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Projects - prof.dr.ir. L (Liesje) Mommer

  • Translating ecological knowledge for agriculture I: Cover crops 

    Cover crops are planted to maintain and improve the quality of probably the most precious asset in agriculture: healthy soils. These crops are currently widely applied to improve soil structure and prevent nutrient leaching. Next to these abiotic goals, cover crops have a major potential to lower the soil-borne disease pressure. The latter is a pressing issue as numerous pesticides that have been applied for decades to manage soil pathogens were banned recently. Particularly for the management of plant-parasitic nematodes and pathogenic fungi there is an urgent need for alternative measures, which may be provided by cover crops suppressing pathogens directly or indirectly via the stimulation of antagonists. However, the presence of multiple soil-borne diseases is commonplace, and a poorly-informed cover crop choice may even result in unintentional accumulation of one of these pathogens. Collaborating with Sara Cazzaniga, Hans Helder and Joeke Postma and stakeholders we will provide a scientific basis for optimal cover crop combinations that suppress pathogens and boost soil biodiversity. 

    Two papers have already been published:

    Cazzaniga et al, 2023. On the legacy of cover crop-specific microbial footprints, Soil Biology and Biochemistry: link to paper

    Cazzaniga et al, 2023. Pinpointing the distinctive impacts of ten cover crop species on the resident and active fractions of the soil microbiome. Applied Soil Ecology link to paper preprint

    Sara Cazzaniga will defend her PhD thesis on Dec 6th, 13.30 h, Omnia, Wageningen Campus

     

  • Translating ecological knowledge for agriculture II: Stripcropping

    We started untangling the belowground plant-pathogen-nutrient interactions this autumn! Read more about the transdisciplinary approach in the NWA project Cropmix. Within this framework, I co-lead two belowground workpackages: 

    Two PhD students (Margherita Berri and Frank Lee Harris) will identify how crop diversity in space (e.g. strip cropping) and time (e.g. rotation) affects two important belowground processes: the risk of soil-borne disease outbreaks and nutrient cycling respectively, and their interactions. The aim of the projects is to find crop combinations and belowground plant traits that are beneficial for soil-borne disease suppression and nutrient cycling. These PhD projects will contribute to understanding soil functional biodiversity through interactive relationships with nutrient cycling, soil-borne pathogens and mutualists. Supervising team in action: with Margherita Berri, Gerlinde De Deyn & Jasper van Ruijven in pumpkin fields of Vitalis Seeds! 

  • The Jena Experiment: the belowground perspective 

    The Jena Biodiversity Experiment (Jena, Germany, The Jena experiment) was established with the aim to link biodiversity to ecosystem functioning. Sixty plant species, common to the Central European Arrhenatherum grasslands, served as a pool from which experimental plant communities of different diversities were assembled.

    I am a PI for more than a decade in the Jena Experiment. Together with dr Alex Weigelt (Uni Leipzig, Germany) I am responsible for managing the team that studies of belowground plant-plant interactions by performing detailed measurements of root distribution based on classical root coring and innovative molecular species identification, combined with state-of-the-art isotopic and non-isotopic tracer applications to quantify root activity patterns in space and time. Recently, we have started to broaden our scope to belowground plant-fungal interactions, see our most recent Jena paper on this topic here. 

    PhD students and postdocs that contributed to the root projects within the Jena Experiment: Roots: Janneke Ravenek; Annette Jesch; Natalie Oram; Hongmei Chen and Katie Barry. Fungi: Justus Hennecke, Davide Francioli, Jose Macia-Vicente.