The 8th annual Netherlands Society for Evolutionary Biology (NLSEB) meeting unites researchers across disciplines studying evolution in the Netherlands, including genetics, AI, medicine, and ecology. NLSEB fosters communication, synergy, and best practice sharing, uniting isolated fields. Previous meetings succeeded in this mission, and we continue striving for interdisciplinary collaboration in evolutionary biology.

Soil biotic and abiotic conditions vary greatly over space, and insight into the role soil heterogeneity plays in creating and maintaining plant diversity can be key to successful restoration of biodiversity. We aim to study how soil heterogeneity affects plant diversity and ecosystem functioning, and we will examine how soil heterogeneity can be managed via soil transplantation approaches to improve biodiversity conservation and nature restoration. We will study the effectiveness of soil transplantation for restoration and improved aboveground and belowground diversity at a restoration area of 180 hectares where soil from a restored species-rich grassland, and sods collected from a heathland have been deposited over large areas. We will also study how the spatial variability of soil biota and resources change during the process of restoration on former arable fields, in a series of restoration sites that differ in years they have been under restoration. Spatial explicit sampling designs will be used in the project and local and spatial aboveground and belowground diversity will be determined. Molecular techniques (TRFLP) will be employed to study soil microbial community heterogeneity. In greenhouse studies, ecosystem functions of soils will be studied. Recommendations will be made about optimal strategies for soil transplantation and management of soil heterogeneity in nature restoration projects. Particular emphasis will be placed on improvement of restoration success of on-going restoration projects. The results of this project will guide restoration management and provide essential information on how to make optimal use of soils in nature and biodiversity restoration.

Knowledge on the decay rate of woody resources is essential for calculating the ability of forests to sequester carbon and, consequently, for assessing the impact of forests on local and global C cycling. However, local variation in wood decay rates is not well predicted by the commonly used models which are mainly driven by wood characteristics and abiotic conditions. The proposed research will indicate the importance of community dynamics of wood-rot fungi to spatial and temporal variation in wood decay rates in temperate forests. The type of rot has an impact on wood structure and decay rates. In addition, colonization and growth of rot fungi can be suppressed by the presence of initial wood-colonizers (bacteria and micro-fungi) or by the presence of other rot fungi. Therefore, I hypothesize that a substantial fraction of the variance in wood decay rates can be ascribed to 1) the frequency of occurrence of different rot types 2) antagonism expressed by initial wood-colonizers, and 3) antagonistic interactions between different rot fungi. To test these hypotheses, I will determine wood decay parameters and identify dominant decomposers in samples of tree stumps of different age classes of a deciduous tree species and in woody material of different sizes from a ?common garden? experiment. The data will be used to build a new wood decay model which explicitly incorporates the frequency of occurrence of different rot-types and the decay rates associated with those rot types. Observed variation in wood decay rates of both our study and that of others will be used to validate and fine-tune the new model. This study will not only have impact on the estimations of C budgets of forests but will also yield new insights in the functioning of wood-inhabiting microbial communities.

The natural environment changes due to human influences. This causes stress in wild animals. Stress can have major consequences for the function that animals fulfill in the ecosystem. However, some animals can adapt quickly evolutionarily. When studying the ecological consequences of such adaptations, ecologists usually limit themselves to the study of a single species. However, the functioning of ecosystems depends on many species that influence each others evolution and that differ in the extent to which they can adapt. What is new about our approach is that we will study the consequences of rapid evolution in multiple species simultaneously.

De biodiversiteit in de bodem is ongekend groot en bodemorganismen zijn van essentieel belang voor het leven boven de grond. Recent onderzoek heeft aangetoond dat een goede bodem ook essentieel is voor goede natuurontwikkeling. Door bodem uit een goed ontwikkeld natuurgebied, met daarin een specifieke gemeenschap van bodemorganismen, dun uit te strooien over de bestaande (landbouw) bodem van een nieuw natuurgebied, kan deze landbouwbodemgemeenschap bijgestuurd worden. De nieuw gevormde bodemgemeenschap kan vervolgens de ontwikkeling van de bovengrondse natuur bevorderen. Dit proces noemen we bodemtransplantatie. In dit project gaan we een website creeeren met daarop ‘state of the art’ informatie rond bodemtransplantatie en informatie hoe bodemtransplantatie in de praktijk aan te pakken. Centraal op deze website is een film over Rijerscamp waar op grote schaal bodemtransplantatie gebruikt is bij de ontwikkeling van het voormalige landbouwgebied. Film is bij uitstek geschikt om te laten zien wat het proces inhoudt en wat de resultaten zijn. Het doel is dat de site de praktische vraagbaak wordt voor iedereen die met bodemtransplantatie aan de slag wil, en dus een directe vertaling van fundamenteel onderzoek naar praktische toepassing.