Department of Forest Protection
dr. Maarten de Groot
FUNCTIONS entomologist, head of the SFI entomological collection
FIELD OF WORKforest protection, entomology
Curriculum vitae
Education
1997-2001 Environmental sciences, BSc, Van Hall Institute, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
2001-2005 Biology, MSc, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
2007-2011 Biology, PhD, National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Field of work
I am working on the diagnostics of forest pests, give advice to the Slovenia Forest Service in case of insect outbreaks, coordinating survey programs for several quarantine species in Slovenia, member of the EPPO panel of diagnostics of Entomology, and research.
Research interests
An important aspect of my work is research. Below I describe my research interests in the field of forest entomology and ecology.
Forest pest outbreaks and forest management
In the recent decades, forests have been under large pressure of outbreaks of forest pests, which have had major consequences for forests. My research interest is to determine factors which are affecting outbreak potential of eruptive insects, investigate methods that are sustainably suppressing population outbreaks from bottom-up and top-down, and to put forest pest outbreaks in a socio-ecological perspective. For this research I use mainly the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus L.) attacking Norway spruce as a model species.
Forest biodiversity and forest management
Forest has been shown to be more resistant to catastrophic events if they are my divers in species. It is therefore important to understand the mechanisms of the coexistence of species and how management can increase of maintain this biodiversity. I am working on this from two perspectives: from a species perspective and a management perspective. In collaboration with dr. Al Vrezec of the National Institute of Biology I am investigating the ecological mechanisms of different Natura 2000 species. From the management perspective I am investigating the influence of different forest management practices on the forest biodiversity.
Invasive alien species
Already for decades new species are arriving on other continents with sometimes catastrophic impact. This was shown for forests with Chalara (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) and the oak lace bug (Corythucha arcuata). My interests are to investigate potential pathways, factors improving detection and to determine what will be the impact of invasive alien insect species in forest ecosystems.
Publications