EDUCATION
GREENHOUSE HORTICULTURE
University Fund Wageningen (UFW) has raised over 65,000 euros via crowdfunding for students who have got into severe financial difficulties due to the corona virus crisis. The pandemic has caused problems for some students, for example because they have lost their part-time jobs or because foreign scholarships are no longer being paid. UFW initially had a target of 35,000 euros for the emergency fund but it has comfortably exceeded that. UFW itself donated 1000 euros, as did the board of alumni society KLV. Wageningen Ambassadors, the group of influential Wageningen alumni who support the university, has promised 10,000 euros. The campaign will continue until 1 September. RANKING
Best agricultural university again For the fourth time in a row, Wageningen University & Research has been ranked first in the QS World University Rankings for the category Agriculture and Forestry. UC Davis in the US is in second place. Wageningen is ranked eighth for Environmental Sciences and 14th for Development Studies. Info: vincent.koperdraat@wur.nl
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WAGENINGENWORLD | 2 | 2020
PHOTO GERARD-JAN VLEKKE
Emergency fund for students
The Dutch minister for Agriculture Carola Schouten and her American counterpart Sonny Perdue opened the demo greenhouse KAS2030 at Wageningen Plant Research in Bleiswijk in late January. KAS2030 is a low-emission demonstration greenhouse for vegetables, fruit and flowers. Researchers combine the latest technology and cultivation systems to reduce emissions of CO2 and the use of pesticides and fertilizer to zero. Diseases and pests are dealt with using biological methods and the energy-efficient greenhouse reuses water and nutrients as much as possible. ‘We use the demo greenhouse to try out things that are not possible in a commercial setting. If we can get a better understanding of what is needed for zero-emissions cultivation, we can help the horticulture sector take that step,’ says researcher Frank Kempkes. The Dutch horticulture sector has undertaken to be CO2-neutral by 2040. Info: frank.kempkes@wur.nl
AQUATIC ECOLOGY
Plastic particles halve aquatic creature numbers Wageningen ecologists have shown that tiny plastic particles have a negative effect on biodiversity. Their research focuses on tiny creatures such as worms, water fleas and snails in the beds of lakes and ditches. These organisms churn the sediment, filter out substances, eat and are eaten, making them important for amphibians and fish. PhD candidate Paula RedondoHasselerharm studied the
PHOTO SHUTTERSTOCK
PHOTO MARTE HOFSTEENGE
Demo greenhouse for zero-emission cultivation
balance in these small eco systems in a long-term field experiment. After 15 months of exposure to nanoplastics and microplastics, some species were not faring so well. There were only half the total number of organisms compared with s imilar sites without plastics. The ecological effects of small plastic particles had previously only been investigated in the lab. The findings were published in January in Science Advances. Info: bart.koelmans@wur.nl
