📣Last chance today for the Early bird registration of the International Symposium on Earthworm Ecology: event.wur.nl/isee13/home-2 🪱🪱

Ensure your early bird spot!

SOILPROM project - Use case presentation - Valthermond YouTube video by SOILPROM

🌬️ 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝?

👉 Check out this video, produced in the context of the project SOILPROM and coordinated by Mahrooz Rezaei from the Soil Physics and Land Management group!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhkk...

and find more information on the project here: soilprom.eu

🏆 Cathelijne Stoof, Associate Professor at the SLM group received the NWO Stairway to Impact Award!

This award recognises researchers who go beyond academia & translate their work into solutions for real-world challenges!

Congratulations Cathelijne! well-deserved recognition of impactful science 👏

🎉Congratulations to our doctor Gidena Reda, graduated yesterday with the thesis:

"Utilising diagnostic features to define the safe operating space for nutrient management in smallholder farming systems"🌱

contributing to smallholder farming systems in Ethiopia!🌍

research.wur.nl/en/publicati...

📣How can drones improve understanding&monitoring of soil erosion in agricultural systems?
👉 lnkd.in/e276JcMq

Nice contribution showing how UAV-based approaches can capture spatial patterns of erosion in Mediterranean orchards, highlighting the key role of slope&management in driving soil loss 🌱

📢 New Publication from Soil Chemistry Group in American Chemical Society journal ES&T Water.
A great collaborative work by Frank van Raffe and Nick Quist focusing on Geochemical Process that exert control over insitu contaminant solubility in Landfills.

Have a look here: lnkd.in/e_Rew44b

✨Prof. Ruud Bartholomeus (SLM Special Prof.) is the new figurehead by the Blue Route core team.

⁉️Blue Route is an informal network organisation that answer socially relevant research questions & connect organisations dealing with salt&fresh water🌊

More information: lnkd.in/eHcVKKyf

🎉📣Amazing session a few weeks ago from the four soil cluster PhDs!

🙏A big thank to Karen Moran Rivera, Marta Loreggian, Michelle de Roo and Doina Mani with their very interesting & insightful presentations on topics at the interface of soil biology, soil chemistry, soil physics and soil geography!

Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments - Nature Meta-analyses on a global scale show that the measured coastal mean sea level is higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments.

📣Publication alert:

"Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments" led by Katharina Seeger & Philip Minderhoud (SGL), highlights the need for re-evaluation of coastal impact assessments!

Read more: www.wur.nl/en/longread/...

The article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Weeds in a changing climate: Competitors or service plants? Reducing herbicide use and preparing agroecosystems for climate change are two top priorities on the global policy agenda. Here, we explore whether these two challenges can be tackled simultaneously....

📢New paper led by our own Marie Zwetsloot.
🌱Weeds aren’t just pests - they can act as climate‑smart service plants that support water and climate regulation in agroecosystems, as long as farmers prevent competition.
▶️nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp3.70181

Beavers can convert stream corridors to persistent carbon sinks - Communications Earth & Environment Beaver-induced hydrological change turned wetland into a net carbon sink with an approximate carbon storage of 100 tons per year, according to a comprehensive carbon budget analysis from a beaver wetl...

🦫 New publication co-authored by Annegret Larsen (SGL) shows that beavers can play a large role in climate mitigation. They transform stream corridors into wetland landscapes where C is stored while limiting CO₂ emissions!

Read more:
www.wur.nl/en/news/beav...

Link:
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

🎉📣Congratulation to the new doctor cum laude Anna Maartje de Boer!

Just graduated from SGL with thesis: "From light signals to sediment pathways: developing luminescence as a sediment tracing tool"

Curious? You can read her thesis: lnkd.in/eK6Q9Ypc
Watch back the defence here: lnkd.in/e2hFybVU

📢 📢 Last week, Emily te Pas defended her thesis at the Soil chemistry group with flying colors. 👏 👏 🎉 🎉

Supervised by Mathilde Hagens, her work explored Enhanced rock weathering in combination with biochar for agronomic (co)-benefits and CO2 removal.
Recently published work here lnkd.in/eGXsjRwf

📣 The annual meetings of 2 important EU soil outreach projects just took place🎉:

Loes Van Schaik (SLM)&Giulia Bongiorno (SBL) for SoilTribes in Portugal soiltribes.eu, while Wietse Wiersma&Ingrid Lubbers (SGL) for CURIOSOIL in Slovenia curiosoil.eu

Raising soil awareness is one of our mission🌱!

📣✨Don't miss the Exposition from the Uitwaaien magazine ‘Art meets Science’ In De Cultuurwerkplaats Wageningen ...

🪱🦠🐛It is on until the end of March and featuring a beautiful artistic collaboration on soil from the Soil biology group and Trijnie Goudriaan!

www.instagram.com/reel/DVRq_Rm...

Editorial for Special Issue on “Soil Solutions for a Sustainable World” Click on the article title to read more.

📣 The special issue of the Wageningen Soil Conference 2023 on “Soil Solutions for a Sustainable World” 🌱 was recently finalized with contributions from the four soil cluster departments (SBL, SGL, SOC and SLM)

You can find it here:

bsssjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🎓 Last week our Tullia Calogiuri (working at the interface between soil chemistry & biology) defended her PhD thesis "The role of earthworms in enhanced mineral weathering - understanding their impact on carbon dynamics and sustainable fertilisation". 🪱🪨

✨Thesis: research.wur.nl/en/publicati...

📣Reminder for the next Soil cluster special seminar next week 4th March, don't miss it!

The four soil cluster funded PhD students will present their work!✨

see you there at 13:00 in Lumen1/2👈

💫 New PhD position out now in an exciting project on novel protein crops 🪴

Research is embedded within the Soil Biology Group (SBL) and Soil Geography and Landscape (SGL), with supervision by Prof. Ellis Hoffland, Dr. Marie Zwetsloot and Dr. Julian Helfenstein.

Check it out: 🌍 🔬 lnkd.in/e9qhCTvs

Glued forever: incomplete dispersion hampers POM-MAOM fractionation in soils with high SOC and metal (hydr)oxide content Fractionation of soil organic carbon (SOC) into particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) has contributed to our u…

📢 New paper out in Geoderma with many SBL and SOC colleagues!
“Glued forever: incomplete dispersion hampers POM–MAOM fractionation in soils with high SOC and metal (hydr)oxide content.” ▶️www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001...

📣Publication alert📃

"Temperature Response of Soil Organic Matter Decomposition Rates: Construction and Applications of a Temperature Gradient Block" led by our PhD student Karen Moran Rivera, shows a practical way to study how sensitive to climate is soil carbon!🌡️

app.jove.com/t/69785/temp...

A scoping review of temperate food forestry research: key themes, methodological considerations and research priorities - Agroforestry Systems There is increasing interest in practice and policy in the use of polycultures composed of a tree layer integrated with multiple other perennial vegetation layers (“food forests”) in temperate regions...

📃📣Publication alert!

A great collaborative effort merging science&practice on temperate food forests🌳🍎🪱

👉"A scoping review of temperate food forestry research: key themes, methodological considerations and research priorities" - featuring our own Giulia Bongiorno

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

📣🎉We invite you to a symposium on advances in luminescence dating and tracing, hosted by the Netherlands Centre for Luminescence dating, in occasion of the PhD defence of Anna Maartje de Boer with thesis ‘From light signals to sediment pathways: Developing luminescence as a tracing tool’. ✨

📣 On 20th February in the frame of Tullia Calogiuri’s defense (SOC-SBL) we are pleased to welcome two international scientists for a session on: “Biotic and geochemical controls on soil carbon dynamics and carbon removal.”

We look forward to seeing many of you there!

10:30–12:00 (Lumen 1, WUR)

Enhanced weathering and biochar co-deployment boosts CO2 sequestration through changing soil properties Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) and biochar are potentially effective and scalable options for large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR), required to li…

📢 New publication by Emily te Pas, PhD at SOC, looking at the combination of enhanced rock weathering and biochar for CO2 sequestration. 🪨

This work dives into mechanistic understanding of physico-chemical changes in soil properties during these applications!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

💫 Yesterday, Tanvi Taparia (Assistant professor and group leader at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark) gave a clear and insightful for the soil cluster speech about 'Harnessing social interactions in the plant and soil microbiome' 🦠 🦠

Great to discuss about pathobiome and microbial consortia!

The third edition of our course "Research Method in Soil Biology" in on! Experiments, discussions, and curiosity about soil life is what the students are experiencing!
A big thank you to Michiel in t' Zandt that is coordinating the course, and to all our staff members involved in it 🧪🍄🪱🧫🦠

Ecology & Society: Connecting wildfire risk reduction and land stewardship: social learning through adaptation pathways in Montseny, Catalonia (Spain) Wildfire management is becoming an increasingly complex issue that requires collaboration of diverse sectors. In addition, it is important to empower local communities to contribute to the decision-ma...

📣Curious about transdisciplinary wildfire management? Enjoy the recently published paper "Connecting wildfire risk reduction and land stewardship: social learning through adaptation pathways in Montseny, Catalonia (Spain)" 🔥 led by Dr. Uyttewaal (SLM group).

ecologyandsociety.org/vol30/iss4/a...

CURIOSOIL Community of Practice Leaders Recruitment Netherlands - Deadline 02/02/2026 End of day We foster soil education through the CURIOSOIL project. Our aim is to cultivate a more soil-literate society through education. One of our mission is to facilitate a Community of Practice (CoP) (http...

⁉️🪱CURIOSOIL Community of Practice Leaders Recruitment Netherlands:

Apply to become a CoP leader in the context of the CURIOSOIL European project and shape soil education and sustainability initiatives in the Netherlands!

Interested? read more here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

👏 New timelapse inspired by “healthy soils for healthy cities” illustrating why you should be careful not to include plastic or cigarette butts in your vermicompost bin 🪱 🪱

by Wim van Egmond, with Gerlinde De Deyn, Ingrid Lubbers&Jan Willem van Groenigen from SBL and SGL!

Here: lnkd.in/enbjVE95