Welcome Gerlinde De Deyn - new Deputy EiC

Submitted by editor on 15 September 2015.

We have a new deputy Editor in Chief at Oikos! Very welcome to the board, Dr. Gerlinde De Deyne! Learn more about her here: 

What's you main research focus at the moment?
I focus on plant-soil interactions in relation to the coupling between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services. That may sound too wide of a focus so I happily specify a bit more. I aim to understand, and be able to predict, the interactions plants develop with plant growth promoting and suppressing soil organisms in their rhizosphere and through their aboveground and belowground litter that enters the soil. I work with a wide range of soil biota ranging from bacteria, fungi, mycorrhizal fungi, to soil nematodes, micro-arthropods, potworms and earthworms and study their role in soil in relation to plant growth, plant diversity, nutrient and carbon cycling and greenhouse gas emissions in plant communities with different land use intensity.

Soil sampling at the Jena Biodiversity experiment (August 2014)

 

Can you describe you research career? 

After obtaining my degree of Bio-engineer at Gent University (1998) and after a week of holidays I became a researcher on a project on bio-control of root-feeding nematodes using soil fungi with Prof. Maurice Moens at ILVO Melle. In 2000 I moved to the Netherlands for my PhD with Prof. Peter C. de Ruiter (Utrecht University at the time), Prof. Wim van der Putten (NIOO-KNAW and Wageningen University) and Prof. Herman A. Verhoef (Free University Amsterdam). In my PhD I studied the core question(s): “Are soil and plant biodiversity related, and if yes how and so what?”. The answer was yes! More details can be found in Nature, Ecology Letters, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Journal of Ecology and Oikos. I defended my PhD at Utrecht University in 2004. The following year I spent as NWO Talent scholar in the lab of Prof. John Klironomos at University of Guelph, Canada. There I investigated how plant chemical defences against pathogens and herbivores might trade-off in reduced plant growth benefits from beneficial root inhabiting fungi.

Late summer in Guelph, Canada (2005)

After that I joined the lab of Prof. Richard Bardgett at Lancaster University, UK as post-doc from 2006-2009. Here I studied how soil carbon sequestration can be stimulated by plant species and vegetation management through their relation to the composition and function of soil micro-organisms. In 2009 I returned to the Netherlands as a post-doc in the lab of Prof. Wim van der Putten, Terrestrial Ecology, at NIOO-KNAW to work on plant diversity restoration and plant-soil feedbacks. In 2011 I obtained a Marie Curie fellowship in which I focussed on the question what benefit leguminous plants could get from growing in mixtures with non-leguminous plant species. I joined Wageningen University in May 2011 where I became Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil Quality, and was awarded a personal VIDI grant from NWO (2012) to study how we could exploit positive plant-soil feedbacks through understanding root traits and their trade-offs. Since January 2014 I am Associate Professor at the Dep. of Soil Quality at Wageningen University and I am still a guest researcher at NIOO-KNAW.

Agro-ecology: using ecological plant-soil feedback and plant trait and trade-off ideas in agricultural systems (June 2015)

How come that you became a scientist in ecology?

I rather coincidentally became a researcher. It was during my first real research project after graduating that I realised how exciting and fun doing research is to me. Not only the thinking and doing experiments but especially the discussions with inspiring peers got me hooked on research! The ecology part came in during my PhD as I was based at The Netherlands Institute of Ecology. To me ecology came across as a scientific discipline of many possibilities and lots of scope for creativity.

 

What do you do when you're not working?
On the off-work side I greatly enjoy outdoor activities, be it hiking, exploring cycling paths in The Netherlands and other countries (huge differences in quality indeed…), playing football, having drinks and chats on a terrace. Indoor activities: chats and drinks in cosy pubs, but surely reading (popular science) books and experimental cooking too. Last but not least co-organizing the Science café Wageningen http://sciencecafewageningen.nl/ and co-creating time-lapse movies by which we can peep into the soil https://vimeo.com/110880643 so my work/off work activities turn out not to be strictly separated.

Samba team at the colourful tournament (August 2014)

 

 

 

 

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