April 5th, 2023 : The exhibit “Animalia” at Trainworld and the state of the biodiversity are explained live on TV5 Monde “64 minutes” (part 2), an interview by Caroline Nieberding available here (french).
March 30th, 2023 : The consequences of the biodiversity crisis for our Western human civilisation, an interview for the journal La Libre by Caroline Nieberding available here (french).
March 29th, 2023 : a new publication in press with all our congratulations to co-authors and leading author Prof Visser’s team at ULiege: “Many parasitoids lack adult fat accumulation, despite fatty acid synthesis: A discussion of concepts and considerations for future research (in press) in Current Research in Insect Science by Bertanne Visser; Cécile Le Lann; Daniel A. Hahn; Mark Lammers; Caroline M. Nieberding; Hans T. Alborn; Thomas Enriquez; Mathilde Scheifler; Jeffrey A. Harvey and Jacintha Ellers.
March 18th, 2023 : The effect of climate warming (our paper in Functional Ecology) and habitat reduction on the survival of butterflies and other insects explained at the radio show “Les Eclaireurs” this saturday March 18th, 2023 from 17-18.00, available here (french).
March 10th, 2023 : Our study in Functional Ecology (2023) showing the effect of climate warming on sexual interaction in a butterfly is explained in the CSoluble (french) podcast avaible on Apple, Spotify and Deezer.
March 6th, 2023 : “Carte blanche” on the role of media in informing every citizen about the biodiversity and climate environmental crises, here.
February, 16th, 2023 : Opening of the first joint exhibit on both the Climate and Biodiversity crises, outside museums of natural history! This exhibit takes advantage of the exceptional artistic skills of Mr François Schuiten’s team (scenography) and of Mr PY Renkin (animal sculptures), bringing the message about environmental crises to life. Caroline Nieberding was the expert in charge of the scientific information about the Biodiversity crisis. The exhibit lasts until Nov 5th, 2023 at the Trainworld museum in Brussels. Available in FR, EN, NL and DE. The teaser and nice reviews in the newspapers are available in English and in French in the journal Le Soir, and here.
January, 12th, 2023 : Some nice journals picked up our publication in Functional Ecology: in Le Soir, L’Avenir, Le Vif, and so on. This study exemplifies the added values for ecologists to collaborate with experts on the causes responsible for the Biodiversity crisis, here climatologists, but also geographers documenting land use change (see more about our research on the effect of land use change on this website).
January, 2nd, 2023 : How to restaure Biodiversity in Belgium in the next years? Part of the solutions is described in this article for the journal Le Soir (french) titled: “Nouvelle année: neuf experts décryptent le monde de demain pour «Le Soir»”.
December, 20th, 2022 : The Convention of Parties on Biological Diversity, deciding of the worldwide future of the ongoing 6th major Biodiversity crisis (since life exists on Earth….), has finished today in Montreal. You can find here the official worldwide agreement obtained (English), and my analysis of it in the journal “L’ Avenir” (french).
December, 6th-8th 2022 : First airplaine flight since 2017 for joining the ASAB Winter meeting on animal movements in Edinburgh, where Nieberding’s team has presented the 2021 and 2022 field work results on Belgian butterflies (FNRS and ARC fundings). Worth the greenhouse emissions, that were compensated as possible, hopefully! Well done to Matteo, Stefano and co-authors!
November, 2022 : A new publication is in press in Functional Ecology for the lab with Prof. Bertanne Visser at ULiege and colleagues at UCLouvain including from the ELI-C (climate and geography) pole of the Earth and Life Institute: ” Warmer temperatures result in maladaptive learning of sexual preferences” (open full access). A press release will be out soon.
October, 2022 : We welcome of new Erasmus-funded student, Mr Argiris Kourtidis in the lab from Thessalonika University (Greece).
August 15th, 2022: Despite the summer drought, the field season for quantifying Belgian butterflies’ responses to habitat fragmentation was successful. Congrats to the team: Matteo, Stefano, Baptiste, Mathilde, Mathias and Martin, Océane and Lisa!
July 31st, 2022 : A new publication is in press in Genes for the lab with a large network of international colleagues including Profs. Patricia Beldade in Lissabon and Bertanne Visser at ULiege: “Mosaic Evolution of Molecular Pathways for Sex Pheromone Communication in a Butterfly” by Caroline Nieberding , Patrícia Beldade , Véronique Baumlé, Gilles San Martin, Alok Arun, Georges Lognay , Nicolas Montagné , Lucie Bastin-Héline, Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly, Céline Noirot, Christophe Klopp and Bertanne Visser.
July 3rd, 2022 : (french) Article publié pour Carta Academica dans le journal Le Soir et Mediapart : « Crise sanitaire et crise de biodiversité : un même problème et une même solution“..
June, 2022 : A new publication is in press in Scientific Reports by
Nieberding and Visser’s teams : ” Pupal size as a proxy for lipid content in lab-reared and field-collected Drosophila species“. Congrats to Dr Thomas Enriques and Colleagues!
May 5th, 2022:
Caroline Nieberding was invited to give a talk and in a expert panel discussion for the Belgian Embassy in Seoul, on the theme ” Evolution during changing environmental conditions: can adaptation help mitigate the ongoing 6th mass extinction?”
April 21th, 2022
Caroline Nieberding is explaining the causes of the biodiversity crisis and solutions we can implement in the RTBF show “Alors on Change” hosted by Mrs Gwennaelle Dekegeleer. A teaser is available on FB (in french) and the show is available for free here. “Alors on change” is a 10-year old, game-changing, show that provides amazing information to Belgian citizens for implementing the transition towards sustainable lifestyles.
March 24th, 2022
Caroline Nieberding was invited for a talk at the Institute of Biology at Leiden university (NL) for her seminar on: ” Role of social learning for rapid (mal)adaptation to climate warming and habitat fragmentation using butterflies and spider mites as model systems“.
January 8th, 2022
Caroline Nieberding was interviewed for the national Le Soir journal about the relevance of the “Don’t look up” blockbuster movie for informing citizens about ongoing environmental crises. You can find here the full commentary (french).
December, 2021
Caroline Nieberding has been appointed as expert for the “Coordination and monitoring committee for the ecological transition policy” to organise the ecological transition in our “Wallonie-Brussels federation”.
December 7th, 2021 A new publication is in press in Entomologia generalist (IF 5.6) by
Caroline Nieberding, Aubin Kaisin – a former Msc student in the lab, and colleague Bertanne Visser: “Inbreeding and learning affect fitness and colonization of new host plants, a behavioral innovation in the spider mite Tetranychus
urticae”. The pdf can be found here.
October 28th, 2021 A newspaper article on the FNRS-funded and UCLouvain-funded research conducted in the lab and in the experimental university forest “Bois de Lauzelle” in collaboration with Drs Matteo Marcantonio and Raluca Voda here
October 5th, 2021
2021 lab day out in the forest in Spa: that was fun !
September 2021
Congrats to the team for this publication in press : Nieberding CM, Marcantonio M, Voda R, Enriquez T and Visser B (2021) The evolutionary relevance of social learning and transmission in non-social arthropods with a focus on oviposition-related behaviors. Genes 12, 1466. PDF
September 3rd, 2021
Caroline Nieberding was invited to a public debate organised by the green political party “Ecolo” and the NGO Etopia, with the Minister of Environment Tellier and the Director of Belgian natural reserves Natagora Funcken, among others, to discuss the causes and solution of the ongoing biodiversity crisis and its link with the COVID-19 pandemy. You can see the presentation here and the debate on FB here.
June, 2021 Le documentaire RTBF (Belgian national TV cable) ” Le monde respire”, où Caroline NIeberding intervient pour expliquer la crise de la biodiversité, a reçu le Prix Spécial TV5 Monde du meilleur documentaire francophone. Le film est encore disponible sur la plateforme Auvio de la RTBF.
April, 2021 Welcome to Tenzin Palden, Garyk Roelandt and Aurelien Vielfaure to work in the lab!
March, 2021 Welcome to Drs Raluca Voda and Matteo Marcantonio to work on an exciting FRS-FNRS funded project !
February, 2021 A new publication is in press: Congrats to Bertanne Visser and the whole team!
Visser B, Alborn HT, Rondeaux S, Haillot M, Rebar D, Hance T, Riederer JM, Tiso S, Eldijk TJB, Weissing FJ & Nieberding CM. Phenotypic plasticity explains apparent reverse evolution of fat synthesis in parasitic wasps. Scientific Reports 11: 7751. PDF
January, 2021 5 new Msc students join the lab in 2021, to monitor and restore biodiversity on farmland restoration, and on insect cognition : welcome to Justine Belik, Charlotte de Wulf, Lauren Lecourtois, Gianni Malica and Arkel Piret!
December 12th, 2020 Caroline Nieberding was interviewed for a one-hour documentary broadcasted in Europe and Canada titled “The world breathes” (french: “Le monde respire”), which describes the biodiversity crisis and solutions for mitigating it. Available in French on the national TV RTBF on auvio here. A teaser is available here:
December, 2020 A second postdoctoral position (2 to 4 years) from FNRS funding is available in the lab, on the general theme of the adaptive value of learning in butterflies. Contract is expected to start March-April 2021. More info here. Feel free to enquire by email to caroline.nieberding@uclouvain.be.
November, 2020 A postdoctoral position (2 to 4 years) from UCLouvain funding is available in the lab, on the adaptive value of learning for oviposition site selection in field-caught butterflies. Contract is expected to start March-April 2021. More info here. Feel free to enquire by email to caroline.nieberding@uclouvain.be.
September 1st, 2020 Dr Shulin He will join the new lab of my colleague Bertanne Visser as a postdoctoral associate to work on the molecular basis of plastic fat synthesis in parasitoid insects.
June 29th, 2020 Welcome to Marieke Louage (Belgium) in the lab for her Master of Science in Electronics and ICT Engineering Technology: Embedded Systems. Main promotor is Prof. Steven Verstockt from Ghent University.
May 23rd, 2020
(french) Article publié pour Carta Academica dans le journal Le Soir : « L’écologie au service de l’économie : focus sur l’agriculture, ici et maintenant. Le pourquoi et le comment ». Notes numérotées de l’article disponibles ici.
May 2020
(french) Interview dans le journal Moustique : « La nature post-lockdown“, par Julien Thomas. Pdf ici
April 2020 Caroline Nieberding is interviewed by the national journal Le Soir with many other Belgian scientists to think about the role of scientists in democracy and for participating to political decisions: read here and here.
March 2020 Caroline Nieberding explains the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemy and the biodiversity crisis at the national radio La Première here, (from 10.45 to 10.55 and from 11.05 to 11.20 am).
March 2020 Caroline Nieberding explains at national online radio RTBF here that the biodiversity crisis will not be solved with people staying at home. The transition for a sustainable lifestyle will require a lot of investments into local, sustainable, useful and relevant companies.
February 2020
Msc-students Céline Deltenre and Loïc Smets joined the lab to work on learning in sexual preferences in our butterfly.
January 2020
Aubin Kaisin and Jordan Wasnaire successfully defended their Msc thesis. Congrats to both of you!
December 2019
Together with Prof Bertanne Visser we obtained a F.R.S.-FNRS Projet de Recherche grant to hire a new postdoc associate
October 2019
MSc-student Dilhan Ozturk joined the new lab of my colleague Bertanne Visser to study the plasticity of fat synthesis in parasitoid insects.