iDiv member Anton Potapov has been awarded one of the most prestigious European research prizes: the ERC Consolidator Grant. The grant will fund Potapov’s international research project CARBONWEB with around two million euros over a period of five years. The aim of the project is to assess the impact of soil fauna on ecosystem functions at a global level and to evaluate changes in soil food webs and their consequences under climate change scenarios.
Potapov developed ideas and wrote much of his proposal while working in Leipzig, where he led the iDiv junior research group Soil Biodiversity and Functions from 2022 to 2023. “iDiv was a great place to exchange ideas, have inspiring discussions and establish collaborations,” says Potapov. “This helped me in the proposal development.” Potapov’s newly funded research project is closely linked to the Soil BON initiative – a global monitoring of soil biodiversity coordinated by iDiv researchers.
Potapov is now a professor at the TU Dresden and iDiv’s consortium partner, the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz.
Read the Senckenberg press release
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