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Project properties |
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| Title | MSc thesis or internship: Can soil inoculation enhance the success of endangered plant reintroductions? |
| Group | Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Sina Bohm (PhD candidate), Philippine Vergeer |
| Examiner(s) | Philippine Vergeer |
| Contact info | sina.bohm@wur.nl, philippine.vergeer@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2023/03/01 |
| End date | 2023/12/31 |
| Description | Do you want to learn how we can conserve endangered plant species using reintroductions? In collaboration with Bosgroepen Zuid Nederland our research team aims to keep populations of endangered plants of old-grown forests viable. We investigate which habitat properties these plant species require and what the demographic and genetic structure of remaining populations is. We use our insights to reinforce populations that are small and genetically depauperate and to reintroduce plants in suitable forests, which are hard to get colonized spontaneously.
Within this MSc project, you investigate what the effect of microbial inoculation on the performance of reintroduced plants is. Plant species can benefit from bacteria and fungi in the soil to take up nutrients or can suffer from soil pathogens. Some of these interactions are species-specific and the question remains whether a reintroduced population benefits if the plants are inoculated with soil from the donor population. |
| Used skills | A thesis with us will involve visiting forests in several Dutch provinces where we have recently reintroduced target plant species in an experimental design involving different treatments of inoculation. You would monitor the survival, growth and reproduction of the plants and link their performance to factors like inoculation type or descendance origin. Pollinator surveys to find out who is pollinating the reintroduced plants and whether pollination is a limiting factor for seed set is also possible. |
| Requirements | Drivers licence is a pre. |