Prof. Nicolas J. Vereecken
Associate Professor — Chargé de Cours
Chair of Agroecology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)473 603 563
Profile & curriculum
MSc in Agricultural Sciences (1999-2004) (Gembloux AgroBioTech, ULiège)
FRIA PhD in Biological Sciences (2004-2008) (Université libre de Bruxelles & ETH Zürich)
FNRS Post-doctoral Research Associate (2008-2012) (Université libre de Bruxelles & University of Zürich)
Research interests
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Agroecological innovations and the evolution of alternative agricultural production systems
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Evaluating pollination deficits in crops, developing adaptation and mitigation solutions for sustainable production
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Understanding the interrelationships between species richness, functional and phylogenetic diversity at different spatial and temporal scales
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Urban biodiversity and urban green spaces management for biodiversity and human well-being
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The multi-component nature of urban agriculture: food security, ecosystem services and beyond
Current research projects
Ongoing funded projects
Biodiversity conservation in Burkina Faso with a focus on elephants, bees and shea butter production (2018-present)
URBEESTRESS: disentangling the importance of stressors on the biodiversity of wild bees in Brussels Capital Region (Belgium) (2017-present)
POLBEES: Evaluating the exposure risk for wild and domesticated bees to systemic pesticides and to nutritional stress via pollen (2017-present)
CLiPS: Climate change and its effect on pollination service with UGent and UMons (EOS project funded by the FNRS/FWO, 2018-2021)
ISeBAF: Insect Service and Biodiversity in Agroecological Farming (BELSPO/BRAIN 2.0 with MRAC Tervuren and RBINS Brussels, 2020-2024)
Afrotropical stingless bees: Comparative honey analyses, pollen sequencing and species distribution models with icipe (FNRS PDR, 2020-2024)
WildBnB: Wild bees in Brussels, Atlas and monitoring with Natuurpunt, Natagora and RBINS Brussels (Bruxelles Environnement, 2019-2020)
Related topics of research
Urban bees and their landscape: how landscape configuration drives the community structure of wild bees and hoverflies (2015-present)
Crop pollination by bees: assessing the importance of wild bees as alternative crop pollinators, and how to support pollination (2015-present)
Functional diversity and diversified micro-farms: can micro-farms and agroforestry contribute to biodiversity conservation? (2015-present)
The biogeography of wild bees: with studies carried out in Singapore, Chile, DRCongo, etc. (2015-present)
The multi-faceted nature of urban agriculture: linking academia to urban agriculture through courses, research and more (2014-present)
Teaching
I am involved in teaching programmes within the ULB for a range of undergraduate students in agricultural sciences and social sciences, but also at the national and international levels.
Within the ULB, my teaching programme focuses on Research & Development in Agroecology (BING-F-430), Agroecological Innovations & Ecosystem Services (BING-F-431), as well as Introduction to Entomology (BING-F-4004). Together with Prof. Charles De Cannière, I also supervise 3 months of Internship in agronomic sciences (BING-F-534). I am also contributing to Prof. Marjolein Visser's Introduction to Agroecology (BING-F-305) at ULB.
Since 2016, I am actively involved in the International Master Programme on Agroecology together with colleagues from Paris-Saclay (France) and Gembloux AgroBioTech (ULiège). In parallel, I have also been actively involved as a teacher in the first European Bee Course led by Prof. Denis Michez (UMons, Belgium) within the framework of the EU COST "SUPER-B" initiative. The Bee Course is aimed at young researchers in Europe and neighbouring regions willing to improve their taxonomic and ecological skills on wild bees.
Five key publications
- Vereecken N, 2017. Découvrir et protéger nos abeilles sauvages. Glénat Editions, Paris, France, 192p.
- Vereecken NJ, 2017. A phylogenetic approach to conservation prioritization for Europe's bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus). Biological Conservation 206: 21-30.
- Vanderplanck M, Vereecken NJ, Grumiau L, Esposito F, Lognay GC, Wattiez R & Michez D, 2017. The importance of pollen chemistry in evolutionary host shifts of bees. Scientific Reports 7: 43058
- Vereecken NJ, Wilson CA, Hötling S, Schulz S, Banketov S & Mardulyn P, 2012. Pre-adaptations and the evolution of pollination by sexual deception: Cope’s rule of specialisation revisited. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 279(1748): 4786-4794.
- Vereecken NJ & Schiestl FP, 2008. The evolution of imperfect floral mimicry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 105(21): 7484–7488.
All publications are available upon request or through ResearchGate
