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Project

Grassland restoration by soil inoculation: interactions with environmental filters and priority effects.

The majority of originally nutrient-poor grasslands in Western Europe has been eutrophied and degraded by human activities, which has resulted in a loss of associated biodiversity. The re-establishment of nutrient-poor conditions is the first step in grassland restoration, but despite abiotic recovery many restoration grasslands remain stuck in a seemingly stable and species-poor state. Emerging evidence suggests that not only edaphic filters but also dispersal limitation of plants and microbes -and their interactions- drive vegetation assembly. In this project, we use the framework of an existing large-scale and long-term field experiment to investigate if grassland restoration can be steered and accelerated by hay transfer and by inoculation of top soil collected in a mature and species-rich donor grassland. We combine state-of-the-art molecular techniques with methods from biogeochemistry and vegetation science to assess whether soil inoculation has a positive effect on vegetation assembly through the establishment of complex belowground plant-microbial correlation networks, and we investigate if the outcome of soil inoculation is dependent on edaphic properties of the grassland and on restoration treatments, including removal of the existing grass layer. Our interdisciplinary approach allows us to disentangle if, how, and through which mechanisms active manipulation of the soil microbiome affects ecosystem development.
Date:1 Apr 2020 →  31 Mar 2021
Keywords:ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION, MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES, ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION, SOIL ECOLOGY
Disciplines:Community ecology, Soil ecology, Terrestrial ecology, Microbiomes, Mycology, Plant ecology, Conservation and biodiversity, Soil chemistry