Piersma and Hooijmeijer receive grant for research on godwits and agricultural biodiversity

Prof. Theunis Piersma and Jos Hooijmeijer of the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES) of the UG, have received a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality for their long-term research on black-tailed godwits. With this grant, the UG's research on godwits – which has been running since 2004 – can be extended for another five years.

As the national bird of the Netherlands, godwits will show us the extent to which the desired transition to sustainable dairy farming with less pressure on biodiversity, landscape, environment, climate and health is happening. The presence and increased breeding success of godwits indicate high biodiversity, a balanced food web and agricultural soils that can serve sustainable dairy farming. Piersma and Hooijmeijer aim to properly measure in which rural areas and on which farms biodiversity will be recovering. Next to this, an understanding why parts of the population do or do not recover can inform enlightened management and policy measures.