Michiel Veldhuis
Assistant professor
- Name
- Dr. M.P. Veldhuis
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 1494
- m.p.veldhuis@cml.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-8186-5473
Michiel Veldhuis is an ecologist trying to understand the drivers of organization of communities and ecosystems, how this is affected by humans and its consequences for ecosystem services and stability.
More information about Michiel Veldhuis
News
PhD candidates
Professional experience
In 2011, Michiel graduated from the University of Groningen, where he obtained both his BSc and his MSc degree (cum laude) in the topmaster Evolutionary Biology. He did internships on 1) abiotic and biotic drivers on herbaceous biodiversity in the Drentsche Aa; 2) palm seed dispersal by Agoutis at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Barro Colorado Island, Panama; 3) the effects of soil compaction by large herbivores (white rhino’s) on vegetation structure in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, South Africa. Although these projects were undertaken in very different ecosystems, they all investigate processes that shape communities or ecosystems.
Michiel managed to secure funding for a PhD on the role of ecological autocatalysis on the organization of African savanna ecosystems under supervision of Han Olff and Matty Berg, which he defended in 2016. The major part of the field work was done in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, South Africa. The project included nutrient redistribution by large herbivores, how termites stabilize decomposition rates and drivers of woody vegetation structure and patchiness.
Between 2015 and 2019, Michiel was a postdoc within the AfricanBioServices project, aiming to quantify how regional gradients in rainfall and soil fertility drive variation in ecosystem organization and how this is affected by human population growth and associated land use change. He investigated the consequences for the stability of ecosystems both in and outside protected areas and the spatial interactions between landscape zones in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem. After about 2 years, he moved to the Pringle Lab and Tarnita Lab at Princeton University where he continue to work in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem. His research in the Pringle lab focused on the niche partitioning among large herbivores and termites and how this is expected to change in the future. His research in the Tarnita lab dealt with spatial vegetation patterns and their consequences for the stability of ecosystems, and the potential role of termites and large herbivores in creating them.
Since 2019, Michiel is an Assistant Professor at the CML and teaches on both BSc. and MSc. programmes including Conservation Biology, Ecologie II and Governance of Biodiversity.
Research topic
Michiel has always been interested in how species interact and how these interactions structure ecosystems to what we observe today. He has mainly studied African savanna ecosystem with a strong focus on how organisms affect and change their environment including other organisms. Recently, this has been extended by investigating how people and wildlife interact (both positive and negative) and how we can increase ecosystem stability whereas the pressure on savanna ecosystems is strongly increasing due to human population growth and climate change. He works at multiple spatial scales, from grazing lawn formation at several meters to changes in ecosystem stability on the whole African continent. His current focus is on:
- the effect of people on wildlife and vice versa (ecosystem services);
- the drivers of ecosystem stability;
- niche partitioning of large herbivores in relation to climate change;
- the effect of animals (large herbivores and termites) on the functioning and stability of savanna ecosystems.
Assistant professor
- Science
- Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen Leiden
- CML/Environmental Biology
- Groen K., Beekenkamp S., Iongh H.H. de, Lesilau F.L., Chege M.M., Narisha L.L., Veldhuis M.P., Bertola L., Bodegom P.M. van & Trimbos K.B. (2023), DNA metabarcoding illuminates the contribution of small and very small prey taxa to the diet of lions, Environmental DNA 5(6): 1321-1331.
- Pringle R.M., Abraham J.O., Anderson T.M., Coverdale T.C., Davies A.B., Dutton C.L., Gaylard A., Goheen J.R., Holdo R.M., Hutchinson M.C., Kimuyu D.M., Long R.A., Subalusky A.L. & Veldhuis M.P. (2023), Impacts of large herbivores on terrestrial ecosystems, Current Biology 33(11): R584-R610.
- Mohanbabu N., Veldhuis M.P., Jung D. & Ritchie M.E. (2023), Integrating defense and leaf economic spectrum traits in a tropical savanna plant, Frontiers in Plant Science 14: 1185616.
- Mohanbabu N., Veldhuis M.P., Jung D. & Ritchie M.E. (2023), Landscape variation in defense traits along gradients of multiple resources in a tropical savanna plant, Oikos 2023(9): e09909.
- Gao C., Bodegom P.M. van, Bezemer T.M., Veldhuis M.P., Mancinelli R. & Soudzilovskaia N.A. (2023), Soil biota adversely affect the resistance and recovery of plant communities subjected to drought, Ecosystems 26: 675-685.
- Jonge I.K. de, Veldhuis M.P., Cornelissen J.H.C., Berg M.P. & Olff H. (2023), The metamicrobiome: key determinant of the homeostasis of nutrient recycling, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 38(2): 183-195.
- Jonge I.K. de, Veldhuis M.P., Vrieling A. & Olff H. (2022), Camera traps enable the estimation of herbaceous aboveground net primary production (ANPP) in an African savanna at high temporal resolution, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation 8(5): 583-600.
- Jong I.K. de, Olff H., Wormmeester R. & Veldhuis M.P. (2022), Spatiotemporal habitat use of large African herbivores across a conservation border, Conservation Science and Practice 4(8): e12754.
- Veldhuis M.P., Martinez-Garcia R., Deblauwe V. & Dakos V. (2022), Remotely‐sensed slowing down in spatially patterned dryland ecosystems, Ecography 2022(10): e06139.
- Kihwele E.S., Veldhuis M.P., Loishooki A., Hongoa J.R., Hopcraft J.G.C., Olff H. & Wolanski E. (2021), Upstream land-use negatively affects river flow dynamics in the Serengeti National Park, Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology 21(1): 1-12.
- Veldhuis M.P., Hofmeester T.R., Balme G., Druce D.J., Pitman R.T. & Cromsigt J.P.G.M. (2020), Predation risk constrains herbivores' adaptive capacity to warming, Nature ecology & evolution 4: 1069-1074.
- Kihwele E.S., Mchomvu V., Owen-Smith N., Hetem R.S., Hutchingson M.C., Potter A.B., Olff H. & Veldhuis M.P. (2020), Quantifying water requirements of African ungulates through a combination of functional traits, Ecological Monographs 90(2): e01404.
- Ogutu J.O., Veldhuis M.P., Morrison T.A., Hopcraft J.G.C. & Olff H. (2019), Conservation: Beyond population growth Response, Science 365(6449): 133-134.
- Veldhuis M.P., Ritchie M.E., Ogutu J.O., Morrison T.A., Beale C.M., Estes A.B., Mwakilema W., Ojwang G.O., Parr C.L., Probert J., Wargute P.W., Hopcraft J.G.C. & Olff H. (2019), Cross-boundary human impacts compromise the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, Science 363(6434): 1424-1428.
- Veldhuis M.P., Kihwele E.S., Cromsigt J.P.G.M., Ogutu J.O., Hoperaft J.G.C., Owen-Smith N. & Olff H. (2019), Large herbivore assemblages in a changing climate: incorporating water dependence and thermoregulation, Ecology Letters 22(10): 1536-1546.
- Veldhuis Michiel P., Berg Matty P., Loreau Michel & Olff Han (2018), Ecological autocatalysis: a central principle in ecosystem organization?, Ecological Monographs 88(3): 304-319.
- Veldhuis Michiel P., Gommers Moniek I., Olff Han & Berg Matty P. (2018), Spatial redistribution of nutrients by large herbivores and dung beetles in a savanna ecosystem, Journal of Ecology 106(1): 422-433.
- Rozema Patrick D., Kulk Gemma, Veldhuis Michiel P., Buma Anita G.J., Meredith Michael P. & Van de Poll Michiel H. (2017), Assessing Drivers of Coastal Primary Production in Northern Marguerite Bay, Antarctica, Frontiers in Marine Science 4: 184.
- Veldhuis Michiel P., Rozen-Rechels David, le Roux Elizabeth, Cromsigt Joris P.G.M., Berg Matty P. & Olff Han (2017), Determinants of patchiness of woody vegetation in an African savanna, Journal of Vegetation Science 28(1): 93-104.
- Veldhuis Michiel P., Laso Francisco J., Olff Han & Berg Matty P. (2017), Termites promote resistance of decomposition to spatiotemporal variability in rainfall, Ecology 98(2): 467-477.
- Sitters Judith, Bakker Elisabeth S., Veldhuis Michiel P., Veen G.F., Venterink Harry Olde & Vanni Michael J. (2017), The stoichiometry of nutrient release by terrestrial herbivores and its ecosystem consequences, Frontiers in Earth Science 5: 32.
- Veldhuis Michiel P., Fakkert Heleen F., Berg Matty P. & Olff Han (2016), Grassland structural heterogeneity in a savanna is driven more by productivity differences than by consumption differences between lawn and bunch grasses, Oecologia 182(3): 841-853.
- Veldhuis Michiel P., Hulshof Anneleen, Fokkema Wimke, Berg Matty P. & Olff Han (2016), Understanding nutrient dynamics in an African savanna: local biotic interactions outweigh a major regional rainfall gradient, Journal of Ecology 104(4): 913-923.
- Veldhuis M.P., Howison R.A., Fokkema R.W., Tielens E. & Olff H. (2014), A novel mechanism for grazing lawn formation: large herbivore-induced modification of the plant-soil water balance, Journal of Ecology 102(6): 1506-1517.
- Plas F. van der, Zeinstra P., Veldhuis M.P., Fokkema R., Tielens E., Howison R. & Olff H. (2013), Responses of savanna lawn and bunch grasses to water limitation, Plant Ecology 214(9): 1157-1168.