Mesocosms for soil-plant-insect interactions

The facility

In 2013, mesocosms of approximately 1 m³ were set up to study soil-plant-insect interactions under native and range expanding plants. A total of 40 mesocosms are distributed in five rows of eight mesocosms, with 0.5 m spacing between them. In spring/summer, we grow plant species that are currently expanding their range within Europe and species that belong to the same genus while being native to the Netherlands. Mesocosms were filled with bulk soil collected from a riparian area in Boven‐Leeuwen, the Netherlands (51°53'56.80", 5°33'45.49"). The topsoil (~20 cm) of the mesocosms was inoculated with 20% of field soil inoculum originating from either a riparian area in the Netherlands, home to the native plant species, or with soil from south‐east Europe, where the range‐expanding plants we selected are native.

Research topics

Plants, insects, soil, microbes, climate change, invasive species

References

• Manrubia, M., van der Putten, W. H., Weser, C., Ten Hooven, F. C., Martens, H., Brinkman, E. P., ... & Veen, G. F. (2019). Soil functional responses to drought under range‐expanding and native plant communities. Functional Ecology 33 (12), 2402–2416.