Ecological Inference for Conservation Movement, demography and animal-borne monitoring for conservation under uncertainty.

Research

Projects

Active and developing projects in conservation demography, movement ecology, sentinel systems and decision support.

Major programmes

Active 2023-2028

Waakvogels: animal-borne monitoring in the Wadden Sea

Waakvogels uses tracking data from migratory birds to make ecological change in the Wadden Sea more visible. The UvA contribution focuses on movement-pattern analysis, sentinel indicators, demographic modelling and dashboard tools for researchers and managers.

Source
Waakvogels programme
Lead
BirdEyes / University of Groningen
UvA contribution
Animal-borne indicators, movement-pattern analysis, demographic modelling and dashboard development

Team

  • Eldar Rakhimberdiev - UvA work-package lead (University of Amsterdam)
  • Wouter Vansteelant - Dashboard development and movement-ecology integration (BirdEyes / University of Groningen)
  • Julia Karagicheva - Postdoctoral researcher; sentinel indicators (University of Amsterdam)
  • Bastiaan Blauw - Web-services developer; dashboard infrastructure (University of Amsterdam)
  • Tjomme van Mastrigt - Postdoctoral researcher; brent goose demography (University of Amsterdam)
  • Jan Geisler - Associated PhD candidate; brent goose migration (University of Amsterdam / NIOO-KNAW)
  • Anne Vorenkamp - Associated PhD candidate; bar-tailed godwit demography and movement ecology (NIOZ / BirdEyes / University of Groningen)
  • Arne van Eerden - Associated PhD candidate; spoonbill movement ecology and social learning (BirdEyes / University of Groningen)
animal-borne monitoringmovement ecologysentinel indicatorsconservation demographydashboards
Waakvogels websiteWaakvogels dashboard

Components and case studies

Active 2026-2029
Sentinel indicators from animal-borne data

This component develops exposure and vulnerability indicators from tracking and sensor data, asking which behavioural and movement signals can be inferred reliably and communicated clearly.

Group contribution: Indicator design and integration of movement, sensor and demographic information

sentinel indicatorsexposurevulnerabilityhidden statestracking data
Active 2024-2028
Brent goose migration and annual-cycle demography

This component combines demographic, movement and count data to estimate population processes and examine how individual state, migration timing and Arctic conditions relate to population change.

Group contribution: Integrated population modelling, migration-demography links and methodological supervision

brent goosemigration timingintegrated population modelsannual cycleconservation demography
Active 2024-2028
Bar-tailed godwit annual-cycle demography

This component studies how movement, timing and environmental conditions across the annual cycle shape survival, reproduction and population structure in bar-tailed godwits.

Group contribution: Annual-cycle demographic modelling and movement-ecology inference

bar-tailed godwitmigrationannual cycledemographymovement ecology
Active 2024-2028
Spoonbill movement ecology and social learning

This component studies how juvenile spoonbills develop migration routes and how social information may shape movement decisions along the flyway.

Group contribution: Movement-ecology inference and methodological supervision

spoonbillmovement ecologysocial learningmigrationbehavioural inference
Active ongoing
UvA-BiTS tracking-data infrastructure and dashboards

This infrastructure work maintains and develops tracking-data workflows that make animal movement and sensor data usable for ecological inference, monitoring and collaboration.

Group contribution: Tracking-data workflows, computational infrastructure and dashboard development

tracking infrastructuredashboardsmovement ecologydata workflows
Active 2026-2030

Black-tailed godwit chick survival and spatial demography

This project studies why black-tailed godwit chicks fail to survive and how landscape structure, food, predation and management shape population recovery. The UvA contribution focuses on spatially explicit demographic modelling and management-relevant population outcomes.

Source
Ministerie van Landbouw, Visserij, Voedselzekerheid en Natuur (LVVN)
Lead
University of Groningen
UvA contribution
Spatially explicit integrated population models for black-tailed godwit conservation management

Team

  • Andrew Brown - PhD candidate (University of Amsterdam)
  • AndrĂ© de Roos - Promotor (University of Amsterdam)
  • Eldar Rakhimberdiev - Daily supervision; co-promotor role (University of Amsterdam)
  • Marie Stessens - Associated PhD candidate; previous demographic work (University of Groningen)
  • Theunis Piersma - Promotor for Marie Stessens (University of Groningen)
black-tailed godwitchick survivalspatial demographyintegrated population modelsconservation management
Black-tailed Godwit Chick Survival ProjectBlack-tailed Godwit Landscape Project

Other active projects

Active 2023-2027

Birds, climate change and vector-borne virus outbreaks

This collaboration studies how climate change, salinisation, water management and wetland development may affect mosquitoes, birds, pathogens and vector-borne disease risk in the Dutch delta.

Source
Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center / Convergence
Lead
Erasmus MC
Group contribution
Ecological modelling of bird distributions and landscape change within the bird-ecology component

Team

  • Tijmen Hartung - PhD candidate (Erasmus MC / Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center)
  • Marion Koopmans - Promotor / main supervisor (Erasmus MC)
  • Reina Sikkema - Co-promotor; daily supervision (Erasmus MC)
  • Eldar Rakhimberdiev - Co-supervision on bird ecology and ecological modelling (University of Amsterdam)
preparednessdisease ecologybird distributionslandscape changeecological modelling
Active 2025-2029

Environmental and anthropogenic drivers of seabird behaviour in the North Sea

This UvA PhD project studies how environmental conditions and human pressures shape seabird behaviour in the North Sea. The work focuses on lesser black-backed gull movement and biologging data to classify foraging strategies and understand how seabirds use dynamic marine environments relevant to offshore wind development.

Source
NO-REGRETS: North Sea Renewable Energy
Lead
University of Amsterdam
Group contribution
Movement-analysis support for GPS and accelerometer-based behavioural classification

Team

  • Simon Niessen - PhD candidate (University of Amsterdam)
  • Judy Shamoun-Baranes - Promotor / main supervisor (University of Amsterdam)
  • Eldar Rakhimberdiev - Co-supervision and movement-analysis support (University of Amsterdam)
lesser black-backed gullsNorth Seaoffshore windforaging behaviourbiologginganthropogenic pressures
Active ongoing

Behaviour annotation and discovery from animal-borne accelerometer data

This methodological line develops approaches for annotating known behaviours and discovering new behavioural states from animal-borne accelerometer data. The aim is to connect high-resolution sensor data to movement ecology, animal-borne monitoring and ecological inference.

Source
Collaborative research at IBED
Lead
University of Amsterdam
Group contribution
Machine-learning and ecological approaches for turning high-resolution animal-borne sensor data into interpretable behavioural states.

Team

behavioural discoveryaccelerometer datamachine learninganimal-borne sensorshidden states

Infrastructure and past projects

Completed / infrastructure 2023-2025

Collaborative Framework for Animal Movement Research

CoFrAMR supported computational infrastructure and collaboration around animal movement research, helping make large tracking datasets easier to analyse and share.

Source
NWO large computational grant
Lead
University of Amsterdam
Group contribution
Co-applicant; computational infrastructure and collaborative capacity for animal movement research

Team

animal movementcomputational infrastructurecollaboration