Project R-11392

biodiversity (Research)

The research in Maarten Vanhove's team centres on two overarching themes: (1) evolutionary parasitology, with a focus on parasitic flatworms infecting aquatic animals; (2) biodiversity science in the Global South, with a focus on capacity development and policy translation for the sustainable management of African aquatic ecosystems. The extraordinary species richness of parasites is often linked to typical speciation mechanisms. Hence, we think of evolutionary parasitology as a prime playground for studying the mechanisms underlying biodiversity. Often working in Africa, we consider it an obvious matter of equal opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders from the Global South. Our team focuses on the biodiversity and morphological and molecular evolution of parasites and their aquatic hosts, with a focus on fishes and their monogeneans, and parasitic flatworms in general. We choose our model systems partly in function of fundamental biological questions, such as: (1) the scientifically challenging genetic diversity of flatworms, exploring and optimising genetic and genomic techniques on these often minute non-models animals; (2) the phenomenon of radiation and species flocks and how this influences the diversification of parasite populations and species, in the African Great Lakes but also in the eastern Mediterranean. However, many of our chosen study systems are also highly policy relevant. This led us to study the parasitology and genetics/genomics of fishes that are invasive, endemic and/or economically important, such as tilapias, African freshwater sardines, Mediterranean freshwater gobies and killifishes, African lates perches, and the North African catfish. In this context, we developed our second research line, namely the translation of biodiversity information into decision making, capacity building and sustainable development, especially in Africa. Topics include the (cultural or stakeholder) perception of biodiversity and its conservation; developing and using indicators for biodiversity and biodiversity policy; environmental impact assessment; the valorisation of natural history collections; and incorporating biodiversity into One Health policies.

01 January 2020 - 31 May 2023