Merel Soons appointed Professor of Land Use and Biodiversity
Merel Soons has been appointed Professor of Land Use and Biodiversity starting from 1 February 2023. The chair is embedded in the Department of Sustainable Development’s Environmental Sciences section at the Faculty of Geosciences. Soons is a landscape ecologist with a focus on bending the curve from biodiversity loss to biodiversity recovery and has a strong track record of combining scientific research and societal impact. She moves from a professorship in the Department of Biology at Utrecht University’s Faculty of Science.
Soons’ interests lie in the spatial aspects of the mechanisms that regulate biodiversity. She did her PhD research on the survival of plant species in agricultural landscapes where natural habitats are increasingly fragmented. Since then, much of her research has been on the dispersal, persistence and potential for recovery of plant and bird species in agricultural and semi-natural landscapes, which are globally increasing in extent and of great natural and societal importance.
In my new position, I hope to contribute to a vibrant interdisciplinary biodiversity community that significantly contributes to biodiversity recovery, both in The Netherlands and abroad
Her work informs conservation and restoration strategies, and she directly applies her ecological knowledge on a range of advisory bodies. At Utrecht University she is currently chair of the Biodiversity Council and vice chair of the Pathways to Sustainability community Future Food Utrecht.
“We are very happy with the appointment of Merel Soons. Changes in biodiversity and land use are extremely topical and it is important that as a university we contribute to societal discussions with scientific knowledge. With her roots in biology, Merel will connect fundamental research with these grand societal challenges,” says Wilco Hazeleger, Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences.
Bending the curve
In the coming years Soons will focus on bending the curve from biodiversity loss to biodiversity recovery. “Science has a major role to play here,“ she explains. She aims to address how land use change interacts with biodiversity in landscapes where multiple functions are combined, such as agriculture and nature, and to identify drivers and opportunities for biodiversity recovery. “Supporting biodiversity and giving nature the space it needs will help protect and restore the ecosystems that are essential to all life on earth”.
“After decades of unprecedented biodiversity loss, it is now time to accelerate effective science-based biodiversity restoration. Initiatives such as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the Dutch Delta Plan for Biodiversity Recovery emphasize the societal concern and urgency to scale up our efforts. In my new position, I hope to contribute to a vibrant interdisciplinary biodiversity community that significantly contributes to biodiversity recovery, both in The Netherlands and abroad”.
Soons will continue to collaborate with her colleagues in the Department of Biology at the Faculty of Science where she is currently affiliated.