dr. FJ (Franca) Bongers

My general interest is to understand how, why and when interactions among species can contribute towards ecosystem functioning. I do this from the perspective of the plant, where I explore the responses that underlie plant interactions with their environment, and consequently quantify how these plant responses influence growth and ecosystem functioning. I combine experimental work, field measurements and modeling to scale from organ traits to plant responses and community performance. 

Mixed-species forests

From 2017 to 2022 I worked at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences within the BEF-China project (BEF-china.com). During these years I determined the effects of organ-level functional traits on tree and forest productivity within experimental species-diverse forest plots. We showed among others that differences in species functional traits become more important and reliable with time in predicting forest productivity, which is valuable for restoration projects. The overall main idea is that more diverse forests will perform better over time due to the diversity in traits and trait values, responses of species to neighbor species and to the local environment.

Diverse agroecosystems - intercropping

Currently, at CSA, I apply my ecological knowledge on species interactions and their potential effects on ecosystem functioning within the theme of “diversification of agro-ecosystems”. Combining different crop species within the same farm and field has the potential to improve sustainability and resilience of the agricultural industry. However, we need more knowledge and understanding of the underlying mechanisms of species interactions that occur in diverse agro-ecosystems and drive performance. My main focus is plant-plant interactions of crop species towards neighbor crop species by quantifying structural and physiological traits and responses. I specifically combine experimental data collection with functional-structural plant modelling to quantify how and why the diversity in trait values of crop species contribute to plant growth and crop performance.

Within the CropMix project (Cropmix.com) I work collectively with researchers from soil and root ecology, entomology and farming systems ecology to quantify the mechanisms that underly crop combinations within a realistic farmers management. We work together to collect structural and physiological traits and plant responses in greenhouse and field experiments, and create functional-structural plant models to scale from plant traits and responses to crop level performance.  

My long term endeavor is to translate our scientific knowledge on agroecological processes in species diverse systems towards designing diverse cropping systems that farmers actually can adopt and can support food security in a sustainable way.

Besides working on diverse cropping systems I love to work within a diverse environment. I am a team player and love to engage many people within my research, specifically with a variety of personalities and from different cultural backgrounds because I believe that any system benefits from diversity!