Microalgae can provide nutritional food in places where agriculture is limited, can replace unsustainable oils such as palm and fish oil and provide proteins to cope with the growth in population. With an interdisciplinary team we create knowledge and technology to make this happen. This inaugural lecture shares my vision and journey to become Pers...
In their natural environment, leaves are exposed to rapid fluctuations of irradiance. Research on CO2 assimilation under fluctuating irradiance often relies on measurements of gas exchange during transients where irradiance is rapidly increased or decreased, after the leaf has adapted to a particular set of environmental conditions. In the field, s...
(Semi-)closed greenhouses have been developed over the last decades to conserve energy. In a closed greenhouse, window ventilation is fully replaced by mechanical cooling while solar heat is temporarily stored in an aquifer. A semi-closed greenhouse has a smaller cooling capacity than a closed greenhouse and, in which mechanical cooling is combined...
Dynamics of thylakoid membranes and mobility of pigment-protein complexes therein are essential for survival of photosynthetic organisms under changing environmental conditions. The published approaches to probe mobility of the thylakoid membrane lipids and protein complexes are either dependent on the use of external labels or are used only for in...
Intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crop species simultaneously in the same field, while relay intercropping means that the growing periods of the crop species are only partially overlapping. Intercropping has advantages with respect to productivity, resource capture, build-up of soil organic matter, and pest and disease suppression. Th...
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a vegetable crop with high potential to contribute to poverty reduction via increased income and food security. It is widely grown by smallholders, has high productivity and its demand is increasing. Ethiopia produced about 30,700 Mg of tomatoes on 5,027 ha annually in 2014/2015. Average yields are only 6.1 Mg ha...
During the last decades, fluorescence spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful tool in the fields of biophysics, biotechnology, biochemistry, cellular biology and the medical sciences. These techniques are highly sensitive, and allow us to study the structure and dynamics of (bio)molecular systems (Valeur 2001). A significant advantage of fluorescenc...
The aim of this online course is to explain the basic mechanisms of photosynthesis.
It used to be rare to come across plants that bind CO2 mainly at night: CAMplants. But it’s no longer an exception in the horticultural sector. Nowadays the best-selling pot plant in the Netherlands – phalaenopsis – belongs to this group. This then raises questions such as: When do CAM-plants behave according to the book and when don’t they? And wh...
De inzichten in het effect van lichtkleuren op fotosynthese, vorm en ontwikkeling groeien gestaag. Je zou dan graag willen dat het om simpele relaties gaat, bijvoorbeeld ‘blauw licht opent huidmondjes’. Zo ligt het echter vaak niet. Effecten op korte en lange termijn zijn vaak verschillend en het gaat altijd om de mix van kleuren.
