Introduction
My name is Fons van der Plas, and I am an ecologist working as an Assistant Professor at Wageningen University.
My research focuses primarily on the causes and consequences of biodiversity change, and on land management practices promoting biodiversity. Specifically, I am interested into how various global change drivers, including land use, cause changes in both the richness and composition of plant and animal communities. Furthermore, I am also interested in what the consequences of global change drivers are for the ability of ecosystems to provide multiple ecosystem functions (‘ecosystem multifunctionality’), how relationships between global change drivers and ecosystem functioning are driven by biodiversity across spatial scales, and how insights on this can be used for conservation management and policy. I am also highly interested in how traits can be used to explain differences among species in their effects on ecosystem functioning. My research involves a range approaches, including experiments, comparative approaches and simulation studies. For a more detailed overview, click here. If you are interested in working with me, click here.