About the Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group
The Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group (PEN) studies and teaches the processes and underlying mechanisms that link biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and service delivery and aims to implement these insights in the design of effective biodiversity conservation strategies.
Research at the Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group examines the impact of land-use change and climate change on biodiversity and the links between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services and public goods. We use these insights to design more effective conservation strategies and to inform policy makers and the general public. Research is carried out at a range of spatiotemporal scales using a variety of study systems but firmly rooted in plant ecology. We explore whether the mechanisms underlying biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relations, as identified in experimental plant communities at the plot level, can explain the relations between biodiversity and delivery of ecosystem services and public goods at the landscape scale in natural ecosystems (including tundra, peat bogs and savannah) as well as in agricultural landscapes.
Hierarchical structure
WUR - Wageningen University & Research
Department of Environmental Sciences
Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group