Browsing by Author "van Diggelen, Rudy"

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    Facilitating ecosystem assembly: Plant-soil interactions as a restoration tool
    (Elsevier, 2018-02-23) van der Bij, A. U.; Weijters, M. J.; Bobbink, R.; Harris, Jim A.; Pawlett, Mark; Ritz, K.; Benetková, P.; Moradi, J.; Frouz, J.; van Diggelen, Rudy
    Although plant-soil interactions are increasingly recognized as an important factor in ecosystem restoration, their effects on community assembly during de novo ecosystem establishment are largely unknown. In a heathland restoration trial after topsoil removal we introduced either only aboveground heathland species with fresh herbage or both above- and belowground heathland species with sods to facilitate community assembly. Sod inoculation increased resemblance of the microbial community to the reference system, with a higher fungal and lower bacterial proportion to the community structure. Also densities of bacteriophagous and phytophagous nematodes, Acari and Collembola increased after sod inoculation. The cover of heathland plant species increased by 49% after sod inoculation. The introduction of solely aboveground heathland species increased the cover of these species by only 13%, and did not affect soil community assembly. Additionally, the increase in cover of heathland species over time was inversely correlated to the cover of mesotrophic grassland species. Inverse correlations were also observed between changes in fungal and bacterial abundances. Simultaneous introduction of key species of both above- and below-ground communities had a critical effect on the establishment of both communities, providing a potential shortcut for successful restoration of target ecosystems on disturbed soils.
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    Initial soil community drives heathland fungal community trajectory over multiple years through altered plant-soil interactions
    (Wiley, 2019-09-30) Radujković, Dajana; van Diggelen, Rudy; Weijters, Maaike; Harris, Jim A.; Pawlett, Mark; Verbruggen, Erik; Bobbink, Roland; Vicca, Sara
    •Dispersal limitation, biotic interactions and environmental filters interact to drive plant and fungal community assembly, but their combined effects are rarely investigated. •This study examines how different heathland plant and fungal colonization scenarios realized via three biotic treatments ‐ addition of mature heathland derived sod, addition of hay and no additions ‐ affect soil fungal community development over six years along a manipulated pH gradient in a large‐scale experiment starting from an agricultural, topsoil removed state. •Our results show that both biotic and abiotic (pH) treatments had a persistent influence on the development of fungal communities, but that sod additions diminished the effect of abiotic treatments through time. Analysis of correlation networks between soil fungi and plants suggests that the reduced effect of pH in the sod treatment, where both soil and plant propagules were added, might be due to plant‐fungal interactions since the sod additions caused stronger, more specific, and more consistent connections compared to no addition treatment. •Based on these results, we suggest that the initial availability of heathland fungal and plant taxa, that reinforce each other, can significantly steer further fungal community development to an alternative configuration, overriding otherwise prominent effect of abiotic (pH) conditions.
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    Soil fauna development during heathland restoration from arable land: role of soil modification and material transplant
    (Elsevier, 2022-01-03) Benetková, Petra; van Diggelen, Rudy; Háněl, Ladislav; Vicentini, Fabio; Moradi, Rojyar; Weijters, Maaike; Bobbink, Roland; Harris, Jim A.; Frouz, Jan
    Heathlands are threatened habitats throughout the whole Europe, which have initiated numerous restoration programmes aimed mostly at plant community reconstruction; however, little is known about soil fauna restoration. Here we have studied newly established wet and dry heathlands in the Netherlands after topsoil removal of previously agricultural land, where we manipulated the soil pH (acidification by Sulphur or liming by Ca ions as Dolokal) and introduced plant or soil material to speed up the restoration process. We sampled experimental plots and nearby mature heathlands (used as local reference habitat) over five years (2013–2017) for nematodes, mesofauna (mainly springtails and mites) and macrofauna. Although soil inoculation proved to be a substantive step in target plant community development and also helped to shift soil faunal assemblages towards the target, the latter were still far from reference heathland after five years. Only macrofaunal densities showed similar densities in 2017 as in local reference spots. The succession dynamics of all studied groups and trophic composition of macrofauna and nematodes differed in wet and dry heathlands. Soil amendments improved the initial colonisation as well as liming at the wet sites, which probably created suitable microhabitats for soil fauna development.
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    Soil microbial community assembly precedes vegetation development after drastic techniques to mitigate effects of nitrogen deposition
    (Elsevier, 2016-10-03) van der Bij, A. U.; Pawlett, Mark; Harris, Jim A.; Ritz, K.; van Diggelen, Rudy
    Oligotrophic semi-natural systems are threatened by high levels of nitrogen deposition. To mitigate these effects, drastic techniques such as sod-cutting and topsoil removal are applied to reduce nitrogen loads in existing systems and expand their area on former agricultural fields. We assessed the effects of these techniques along with the influence of previous land-use, isolation and vegetation development on subsequent microbial community assembly in restored agricultural areas. Microbial community phenotypic structure was measured using PLFA-analysis, along with soil chemistry and vegetation development. Differences in soil nitrogen pools due to restoration techniques were the most differentiating factor for both microbial community assembly and vegetation development. Only after topsoil removal was resemblance of both below- and above-ground communities to well-developed heathlands increased within 10–15 years. After sod-cutting both microbial community and vegetation composition remained more similar to agricultural sites. The relative contribution of agricultural sites and heathlands in the direct vicinity had more pronounced effects on local microbial community composition than current land-use in all study sites including agricultural areas and heathlands. Vegetation development was apparently of minor importance for microbial community assembly, since characteristic belowground assembly preceded that of aboveground development in both restoration contexts.