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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Cool work, led by @alexberlinches.bsky.social, out now in @globalchangebio.bsky.social, showing the importance of microbiome predator diversity (protists & bacterivorous nematodes) as indirect drivers of plant performance, partially overriding the effects of nitrogen addition!

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Very nice to revive my collaboration with Paolina Garbeva from @niooknaw.bsky.social and, together with Yan Chen (陈晏), write an opinion paper on the pathways of soil chemical legacies in plant-soil feedbacks, out now in @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social. Hope to follow this up with some experiments!

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

As member of the Campus Biodiversity Network, @uni-konstanz.de will participate in this spring's Campus Nature Challenge, from 24-27 April 2026. Joining this network and challenge is free and still possible until early April! More info: campusnaturechallenge.org

campusnaturechallenge.org

Défi nature campus - Campus Nature Challenge

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Two advertisements for PhD projects in our group at @uni-konstanz.de, including one in my recently funded project on the role of soil biodiversity in plant responses to drought. Deadline on January 12th. Sharing would be appreciated! More info here: www.biologie.uni-konstanz.de/kleunen/news...

biologie.uni-konstanz.de

News | AG van Kleunen

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

In 2022, Louisa Neubauer set up her MSc-project to test whether two widely used antibiotics affect plant performance under ambient and drought conditions, either directly, or indirectly, through soil-community mediated effects. Results of this project are now out in Plant and Soil: bit.ly/4pC1IaC.

bit.ly

Antibiotics commonly applied in animal farming can alter soil biotic effects on plant functioning and responses to drought stress - Plant and Soil

Background Antibiotic pollution, caused by extensive antibiotic applications in industrial farming, threatens human and animal health, but may also affect plant functioning. However, it remains unknow...

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

In a new MSc-thesis project, we are examining whether structural root traits can help to understand plant responses to the interactive effects of drought and eutrophication. We started to use relatively tall pots to allow more plasticity in root responses. Curious to see what will come out!

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Last Wednesday we went on our yearly Alpine excursion as part of the Global Change Ecology course, this time to Flümserberg. Some unexpected rain and a couple of claps of thunder, but otherwise great fun, nice scenery and beautiful flora.

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Some nice student projects currently going on at @uni-konstanz.de: we are comparing the effects of different drought treatments and microbial presence on root traits of Plantago and how common and rare native and non-native plants respond to nutrient availability and local soil communities.

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

New study, in which we combined data from a field survey and an altitudinal plant transplantation experiment to understand simultaneous responses of phyllosphere and rhizosphere communities to abiotic changes associated with time/seasonality and warming: doi.org/10.1111/gcb.....

doi.org

Decoupling Responses of Phyllosphere and Rhizosphere Bacterial Communities to Spatiotemporal Environmental Changes

By integrating a comprehensive field survey with a transplantation experiment across elevations, we showed decoupling responses of rhizosphere and phyllosphere bacterial communities in three plant sp...

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Last week returned to @uni-konstanz.de for a new position as Research Associate in the Ecology Group. Good to be back! The forests around uni are still beautiful :)

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 29/08/2024

Happy to share some new research - results of a BSc-thesis project examining drought impacts on plant-soil interactions of native and non-native plant species. In short: drought affects non-natives more than natives, but the latter benefit less from soil communities. See: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

doi.org

Contrasting responses of naturalized alien and native plants to native soil biota and drought

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 25/02/2024

We made a nice little hike around the Zugerberg yesterday. Some pretty stuff out there already!

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Rutger Wilschut @rutgerwilschut.bsky.social · 14/02/2024

Nice first day of the Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting yesterday: great plenary lectures, parallel sessions and a special evening programme, during which our minister of education, culture and science Prof. Robbert Dijkgraaf shared his views on the links between science, society and policy.

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