Project description
Plant-soil interactions under drought
Rising temperatures increase rates of evapotranspiration. The intensity and duration of climate extremes such as drought have long-term negative impacts on Earth’s plant communities. Vegetation responses to drought varies and is linked to species diversity. The EU-funded SHIFTFEEDBACK project will investigate how changes in plant-soil feedback underlie strong shifts in plant community composition following drought. The project will also quantify the effects of plant-plant and plant-microbial interactions on plant growth and subsequent shifts in plant community composition in response to drought. Ultimately, general patterns in plant-soil feedback (a process where plants alter the biotic and abiotic qualities of soil they grow in, which then alters the ability of plants to grow in that soil in the future), will be identified across European drought experiments.
Objective
Drought is severely threatening our ecosystems and their functioning: it causes strong shifts in plant community composition that are difficult to revert. Positive feedbacks often underlie these dramatic shifts, but in many ecosystems drought causes fast-growing species to increase. These species are not only vulnerable to drought, but they also suffer negative plant-soil feedback, i.e. they change the soil microbial community in a way that keeps their own abundance in check. Thus, drought-induced shifts in plant communities do not result from positive feedbacks, unless drought changes plant-soil feedback. We know that plant-soil feedback drives plant community succession, but its role in community response to drought has never been explored. Here, I will unravel whether and how changes in plant-soil feedback underlie strong shifts in plant community composition following drought. This knowledge is crucial for mitigating the effects of drought on terrestrial ecosystems.
My objectives are:
1. Examining how drought affects plant community and soil microbial community composition and the implications for plant-soil feedback
2. Quantifying the effects of plant-plant and plant-microbial interactions on plant growth and subsequent shifts in plant community composition in response to drought
3. Disentangling the mechanisms underlying drought-induced changes in plant-soil feedback
I will address these objectives in a novel set of approaches. I will identify general patterns in plant-soil feedback across European drought experiments, and assess the role of plant-plant and plant-microbial interactions across a Dutch secondary successional gradient. In a set of targeted mesocosm experiments, I will elucidate the mechanisms underlying changes in plant-soil feedback and the consequences for plant community composition. These approaches will result in a step-change in understanding the dynamics of plant-soil interactions under drought and the consequences for ecosystem change.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG
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1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands
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