Casper van Leeuwen will contribute experience in the consortium related to the
ecology and evolution of both waterbirds and the plants and invertebrates that they disperse. He
studies dispersal via both internal and external transport mechanisms in the context of all layers of
the aquatic food web. Casper completed his PhD on waterbird-mediated dispersal in 2012, and has
since then more than a decade of experience on studying the role of waterbirds in aquatic and
terrestrial ecosystems. His ambition is to mechanistically unravel how important waterbird-mediated
dispersal is for the functioning of ecosystems in relation to shifting plant species distributions,
ecosystem restoration, invasions, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. His approaches are mostly
trait-based, experimental and include experiments with birds as well as the dispersed organisms.
Casper published a highly cited meta-analysis in 2012, edited a special issue on waterbird-mediated
dispersal in 2018, recently co-authored a new review paper on the topic, and recently published a
modelling framework that aims to bridge the knowledge gap between research on frugivory and
research on seed dispersal by granivorous and herbivorous animals. He will collaborate on all steps
of the research, including on the identification of the main knowledge gaps, the definition of the best
methodologies to tackle them, data acquisition and on the analysis, interpretation, and
communication of the project results.