Curriculum Vitae
Education
- 1990 Bachelor degree in biology (Ghent University)
- 1992 Masters degree in zoology (Ghent University)
- 2001 PhD (Ghent University), with greatest distinction (supervisors: H.J. Dumont and L. De Meester)
Employment
- 1998-2004 Scientific researcher at the Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
- 2004-2010 Postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
- 2010 – present Tenure track at the Department of Aquatic Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (The Netherlands)
Grants
- 1994 –1998 PhD-grant from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen)
- 2004 – 2007 Post-doctoral grant from the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen)
- 2007 – 2010 Post-doctoral grant from FWO-Vlaanderen
- 2007 – 2008 Mobility grant from FWO-Vlaanderen for a one year stay at the laboratory of prof. Jon Shurin (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada)
Major research interests
One of my major interests lies in the study of extant patterns of biodiversity in natural aquatic systems, how such patterns are shaped by local as well as metacommunity dynamics, and how knowledge of these patterns and dynamics can be used in the development of effective conservation and management schemes. Metacommunity ecology is a rapidly expanding field in community ecology with an increasing impact on current thinking about communities, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and conservation biology. An important part of my recent research has focused on how metacommunity dynamics can affect the structure, biodiversity and trophic interactions of aquatic food webs. Using data from large scale field surveys (e.g. Belgian farmland ponds and temporary pools in the Andes), we study how metacommunity structure of organisms is related to dispersal mode, landscape connectivity, spatial scale and environmental heterogeneity. In mesocosm experiments, we study interactions between environmental heterogeneity and dispersal intensity on plankton community differentiation. I am also interested in the analogy between metacommunity and metapopulation dynamics and the potential feedbacks that exist between ecological and micro-evolutionary processes. I am presently setting up a research line addressing contemporary micro-evolutionary change in rotifer populations and its potential consequences for the dynamics of food web interactions, ecosystem functions and metacommunity structure.
Projects
*Development of effective strategies for the conservation and development of landscape wide aquatic biodiversity in agricultural areas
Research project funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; ALW-OBW/16; duration: 2012-2016; budget: 247,032 EURO); principal investigator: Steven Declerck
Freshwater habitats contribute disproportionately to biodiversity at the landscape scale and can be strongly affected and modified by land use changes. Through a field study and a thorough analysis of existing databases, the project will contribute to a better knowledge on the mechanisms that determine the dynamics of biodiversity in the landscape and the way this is affected by land use (agriculture, urbanization). In our study we will apply a metacommunity perspective by integrating local and landscape scale patterns of community structure and biodiversity. A major aim of the project is to find out which combination of cost-effective landscape measures do effectively contribute to an efficient conservation and development of aquatic biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes of The Netherlands.
*Towards a Sustainable Management of Pond Diversity at the Landscape Level
Research project of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (promotor: Koen Martens, R.B.I.N.S.).
This large scale project aims at revealing patterns of landscape biodiversity in a large number of small ponds, applying a spatially hierarchical sampling design. This project will yield insights in the spatial architecture of pond biodiversity at the nationwide level, which is a prerequisite for efficient conservation planning. In collaboration with other research groups, we study multiple groups of aquatic organisms simultaneously (including bacteria, phytoplankton, phytobenthos, zooplankton, macro-invertebrates, macrophytes, amphibians and fish), and seek to explain patterns of occurrence and diversity of these groups by landscape connectivity, the organisms' dispersal abilities, and natural and anthropogenic factors. In addition, an important work package of the PONDSCAPE project evaluates alternative pond management techniques via whole-pond experiments in the bomb crater area of Tommelen (Belgium). The project also forms the general framework for the PhD-project of Tom De Bie (supervisors: L. De Meester, L. Brendonck and S. Declerck).
* Development of a Sustainable Integration of Fish Farming and Nature Values in Protected Wetland Areas
TWOL-project of the Flemish Government, Belgium (supervisors: S. Declerck & L. De Meester; IWT PhD-project of Pieter Lemmens)
This project combines a socio-economic with an ecological analysis with the aim to reconcile fish farming with nature conservation. The project has a strong focus on the resolution of conflicts that arise from cormorant predation, eutrophication and the practice of fish stocking. An additional scientific aim of this project (funded by IWT-Vlaanderen) is to experimentally evaluate the direct and indirect effects of fish functional community composition and cormorant predation on aquatic food web structure, biodiversity and functioning.
Co-Operation
Prof. Dr. Luc Brendonck – KULeuven (Belgium)
Prof. Dr. Ellen Decaestecker – KULeuven Campus Kortrijk (Belgium)
Prof. Dr. Luc De Meester – KULeuven (Belgium)
Prof. Dr. Nelson Hairston – Cornell University (USA)
Prof. Dr. Helmut Hillebrand - Ossietsky University (Germany)
Prof. Dr. Erik Jeppesen - Aarhus University (Denmark)
Prof. Dr. Pierre Legendre – Université de Montréal (Canada)
Prof. Dr. Koen Martens – RBNS (Belgium)
Dr. Blake Mathews – EAWAG (Switzerland)
Prof. Dr. Koenraad Muylaert– KULeuven Campus Kortrijk (Belgium)
Prof. Dr. Pedro Peres-Neto - UQAM (Canada)
Dr. Danny Rejas – ULRA (Bolivia)
Prof. Dr. Jon Shurin – UC San Diego (USA)
Prof. Dr. Lawrence Weider – University of Oklahoma (USA)
Dr. Christian Winter – University of Vienna (Austria)
Selected Publications
For a complete list: see http://www.researcherid.com/rid/E-4338-2010
De Bie, T., L. De Meester, L. Brendonck, K. Martens, B. Goddeeris, D. Ercken, H. Hampel, L. Denys, L. Vanhecke, K. Van der Gucht, J. Van Wichelen, W. Vyverman and S.A.J. Declerck. In press. Body size and dispersal mode as key traits determining metacommunity structure of aquatic organisms. Ecology Letters
Verreydt, D., L. De Meester, E. Decaestecker, M.-J. Villena, K. van der Gucht, P. Vanormelingen, W. Vyverman and S.A.J. Declerck. 2012. Dispersal-mediated trophic interactions can generate apparent patterns of dispersal limitation in aquatic metacommunities. Ecology Letters 15: 218–226.
Declerck, S.A.J., E. S. Bakker, B. van Lith, A. Kersbergen and E. van Donk. 2011. Effects of nutrient additions and macrophyte composition on invertebrate community assembly and diversity in experimental ponds. Basic and Applied Ecology 12: 466-475.
Declerck, S.A.J., J.S. Coronel, P. Legendre and L. Brendonck. 2011. Scale dependency of processes structuring metacommunities of cladocerans in temporary pools of High-Andes wetlands. Ecography 34: 296-305.
Declerck, S., M. Vanderstukken, A. Pals, K. Muylaert, and L. de Meester. 2007. Plankton biodiversity along a gradient of productivity and its mediation by macrophytes. Ecology 88:2199-2210.
Van der Gucht, K., K. Cottenie, K. Muylaert, N. Vloemans, S. Cousin, S. Declerck, E. Jeppesen, J. M. Conde-Porcuna, K. Schwenk, G. Zwart, H. Degans, W. Vyverman, and L. De Meester. 2007. The power of species sorting: Local factors drive bacterial community composition over a wide range of spatial scales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104:20404-20409.
Declerck, S., T. De Bie, D. Ercken, H. Hampel, S. Schrijvers, J. Van Wichelen, V. Gillard, R. Mandiki, B. Losson, D. Bauwens, S. Keijers, W. Vyverman, B. Goddeeris, L. De Meester, L. Brendonck, and K. Martens. 2006. Ecological characteristics of small farmland ponds: Associations with land use practices at multiple spatial scales. Biological Conservation 131:523-532.
Declerck, S., J. Vandekerkhove, L. Johansson, K. Muylaert, J. M. Conde-Porcuna, K. Van der Gucht, C. Perez-Martinez, T. Lauridsen, K. Schwenk, G. Zwart, W. Rommens, J. Lopez-Ramos, E. Jeppesen, W. Vyverman, L. Brendonck, and L. De Meester. 2005. Multi-group biodiversity in shallow lakes along gradients of phosphorus and water plant cover. Ecology 86:1905-1915.
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