Ecosystem services are a central theme for decision-making services of managers and for the involvement of stakeholders and policymakers. Those Ecosystem services are closely linked to biodiversity and the concept of multifunctionality for the ecosystem functions that species of organisms offer. This study aims to contribute to understand how soil biodiversity could be directly or indirectly linked to soil health and the provision of soil ecosystem services.

We aim to assess the biodiversity of potential soil pathogens within Protists (Phytomyxea: Rhizaria and Oomycota: Stramenopiles) among soil biodiversity and their "disservices”, Develop a method for an easy assessment of "soil health" (i.e. pathogen detection) by molecular methods in the field and assess the connection between soil biodiversity and "soil health" or “unhealth” along a chrono sequence of reclaimed agricultural land after lignite mining and may link the substrate and its biodiversity. 

The PhD is conducted within the framework of the EU-project SOB4ES: "Soil Biodiversity for Ecosystem Services". The overall aim is to find soil biodiversity indicators for "healthy soils" in the frame of the EU-Green Deal.