We will study how inoculation of former arable land with soil (including the microbiome, soil fauna and seeds/rhizomes of ground flora) from old forests along with planting targeted tree species mixtures will improve productivity and more rapidly restore forest-adapted communities and ulttimately result…

For a first time the atlas maps the soil biodiversity of the entire planet, and provide s comprehensive analysis of human-induced threats to soil organisms and soil functioning, facilitating development of new policies to protect soil and soil organisms.

Soil is a home for an unbelievable diversity and abundance of microbial life that is essential for supporting life on our planet.

We examine how soil-derived legacy effects of plants structure natural ecosystems, determine aboveground plant insect interactions, and how we can use soil legacy effects to restore degraded ecosystems.

Treatment with special stem cells seems to be a good option for suppressing the immune system in organ transplants. Researchers are trying to learn from processes that take place in the human body during pregnancy.

How soil microbial composition impacts structure and composition of the aboveground plant and animal communities?

In this thesis, the role of plant-mediated soil legacy effects in shaping aboveground plant-insect interactions was investigated.

Stem cells can be differentiated into insulin-producing cells.

Soil biodiversity is of great importance for the maintenance of multifunctionality in terrestrial ecosystems.

The soil ecosystem consists of the largest reservoir of biodiversity on Earth.

Promotor: J.A. van Veen, Co-promotor: E.E. Kuramae

By growing in a soil plants change the biotic and abiotic properties of the soil in which they grow.

Promotores: Prof.dr. H. van Veen & Prof.dr. W. de Boer (Wageningen University)

How presence, abundance and enzymatic activities of AM and EM fungi differently affect soil carbon sequestration processes?

Plants and soils from natural ecosystems harbor great diversity of soil microorganisms, which could potentially contribute to the sustainability of horticulture. The knowledge about using wild plant species and soil from natural ecosystem to improve the crop health will advance the application of ecological…

Promotores: J.A.van Veen, P.L.G.Klinkhamer. Co-promotor: E.E.Kuramae

Promotor: C.A.J. Knibbe, Co-promotor: J.J. Boelens, R.G.M. Bredius

Archaeobotanic research by prof. dr. C. Bakels and students on agriculture.

We examine how soil inoculation influences aboveground organisms (i) directly, and indirectly via (ii) its effects on plant chemistry or volatile emission, or via (iii) mediating the effects of belowground pathogens on aboveground organisms via the shared plant.

The use of N fertilizers has increased worldwide in the past century. While this increased input of N has increased food productivity, it has also contributed to decreases in biodiversity, soil quality and environmental health, including increases in greenhouse gas emissions.

Which compounds and microorganisms that live near and inside plant roots are beneficial? Can we use this knowledge to improve the health and growth of crop plants?

Vinasse is a major by-product generated by the sugarcane biofuel industry. It is a source of microbes, nutrients and organic matter and often it is recycled as fertilizer.

The LUMC is the first medical institution in the world to offer a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on clinical kidney and pancreas transplantation.

Kidney transplantation used to be an experimental risky procedure, but is now routinely performed by many countries worldwide.

CML researchers has contributed to development of the first-ever Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas , which has been published recently by the European Joint Research Centre (EU JRC) and the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI).

The Spanish Society of Soil Science has chosen as the best thesis of 2015 (call 2016) in Spain to the CML-researcher Daniel Arenas Lago, for his research at the University of Vigo that expands and deepens in new knowledge about adsorption and retention of heavy metals in soils, an issue increasingly…

Soil bacteria can produce a wealth of antibiotics that are new to us, claims Gilles van Wezel, Professor of Molecular Biotechnology at the Institute of Biology Leiden. His research group has developed a method that can rapidly identify and produce these unknown compounds.

Music from a compostable cello, photographs and scents of fungi and a woven tapestry. With her upcoming multimedia project Super Organism, visual artist Suzette Bousema enables people to experience the underground fungal network with all their senses. Environmental scientist Nadia Soudzilovskaia and…

Gubbens

Restoring a natural plant environment on exhausted agricultural lands and in nature areas is difficult. We can speed this up by steering the soils towards the desired situation. This is what Martijn Bezemer, newly appointed Professor of Ecology of Plant-Microbe-Insect interactions at Leiden University’s…

Students searched for a student project about mycorrhizal fungi and soil aggregation

How does the soil we grow our vegetables in, affects the health of our gut? And does a healthy soil gives crops a better quality and taste? These are some of the questions Soil ecologist Emilia Hannula and a big consortium will work on. With an NOW-KIC grant of 1.8 million, CML, IBL, FGGA, the LUMC,…

A group of 12 LUC students went to the Eifel mountains for the annual field trip within the course 'Soils, Sediment, and Society' of Dr. Peter Houben. Dr. Peter Houben is Assistant Professor of Environmental Earth Sciences and Sustainability at Leiden University College The Hague.

Leaf-eating caterpillars greatly enrich their intestinal flora by eating soil. Even effects of plants that previously grew in that soil can be found back in bacteria and fungi in caterpillars. Researchers from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and Leiden University write about this discovery…

Promotors: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo, Prof.dr. G.A. Persoon, Prof.dr.ir. H.H. de Iongh

What are the global relationships between environmental conditions and abundance of distinct types of mycorrhizal fungi in soil and plant roots?

‘What I find most alluring about soil life is that you can steer it,’ researcher Martijn Bezemer of the Institute Biology Leiden (IBL) reveals. ‘You can ask: What do you want? And then I can transform the soil into something you need. At least, that is what we thought.’

Transplantation of labial salivary glands to the eyelids for patients with dry eye appears to give excellent results clinically.

After Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), the farming culture of the indigenous people quickly disappeared. This has been demonstrated by Leiden archaeologists and colleagues from other universities on the basis of soil research. Publication in…