Biography
Frank Berendse completed his PhD thesis "Competition and equilibrium in grassland communities" in 1981 at the University of Utrecht . From 1977 to 1987 he was lecturer at the department of Landscape Ecology and Nature Conservation of this university.  In 1982 en 1983 he worked at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences ( Uppsala ) and  at Colorado State University ( Fort Collins ). In 1987 he was appointed as head of the Department of Vegetation Ecology of the Centre for Agrobiological Research in Wageningen. In 1994 he became Professor of Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology at Wageningen University .  He has been editor of the international journals Oecologia and Ecosystems. He has been chairman of the NWO-committee for Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity and member of the National Council for the Environment and Nature; the Scientific Committee of the NWO-Stimulation Programme Biodiversity; the Scientific Council of the European Center for Nature Conservation (ECNC); the board of the European Ecological Federation; and the Core Group of the ESF-programme Linking Community and Ecosystem Ecology. In 1999 he worked as a visiting scientist at the Institute for Arctic Biology in Fairbanks , Alaska . Recently he was elected as member of the board of the “Vereniging tot Behoud van Natuurmonumenten”.

Research
The research programme of Frank Berendse focusses on the long-term dynamics of natural ecosystems. He pays special attention to plant-plant and plant-soil interactions. Important issues in the past have been: frequency-dependent competition, coexistence of plant species and the maintenance of biodiversity; the effects of plant species on soil fertility and resulting feedback loops; succession in heatlands and forests; the effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition; the effects of climatic change; the consequences of biodiversity losses for ecosystem functions; and the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes. In the past he participated in or coordinated various EU-projects (CLIMEX, BERI, CANIF, FORCAST, CARBO-DATA, CARBO-EUROPE and EASY). He is responsible for several large NWO-research projects: the interactions between above- and belowground biodiversity; the effects of climatic change on European peatlands; the effects of different tree species on soil fertility; the effects of fragmentation on the demography of rare plant species.

Thesis projects
It is possible for MSc students to do their research in the Arctic ( Alaska or Sweden ) on the effects of climatic change on plant species dynamics and carbon sequestration in tundra ecosystems. Such thesis subjects need a long preparation time and students are advized to conctact me well in advance before the planned start.

There are also possibilities to perform research on butterfly ecology in cooperation with the “Vlinderstichting” or on urban ecology (restoration of plant communities on old city walls)  in cooperation with the “gemeente Amersfoort ”.

Selected publications
Berendse, F. (1979, 1981, 1982). Competition between plant populations with  different rooting depths. I. Theoretical considerations. Oecologia (Berl.) 43: 19-26;  48: 334-341;  53: 50-55.

Berendse, F., Aerts, R. (1987). Nitrogen-use-efficiency: a   biologically meaningful definition? Functional Ecology 1: 293-296.

Berendse, F., Oudhof, H., Bol, J. (1987). A comparative study on   nutrient cycling in wet heathland ecosystems. I. Litter production and nutrient losses from the plant. Oecologia (Berl.)   74: 174-184.

Berendse, F., Bobbink, R., Rouwenhorst, G. (1989). A comparative study on nutrient cycling in wet heathland ecosystems. II. Litter decomposition and nutrient mineralization. Oecologia (Berl.) 78: 338-348. 

Berendse, F., Elberse, W.Th. (1990). Competition and nutrient  availability in heathland     and grassland ecosystems. In:  Perspectives on Plant Competition (J.Grace & D.Tilman, eds.). pp. 93-115. Academic Press, Florida, Orlando.

Berendse, F. (1990). Organic matter accumulation and nitrogen   mineralization during secondary succession in heathland ecosystems. Journal of Ecology 78: 413-427.

Berendse, F., Elberse, W.Th., Geerts, R.H.E.M. (1992).   Competition  and nitrogen   loss from plants in grassland  ecosystems. Ecology 73: 46-53.

Berendse, F., Jonasson, S. (1992). Nutrient use and nutrient cycling in northern ecosystems.In: Arctic ecosystems in a   hanging climate (F.S. Chapin, R.L. Jefferies, J.F.Reynolds,   G.R.Shaver & J. Svoboda, eds.). Academic Press, Inc., San Diego , California . pp. 337-356.

Berendse, F. (1993). Ecosystem stability, competition and nutrient cycling. In: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function (Schulze, E.-D. and Mooney, H.A., eds.). Ecological Studies 99: 409-431. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg .

Berendse, F. (1994). Litter decomposability: a neglected   component of plant fitness. Journal of Ecology 82: 187-190.

Berendse, F. (1994). Competition between plant populations at low and high nutrient supplies. Oikos  71: 253-260.

Berendse, F., M.Schmitz and W. de Visser (1994). Experimental manipulation of succession in heathland ecosystems. Oecologia 100: 38-44.

Berendse, F. (1998). Effects of dominant plant species on soils during succession in nutrient-poor ecosystems. Biogeochemistry  42:73-88.

Berendse, F., H. de Kroon & W. Braakhekke (1999). Aquisition, use, and loss of nutrients. In: Functional Plant Ecology (eds. F.I. Pugnaire & Valladares). pp. 315-345. Marcel Dekker, New York. 

Berendse, F.,  Nico van Breemen, Håkan Rydin, Alexandre Buttler, Monique Heijmans, Marcel R. Hoosbeek, John A. Lee, Edward Mitchell, Timo Saarinen, Harri Vasander, Bo Wallén (2001). Raised atmospheric CO2 levels and increased N deposition cause shifts in plant species composition  and production in Sphagnum bogs. Global Change Biology  7: 591-598.

Kleijn, D., Berendse, F., Smit, R, Gilissen, N. (2001) Agri-environment schemes do not effectively protect biodiversity in Dutch agricultural landscapes. Nature 413:723-725

Berendse, F. (2003). De natuur van het verleden of de natuur van de toekomst ....? Vijfde Victor Westhoff-lezing, Nijmegen. University Press, Nijmegen.

Van Ruijven, J. & F. Berendse (2003). Positive effects of plant species diversity on productivity in the absence of legumes. Ecology Letters 6: 170-175.

Berendse, F., Chamberlain, D., Kleijn, D. & Schekkerman, H. (2004) Declining biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes. Ambio, 8, 499-502.

Van Ruijven, J. & F. Berendse (2005) Diversity-productivity relationships: Initial effects, long-term patterns and underlying mechanisms. PNAS 102 (3) 695-700

Van Ruijven, J., De Deyn, Raaijmakers, C.E., Berendse, F., Putten, W.H. van der (2005) Interactions between spatially separated herbivores indirectly alter plant diversity, Ecology Letters 8 (1) 30-37 (discussion of this article in Editor's Choice, see Science 14 januari 2005, vol.307, p.184)