Polderlab Vrouwe Venne

At the Polderlab Vrouwe Venne, farmers, citizens and researchers work together to shape the future of Dutch agriculture. Its goal is to restore biodiversity and the peat meadow landscape. And that farmers can earn their living sustainably. Polderlab Vrouwe Venne has three research aims:

• Stopping the degradation of peat
• Producing food sustainably
• Strengthen agriculture and nature

Polderlab Vrouwe Venne is a cooperation between Land van Ons and Leiden University, and is supported by the Holland Rijnland municipalities. It consists of 32 hectares of agricultural land.

Research topics 

Sustainable agriculture; peatlands; aquatic plant cultivation; wet soil crops; water management

References 

Mioulet, C., Schrama, M., Berg, M. P., & Hannula, S. E. (2024). Comparison of metrics to reveal the role of soil fauna in soil health assessment in peat meadow restoration. European Journal of Soil Science, 75(6), e70018. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70018  

Marselis, S. M., Hannula, S. E., Trimbos, K. B., Berg, M. P., Bodelier, P. L. E., Declerck, S. A. J., Erisman, J. W., Kuramae, E. E., Nanu, A., Veen, G. F., van 't Zelfde, M., & Schrama, M. (2024). The use of living labs to advance agro-ecological theory in the transition towards sustainable land use: A tale of two polders. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 108, Article 107588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2024.107588 

Rossi, C., McMillan, N. A., Schweizer, J. M., Gholizadeh, H., Groen, M., Ioannidis, N., & Hauser, L. T. (2024). Parcel level temporal variance of remotely sensed spectral reflectance predicts plant diversity. Environmental Research Letters, 19(7), 074023. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad545a

Running period 

2021-2031

Equipment/facilities 

• 32 hectares of agricultural land
• Automated GHG chambers (CH4 & CO2)
• Fieldstation Polderhut, will include binoculars, field materials, coffeemaker from 2026.

Data management 

All data is published in open databases, OneDrive, or large (molecular) databases via SURFDrive. All articles are published open access, and the datasets on which the papers are based are published via Dryad.

Available datasets 

All data of continuous annual biodiversity monitoring (insects, macro fauna, water quality, vegetation communities, earthworms of both Polderlab Vrouwe Venne and three reference polders) are already available and can be requested by emailing Maarten Schrama.

Condition for access 

The data can be reused freely.  

Setting up experiments in the Polderlab is possible too, but should be discussed with Maarten Schrama beforehand.