Welcome on the research website of the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) on the ecological research currently conducted within the Bijagos Archipelago, Guinea Bissau. The University of Groningen works within the ‘Waders of the Bijagos‘ project together with the local partner organization IBAP (Instituto da Biodiversidade e das Áreas Protegidas; Guinea Bissau), the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ; The Netherlands), the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the University of Lisbon (Portugal) to study the function of the archipelago along the East Atlantic Flyway. All research within this project is funded by the MAVA Foundation.
Within this large project, the University of Groningen works on landscape-scale studies focusing on the primary production (e.g. by mangroves and microphytobenthos), secondary production (e.g. by bivalves and polychaetes) and on the ecological role of larger fish like rays and sharks within these large intertidal ecosystems. These studies will learn us how important the Bijagos is for migratory shorebirds, which migrate from as far north as the Arctic to West Africa to winter. You can read more about the overarching project Waders of the Bijagos, or the subproject on mangroves and elasmobranchs (i.e. rays and sharks) on the different pages of this website.
Bijagos Ecological Research 