Prof. Bram Vanschoenwinkel
Bram was trained as a community ecologist at KULeuven (Belgium) before he became a tenured professor at VUB and has worked with many groups of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates focusing both on fundamental as well as applied questions. He is skeptical about the overly liberal use of the term ecosystem services and the necessity to preserve biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, in general. However, he argues cacao production is one of few examples where agricultural and biodiversity goals can be feasibly combined in the same system. Compared to other agricultural activities that can emerge when rainforests are cut down, extensive cacao agroforestry systems with shade trees can remain a conservation worthy habitat for biodiversity of several groups of organisms. Additionally, at least part of this biodiversity could potentially support cacao production, either via pollination or biological control. But this remains to be confirmed using solid experimental data. Despite its long history of cultivation, surprisingly little is known about cacao pollination. Pollinators are small and cryptic, potentially much more taxonomically diverse than previously assumed, and notoriously difficult to identify. Most work in this field dates back from the 70’s and 80’s. With our ongoing projects we aim to revitalize cacao pollination research, first of all, by figuring exactly what the cacao pollinators are worldwide, and testing how we may promote their abundance and efficiency.
Eliza Van de Sande
Eliza Van de Sande completed her BSc at VUB working on cacao pollination. Later she enrolled in the TROPIMUNDO programme and completed a MSc degree in tropical biodiversity and ecosystems working on mutualistic relationships in Nepenthes plants in Malaysia. In 2021 she was awarded an FWO SB fellowship to continue her work on cacao pollination. She will reconstruct global variation in cacao pollinators and their habitats. She will also test different techniques to promote the reproduction of cacao pollinators in plantations and test the impact of pesticides.
Past members of the research group
Dr. Mathil Vandromme
Mathil joined the team as a MSc student from the Erasmus Mundus Master Course in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems (TROPIMUNDO) during which she performed insect surveys in the cloud forests of Monteverde in Costa Rica. Later she received training in the design of cacao agroforestry systems at CATIE in Costa Rica and successfully obtained a competitive PhD fellowship (VLIR-UOS, VLADOC fellowship). Her PhD research covered various aspects of the ecology of cacao pollinators and mainly focused on determining cacao pollinating species while studying their activity patterns and breeding habitats. Her expertise, however, covers more than the biology and ecology of cacao. She is also a certified chocolate taster and is interested in the broader picture including the socio-economical aspects of cacao production and the importance of smallholder operations.
Dr. Hendrik Trekels
Hendrik combines experience from two domains. He received a doctorate in Ecology working on habitat selection in insects. Afterwards, he used that knowledge in a job as a researcher in the field of arthropod pest management for fruit production. He has contributed to our cacao projects by helping to set up detailed experiments on pollinator emergence from different source habitats in cacao plantations. He was beneficiary of an FWO postdoctoral fellowship and a VUB Global Minds grant.
Beth Turner
Beth’s MSc project included habitat selection experiments with insects in a cacao plantation in Nicaragua illustrating how landscape structure and remote predators can alter oviposition patterns.
Justine Vansynghel
Justine’s MSc project focused on the insect assemblages that can be found in cacao agroforestry systems. She used multiple insect trapping techniques and investigated how management practices affect the community composition of dipterans, beetles and ants. After her MSc, Justine started a PhD at the University of Würzburg where she continues to work with cacao.
Laure Vanlauwe
Laure analysed results of a first large-scale colonisation experiment with artificial water-filled cups that were placed in cacao plantations. The goal of the experiment was to figure out to what extent certain structures would or would not attract bromeliad-breeding dipterans.
Noémie Bélanger
Noémie identified a multitude of Diptera caught with emergence traps that were placed over multiple habitat types within a cacao plantation. She connected the morphological information to data from the barcoding project to better identify the local cacao pollinators.
Cacao Pollination (CACPOL) 