2019 |
Learning from nature– towards sustainable crop production using soil fungi |
The aim of this research project is to investigate how management of agricultural soils can be modified to profit from beneficial soil fungi in terms of... |
2018 |
Linking range-expansion of plants with trophic downgrading in the soil |
The aim of this research is to examine the effects of invertebrate soil predators on the performance of a vigorously northward-expanding herbaceous plant... |
2018 |
Soil protists and plants: who is in control? |
The aim of this research is to disentangle the effect of diversity on plant performance focusing on crop, early successional and mid successional plant species... |
2017 |
Impact of large grazers on plant quality and abundance of arthropods |
Large grazers affect the quality of grassland vegetation for smaller herbivores such as arthropods. Also atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition and phosphorus (P... |
2017 |
Impact of large herbivores on grassland ecosystems across the globe |
Vertebrate herbivores are key drivers of species composition and ecosystem functioning in terrestrial and wetland ecosystems worldwide. Currently, communities... |
2017 |
Setting up a novel, long-term NIOO research line on vertebrate grazing in a globally distributed experimental network |
Vertebrate herbivores have strong effects on the biodiversity, structure and functioning of grasslands. With this project we build a field site according to... |
2016 |
Boosting the efficacy of biological control agents of citrus mealybugs through olfactory conditioning |
Hymenopterous parasitoids are key biological control agents that contribute to biological control of economically important pests in both agricultural and... |
2016 |
Guest research projects |
These guest researchers from China will investigate aboveground-belowground multitrophic interactions from the points of view of functional biodiversity and... |
2016 |
Vital soils for sustainable intensification of agriculture |
A key challenge for sustainable intensification of agriculture is to produce increasing amounts of food for a growing world population, with minimal loss of... |
2015 |
Linking aboveground-belowground interactions and plant-soil feedback to improve pest control and sustainability in greenhouse cut-flowers |
Chysanthemum is a major cut-flower crop in greenhouses in the Netherlands that is grown in soil. The soil is disinfected frequently by steaming. In this... |
2015 |
Living legacies: Influence of plant-mediated changes in soil communities on aboveground plant-insect interactions |
Via specific effects on soil organisms, plants can influence the soil community and this, in turn, can influence the growth of other plants that grow later in... |
2015 |
Rapid rotifer adaptation – an investigation into the adaptive potential of asexual lineages |
The capacity of populations to adapt rapidly to a changing environment can strongly contribute to the persistence of populations, the maintenance of... |
2014 |
Learning from nature: Using plant-soil feedback effects to improve disease control and sustainability in greenhouse cut-flowers |
Chrysanthemum is an important cut flower crop in The Netherland, and soil-borne diseases cause major losses in the yield of Chrysanthemum. In this project we... |
2014 |
Specialists at work: how decomposers break down plant litter |
The aim of this project is to obtain a mechanistic understanding of specific litter-decomposer interactions and their feedback effects on plant growth. We... |
2013 |
Liberation: Linking farmland biodiversity to ecosystem services for effective ecological intensification |
Conventional intensive agriculture brought food security for millions of people, but it has many drawbacks. Currently it is one of the major causes of... |
2012 |
Assessing impacts of land use for bio-based economy on soil and sediment biodiversity, ecosystem processes and services |
We are testing how plant/crop species and growth conditions influence soil biodiversity, and how these changes in soil biodiversity feed back to soil ecosystem... |
2012 |
Finding the Holy Grail in production ecology: a systems biology approach to understand how plants may combine fast growth with effective defence against belowground natural enemies |
Society has expressed strong interest in a bio-based economy. This requires high-yielding crops that efficiently use nutrients and water and are insensitive to... |
2012 |
KNAW strategic project - Centre for Soil Ecology |
In order to enhance research in soil ecology, KNAW has granted a strategic project for two Postdoc positions in order to enable promising researchers to... |
2012 |
Species range shifts, aboveground-belowground community reassembly and consequences for ecosystem functioning (SPECIALS) |
Climate warming promotes intra-continental range shifts of plants, animals and microbes from lower to higher latitudes and altitudes. Plants may shift their... |
2011 |
Causes and consequences of heritable epigenetic variation in asexual plants |
This VIDI project explores epigenetic variation in apomictic dandelion. We aim to understand the potential of epigenetics to contribute to heritable plant... |
2011 |
Climate change, range expansion and adaptation to novel selection pressures: the epigenetic dimension |
This project investigates evidence for an epigenetic contribution to plant adaptation in response to climate warming. We use historical climate-induced range... |
2011 |
Comparative genomics and evolution of learning rate |
We compare the foraging behaviour of parasitic insects. How do they deal with spatial variation of their hosts and host-food plants? The chemical ecological... |
2011 |
Ecology of the biobased economy. Soil amelioration with biochar in a natural ecosystem |
Climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels urges mankind to adopt sustainable, so called ‘biobased’ energy sources. This change will fundamentally affect... |
2011 |
Effects of genetic variation on above-belowground interactions in different populations of wild cabbage |
Populations of wild cabbage plants grow along a linear transect of the British coastline and leaf tissues exhibit immense variation in the types and... |
2011 |
Phenological interactions amongst short-lived plants and multivoltine insects |
Many studies have explored the mechanisms of plant finding and exploitation by herbivores and their parasitoids. However, many of these studies assume that... |
2011 |
Soil heterogeneity as a key to restoring nature and biodiversity on former arable fields |
Soil biotic and abiotic conditions vary greatly over space, and insight into the role that soil heterogeneity plays in creating and maintaining plant diversity... |
2011 |
Temporal scales of aboveground-belowground multitrophic interactions |
We study the temporal aspects of aboveground and belowground interactions, which is an indispensable part of aboveground-belowground research. First, we will... |
2011 |
The Jena Experiment", a long-term grassland biodiversity experiment aimed at investigating plant biodiversity effects on ecosystem processes and functions |
We will explore plant-soil biotic interactions within the framework of the Jena experiment. More specifically, we concentrate on soil microbial communities and... |
