Dr D. in 't Zandt (Dina)
Assistant professor - Ecology
Heyendaalseweg 135
6525 AJ NIJMEGEN
Internal postal code: 30
Postbus 9010
6500 GL NIJMEGEN
I am fascinated by the diverse in interactions between plants and soil microbiota, how these are affected by disturbances and, in turn, contribute to plant community resilience. My research aims to understand:
1. How climate change and extreme weather events reshape interactions between plants and soil microbiota;
2. How plant-soil microbiota interactions and their network structure enhance plant tolerance and recovery from drought;
3. How plant-microbiota interactions in grasslands and forests disturbed by land-use change recover over time;
4. How fine-scale interactions between plants and soil microbiota drive large-scale plant community dynamics, such as community coexistence and diversity.
To address these research questions, I integrate fieldwork, mesocosm, and greenhouse experiments, employing a diverse range of bioinformatics and statistical approaches. My experimental work is primarily conducted at Radboud University’s experimental garden, with field sites in the Dutch National Park ‘De Veluwe’ and international locations, including grasslands in the Czech Republic, the Austrian Alps, the Norwegian Fjords, the Himalayas, and the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado regions.
I am also partially based at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, where I lead a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship. This project focuses on studying the development of plant-soil-microbiota interactions over a chronosequence of agricultural land abandonment and exploring how these interactions are influenced by grassland management practices, as part of the Nutrient Network.