The global saline-alkali land area has already exceeded 1.1 billion hectares. China has about 100 million hectares. Rice cultivation has been used as an effective strategy to amend saline-alkaline lands in northeastern Songnen Plain in China since the 1950s. However, it is not known the role of microbial functions during succession of soil restoration. The aim of this project is to fundamental understanding the microbial functions succession during the saline soil restoration.

The goal of this project is to decipher the role of fungal denitrifiers in N2O production from soils under sustainable management practices. Here we apply mesocosms experiments combined with SIP and meta-omics approaches targeting the functional genes of N cycle. In addition, we design primers for fungal denitrifiers based on complete fungal genomes and soil metagenomics data.  

The aim of this project is to determine the ecological relationship between bacteria and soil aggregates. We inoculate individual beneficial bacteria and different microbial communities from different natural soils in simulated Mars soil, attempting to explain their improvement in soil aggregate stability by bacterial exudates (EPS), necromass and microbial functional traits.

To mitigate climate change, global agricultural soils needs to store more carbon and emit less greenhouse gasses (GHG). In ClipsMicro, together with partners in agro-business, this is realised by steering soil microbes by application of novel, refined compost and crops that can reduce emissions of GHG.

Since recently, Dutch farmers are required to grow cover crops in mixtures of at least two plant species.
In the Clever Cropping Project we investigated whether mixtures of cover crops have beneficial effects on soil microbiology and associated functions.
In long-term field experiments and laboratory incubations, we assessed emissions of greenhouse gasses and the diversity, abundance, and activity of microbial groups involved in environmentally relevant processes.
While in laboratory incubations we could clearly find increased beneficial microbial functioning associated with mixtures of cover crop residues, we could not observe this in a 5-year field experiment.
Overall, the use of cover crop mixtures did not have significant beneficial effects on soil microbial functioning but also no negative effects on for example greenhouse gas emissions.

Acidobacteria is among the most abundant phylum in soils, however, their physiological capabilities and co-occurrence with soil inhabitants are still unknown.

This project will investigate residue-stimulated atmospheric methane oxidation, and aims to elucidate its occurrence in field conditions, responsible microorganisms, underlying mechanisms and controlling factors.