Bewick’s swans breed on the Russian tundra and the European population winters in the North Sea countries.

A key challenge for sustainable intensification of agriculture is to produce increasing amounts of food for a growing world population, with minimal loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. In order to facilitate ecological intensification of agriculture, the underlying principles need to be understood and validated in farmers’ fields

Vertebrate herbivores and nutrient deposition have a strong impact on the biodiversity and functioning of grasslands worldwide. Both factors have been changing rapidly over the last decades due to exctinction of herbivores, restoration of herbivore communities (e.g., rewilding) and enhanced nutrient inputs in natural grasslands via agriculture and fossil fuel combustion. In a global network of experiments we quantify how these changse impact on plant, soil and insect biodiversity, the cycling of nutrients and other functions in grassland ecosystems (https://nutnet.org/). At the NIOO, we coordinate the Dutch NutNet site, which is situated on the Veluwe.

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 increased carbon sequestration and enhanced crop yield.