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HEIndividual fellowship2022–2026

MultiSol · Soil multifunctionality: from biodiversity associations to understanding mechanisms

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2022-09-01 → 2026-02-28
EU contribution
€203,464
Participants
1
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Soil multifunctionality: from biodiversity associations to understanding mechanisms

The MultiSol project set out to make a step to putting soil multifunctionality research on a more explicitly mechanistic footing, by developing an improved measurement framework and protocols and by integrating stoichiometric relations in plant-microbe-soil interactions as a key regulator of soil processes and thus functioning and health. In addition, the key career goal was to gain experience in leading projects and the project team. A key outcome at the end of the project is that the concept of latent variable modelling was operationalized for quantification of soil multifunctionality, focussing on primary production, climate and water regulation and habitat for biodiversity. We developed a comprehensive methodology, including practical experimental setup, internal and external benchmarks, and the subsequent statistical processing, The resulting paper is currently in press with the highly respected academic interdisciplinary journal SOIL and already availble as a pre-print at EGUsphere. In addition, the project principal investigator (PI) interacted with several other projects (SoilProS, WeDNA, SOB4ES, SOLO), resulting in several joint publications, both published and in preparation (ONE Earth, PLOS Comp. Biol., ISME Communications). In the course of the project the PI (co-)supervised 2 postdocs, 4 PhD candidates, and 11 students at undergraduate and MSc levels and started to develop his own research group and vision and could develop research as well as leadership, networking and negotiation skills. The project terminated early, due to prolonged illness of the PI and, upon recovery, new employment at a university of applied science. This means parts of the workplan could not be executed, but they remain on the research vision of the PI and will hopefully land in future projects and grant proposals that will be developed in his new employment position.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Humanity places large demands on its cultivable soils for specific functions, e.g. food production, at the expense of the capacity of soils to provide multiple functions (carbon storage, biodiversity). However, currently multifunctionality is studied without considering the mechanistic linkages among individual soil functions. All soil functions depend on three key resources: energy, nutrients and water, producing critical trade-offs and synergies among functions. Furthermore, we lack a common measurement framework to assess soil multifunctionality. I propose to address these two challenges by 1) developing a soil multifunctionality assay that combines existing measurement techniques with latent variable models, and 2) causal modelling to test how different soil functions interlink across different soil types. I will sample grasslands across intensive-extensive land use gradients that are representative of NW European edaphic and management conditions as my study system. I will use latent variable models conditioned on multiple indicators per soil function, to develop a standardized testing procedure measuring five key soil functions (plant production, nutrient cycling, carbon and water storage, and habitat provision). Next, I will combine this standardized procedure with structural-causal modelling to test the role of resource division during plant-microbe-soil interactions in determining which functions predominate. My MSCA-project will elucidate the mechanisms underlying trade-offs and synergies among soil functions and reveal how differences among soils drive differences in soil multifunctionality.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN - KNAW · AMSTERDAMCoordinatorNetherlands

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union