About the talk

Life on earth has evolved under relatively constant cycles of light and dark, with moonlight being the strongest and most abundant natural light source at night. With a primary research focus on effects of direct artificial lighting on the environment, the indirect effects via skyglow, a diffuse illumination of the night sky that artificially increases sky brightness, remain poorly understood. Comprehending individual responses to natural and artificial light conditions is essential to understand how anthropogenic environments affect population dynamics and evolutionary processes. In this talk, Ruben Evens will present the research he, and his team, have performed to understand individual behaviour (space use, habitat use, song activity, foraging activity,...) of European Nightjars (Caprimulgus europaeus); and he will highlight some future research perspectives.

About the speaker

Ruben Evens is an Assistent Professor at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain, Belgium). He is a behavioural ecologist focussing on understanding variation in individual behaviour to unravel the impact of anthropogenic environments on eco-evolutionary processes. Ruben is an ornithologist, and leader of a long-term study of European nightjars in Belgium that employs various tracking technologies and cross-disciplinary approaches to support evidence-based species conservation.