First place   The potential of agroforestry systems for climate change mitigation Danaë Rozendaal (WU - PPS)
Marieke Sassen (WU - PPS)
Veronique De Sy (WU - GRS)
Martin Herold (WU - GRS)
Second place   Role of viruses in promoting and shaping microbial diversity in natural communities Mark Zwart (NIOO-KNAW)
Simone Weidner (NIOO-KNAW)
Sijmen Schoustra (WU - GEN)
Anna Alekseeva (WU - GEN)
Eddy Smid (WU - FHM)
Third place   A wild goose chase in a common garden: investigating effects of physical activity and  season on immune defences in migratory and sedentary geese Kevin Matson (WU - WEC)
Fred de Boer (WU - WEC)
Henk van der Jeugd (NIOO-KNAW)

 

 

PE&RC Afternoon event 2020 - Picture Awards Winners

       CATEGORY 1 - THESIS COVER

     
   
CAT1_Seyedeh Masoumeh Fotoukkiaii.jpg

First place: Zhilei Gao
Protists are versatile microorganisms in soil and display a broad range of functional roles. The best-known role of soil protists is bacteria feeders. It remains unknown to what extent protist predation can be predicted. I, therefore, propose that a trait-based approach offers new insights into protist ecology and the impacts of preferential feeding. My thesis cover shows the story of my PhD work, each puzzle piece represents a protist trait, my work is to match protist traits to their functions. To fully appreciate the consequences of protist predation in soil, it appears to be important to take protist traits into consideration.

     
   
CAT1_2020/CAT1_YanjieXU

Second place: Yanjie Xu
It is as if migratory birds play Labyrinth twice a year. However, for them it is not a game, there are no second chances and there is no turning back. They evolved to be great ‘players’ but they may start losing this ‘game’ due to the rapid changes in the maze which is not a playful labyrinth, but a patchwork of suitable habitats connected by flightpaths. The costs of failure are fatal, both for these ‘players’ and for us who change the rules.

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Third place: Lisa van Sluijs
The cover illustrates my thesis in a nutshell. I have exposed genetically different wild isolates of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to their natural pathogen the Orsay virus to identify antiviral responses. The back of the cover shows the nematodes in their natural habitat (for example a rotting plant stem) and these nematodes are 'transferred' to the petridish on the front of the cover where they are exposed to the virus.

       CATEGORY 2 - FIELDWORK

   
CAT2_Ximena Tagle.jpg

First place: Ximena Tagle
In January this year, I went to present the results of my research at the local communities where I collected the data. While we were waiting for the workshop to start, we sat by the river and we saw these boys playing in the canoe and swimming from time to time. 
Every time I go to this community, I see them enjoying nature and being proud of the choice they made:  They keep their forest standing and productive. They produce very high-quality oil for cosmetics from some native palms that are harvested sustainably.

 
   
CAT2_2020/CAT2_Valentin%20Heinzelmann.jpg

Second place: Valentin Heinzelmann
Autumn in Swedish Lapland. During our stay in Abisko, 200 km north of the polar circle, we were constantly reminded of the approaching winter as we observed the snowline descending the mountains from day to day. Intrigued by the colourful scenery, we collected leaf litter for a decomposition study in Amsterdam. Winter in the arctic prevails for almost half a year, hence slow but long-lasting processes are important for annual carbon and nutrient budgets. Looking forward to our next visit!

 
 
   

CAT2_rens brouwer.jpg

Third place: Rens Brouwer
In this picture we see a group of scientists of the NewFor project on an observation deck, looking at what seems to be a fully grown forest in the Atlantic forest of Brazil. But if you look closer you can see that this used to be monoculture Eucalyptus plantations. These plantations have been abandoned and the original Atlantic forest vegetation is starting to grow back in the understory. Abandoning plantations is only one of the many efficient methods of forest restoration in Brazil, the result is a landscape recovering what was once lost and, and eventually, a forest rich in biodiversity.

 

        CATEGORY 3 - LABWORK / MODELLING

   
CAT3_Jeroen Alkema.jpg

First place: Jeroen Alkema
Flies (Drosophila suzukii) use odours to find and destroy our fruit crops. In order to prevent this, we tried to highjack the odour system of the flies. We tested ten volatile compounds in a very small ventilated and heated room. To protect myself, I wore a gasmask for six hours each day. This is me right before I took a breather.

 
   
CAT3_Ximena Tagle.png

Second place: Ximena Tagle
Sometimes we expect to obtain nice predictions from our models but sometimes we only get picturesque results. This was one of the results from a CNN that I am training to automatically detect palm tree species in drone images. The white parts are supposed to be one palm species and the blue parts are supposed to be the "rest" (what we call background), but I got some "noisy" results that resemble a painting made with a sponge paintbrush.

 
   
CAT3_Shudong Zhang.jpg

Third place: Shudong Zhang
Flames flash from a burning experiment (a Black Pine branch is on fire).