Droevendaalsesteeg 10
6708 PB Wageningen
The Netherlands
About
My PhD is to test how plant functional traits drive the direction and the strength of plant-soil feedback and disentangle suitable plant functional trait combinations that shape positive plant-soil feedback in agricultural systems.
Biography
I completed my bachelor's degree at Northwest A&F University in China, specializing in Water and Soil Conservation and Desertification Combating. My keen interest in soil physics, particularly soil erosion, led me to pursue a master's program in 'International Land and Water Management' at Wageningen University and Research. The comprehensive curriculum of this program broadened my perspective on soil sciences, eventually shifting my focus to a more generalized study of soil. This newfound interest culminated in a master thesis that concentrated on agricultural soil pesticide residues. Subsequently, I seized an opportunity to further my research in soil sciences, specifically focusing on the synergistic interactions between above and below-ground processes in agricultural systems through diversified cropping systems. Here, I adopted the 'plant-soil feedback' concept to advance research in applying natural theory to current intensified agriculture, contributing to the development of sustainable agricultural practices.
Research groups
CV
Employment
2020–Present
PhD Candidate
Education
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2017–2019MSc in International Land and Water Management (Wageningen Univerisity) with a specilization in Sustainable Land Management
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2013–2017BSc in Soil and Water Conservation and Desertification Combating (NorthWest Agriculture & Forestry Univerisity))
Publications
Key publications
Effects of crop species on soil functions and soil multifunctionality are species-specific
Soil multifunctionality is essential for sustainable agriculture, as soils not only need to support crop growth but also maintain soil biodiversity and sustain other critical ecosystem functions. However, the focus of intensive agriculture on maximizing crop yield has reduced the multifunctional capacity of soil. Here, we examined how crop species can be used to enhance individual soil functions and multifunctionality.
We grew 12 common crop species, organized into four groups: legumes (broad bean, green bean and soybean), crucifers (broccoli, Chinese cabbage and cabbage), cereals (wheat, maize and oat), and a vegetable mix (eggplant, chilli pepper and leek) under controlled conditions. We measured how crop species affected individual soil functions (plant biomass production, nutrient cycling, carbon storage and disease suppressiveness), soil multifunctionality and the balance in the performance of these functions, expressed as evenness of functionality.
We found that crop species have specific impacts on soil functions and multifunctionality. Broad bean enhanced multifunctionality by enhancing biomass production and nutrient cycling, while Chinese cabbage and broccoli increased multifunctionality via disease suppressiveness and carbon storage functions. There was a positive correlation between multifunctionality and the evenness of functionality, suggesting that crops enhanced multiple soil functions simultaneously.
We conclude that no single crop species consistently increased all soil functions. However, most crop species contributed to soil multifunctionality by stimulating either a balanced combination of nutrient and biomass production-related functions or disease and carbon storage-related functions. Therefore, enhancing soil multifunctionality in agricultural systems may require selecting crop species that are complementary in their effects on soil functions. We propose that optimizing the multifunctionality of entire crop rotations instead of focusing only on yield offers a novel perspective for enhancing the sustainability of food production. Such a multifunctional perspective on crop rotations may also be applicable to intercropping, and both will require attention to keep the agricultural system diversified.