Collaboration
The Soil Biology Group cooperates with many, among whom the following partners.
Sustainable Land Use programme
Within the Environmental Sciences Group, Soil Biology contributes to the Sustainable Land Use programme through supporting ideas and collaboration on sustainable production systems. Sustainable Land Use ensures a fair and balanced distribution of land, water, biodiversity and other environmental resources between the various competing claims, in other words, to secure human needs now and in the future. Soil Biology contributes to the Sustainable Land Use programme through collaboration on projects such as AFER and Micronutrients for better yields.
NIOO-KNAW
The Soil Biology group closely collaborates with Wietse de Boer of NIOO-KNAW: "Most of the research projects in which I am involved deal with interactions of microbes in soils, in particular between fungi and bacteria. Interactions between fungi and bacteria play an important role in ecosystem functions such as organic matter decomposition and plant nutrition and also lie at the basis of control of diseases caused by soil-borne pathogenic fungi.
The studies range from simple model studies with emphasis on elucidation of mechanisms, to field studies where the aim is to understand the role of interactions on the functional output of complex microbial communities.
Major basic topics in my research are:
- Competitive interactions between fungi and bacteria
- Feeding of bacteria on fungi
Applied research projects based on these basic topics deal with:
- Discovery of novel antibiotics
- Enhancing natural biocontrol of soil-borne crop diseases"
ISRIC
ISRIC – World Soil Information is an independent foundation with a mission to serve the international community with data about the world’s soil resources, to help address major global issues.
BIA-NL Biological indicators for arable fields in the Netherlands
Indicators for soil quality are essential tools for arable farmers to formulate their soil mnagement. With the increasing understanding of soil biology, biological soil indicatores are being developed. In BIA-NL we evaluate existing and new biological indicatores and aim to develop reference- and target values. These reference- and target values inform the farmer about the status of biological soil qualtily and give direction to soil management. Read more.......
Jonas Steinfeld - Looking for the ideal Agroforestry
Our PhD student Jonas Steinfeld's (a joint PhD with the Farming Systems Ecology group of WUR Plant) vision on the ideal agroforestry farm. A study in the rainforests of Brazil in the framework of Agriculture and Nature: Optimizations and Planning for Integrated Ecosystem Services project (CANOPIES)
Clima-LoCa project in South America
Foresting CLIMAte-relevant and LOw CAdmium innovations to enhance the resilience and inclusiveness of the growing cocoa in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
4 Soil Biology researchers are involved with this project.
Laura Martinez Garcia - HARVEST Danone, a nice example of working with industry
