Nature reports

Physician and botanist Philipp Franz von Siebold brought unique Asian plant species to Leiden in the 19th century. His legacy shows which plants once played an important role in healthcare. Many of these medicinal plants can be..

Naturalis presents the first type catalogue of its mammal collection: a comprehensive overview of 405 scientific names with their official tangible type specimens. Five years of research have brought together old, often brief..

Man-made chemicals, including pesticides, industrial chemicals, and medicines, enter the European environment. Many are classed by the EU as harmful to the environment and humans, but effects on terrestrial wildlife are little..

Bees, bumblebees and butterflies have too little natural habitat around them to survive. A new study, led by researchers at Wageningen University & Research and published in Science, shows that these insects need much more space..

Foraminifera, small but incredibly important marine organisms, spend their lives together with two types of roommates: algae and bacteria. They are very picky when it comes to the algae, but open minded when it comes to the..

Using a unique treasure of data, marine biologist Suzanne Poiesz investigated the fish food web in the Wadden Sea between 1946 and the present day. Dissected stomach contents revealed who eats whom. The position of species in that..

Spoonbills spend a large part of the summer outside their protected breeding grounds. After breeding, the migratory birds gather on the mudflats of Lutjewad, on the coast of Groningen. Research by BirdEyes shows the seasonal..

NIOZ researchers have found the Pacific barnacle in the Wadden Sea for the first time. Until now, this species was only known to exist in European waters in Belgium and on the south coast of the Western Scheldt. It probably..

According to the IUCN Red List, over 47,000 plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. Most species, however, are at little to no risk. What makes one species much more vulnerable than another?..

As climate change drives earlier spring conditions in the Arctic, birds species that travel there to breed are under pressure to migrate faster. Despite their remarkable ability to adapt, researchers warn that speeding up spring..