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Soil Science Cluster WUR
@soilsclusterwur.bsky.social
Soil Science cluster of Wageningen University and Research advancing understanding of interactions between soil properties and processes & the impacts of land use and management on soil. Visit our website: https://www.wur.nl/en/research-results/chair-group
📣🎉The upcoming December Soil Science Cluster seminar is approaching!

“Animal as Earth engineers: knowns, unknowns and the need for rewilding?” by Jeppe Aagaard Kristensen from Aarhus University (Denmark)

When: 4th of December from 16:00 to 17:00
Where: Gaia 1 (WUR).

Don't miss it!
November 18, 2025 at 7:22 AM
📣🎉This new publication led by Wietse Wiersma (SOC/SGL) provides insights into the factors influencing Cd availability in soils amended with lime and/or compost. This is highly relevant in the context of food safety regulations affecting the cacao sector!

Read it here: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
A Mechanistic Understanding of the Effect of Lime and Compost on Soil Cadmium Availability in Cacao Farms
To develop soil amendments that effectively lower cadmium uptake by food crops, a mechanistic understanding is needed of the factors influencing Cd availability in amended soils. This insight is highly relevant in the context of food safety regulations affecting the cacao sector in Latin America. Geochemical multisurface models (MSMs) can be used to generate such knowledge, yet their potential for this purpose remains underexplored. We performed a laboratory incubation experiment with five different soils from cacao farms, which we amended with four types of compost at a rate equivalent to 30 t ha–1, with or without the addition of 1.75 t ha–1 lime (CaCO3). The MSM showed a high ability to capture proportional changes in Cd availability enacted by the treatments based on changes in soil solution properties measured with a low-salt extraction (0.001 M Ca(NO3)2) or rhizon samplers. In general, the effect of compost and lime on Cd geochemistry was highly soil- and compost-specific, and pH (change) was found to be the main driver of Cd availability. Additionally, we used diffusive gradient in thin film (DGT) devices to gain insight into Cd availability over time. Despite being a minor adsorption surface for Cd compared to organic matter, the MSM-assisted interpretation of DGT results suggests an important role for clay particles in Cd buffering. Our work helps explain the often ambiguous effects of soil amendments on Cd uptake by plants and positions MSMs as capable tools for the design of management strategies aimed at mitigating Cd in cacao.
pubs.acs.org
November 17, 2025 at 12:35 PM
👏 👏 🎉 🎉 Congratulations to Wietse Wiersma who recently defended his thesis here at Soil Chemistry Group!
His work, led by Bert Jan van Groenenberg, explored soil geochemical constraints on Cd uptake in Cacao using multisurface modeling approach.

For further details lnkd.in/eeYAwxPB
November 7, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Soil Science Cluster WUR
📃🪱🪨 Have you ever thought about the role that not just living, but even dead earthworms play in carbon capture through mineral weathering? 🪱🪨

🧨Check out the newly fresh paper, published in Nature communications earth and environment led by our PhD student Tullia Calogiuri ➡️ lnkd.in/e5P8ucpc
LinkedIn
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November 7, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by Soil Science Cluster WUR
📃Publication "Sustainable intensification: time to question the goal of ever-increasing agricultural production" Gabriel Moinet (SBL) et al.

Land use intensity effect on soil multifunctionality? Challenging the claims that productivity can increase without trade-offs

www.scopus.com/pages/public...
Scopus - Document Details
www.scopus.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:31 AM
🪱🪱Busy looking for earthworms today in the Earthworm Hotel CALIWORMIA!✨ The Hotel is a precious infrastructure that we use to look for earthworms for scientific experiments, a part than using it for outreach! 🥼📃

You can find more information here: www.wur.nl/en/show/hote... and the poster attached!
October 30, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The project Benchmarks is calling all soil science experts in EU working on soil function models in agricultural, forest & urban systems🌾🌳🏙️

Help shape a science-based framework for soil health assessment by completing a questionnaire by 30 October 2025

👉 Questionnaire here lnkd.in/eDgkSJqF
LinkedIn
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lnkd.in
October 27, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Join us tomorrow for the soil cluster seminar of October! 10 o' clock in Orion B8020!

📣Dr. Noémie Janot, INRAE (France) & Dr. Sónia M. Rodrigues, Universidade de Aveiro and CESAM (Portugal) will guide us through the world of metal behaviour and availability in soil✨

See you there!
October 22, 2025 at 4:20 PM
📣Publication alert: "Impacts of Nano- and Microplastic Contamination on Soil Organisms and Soil-Plant Systems" By Davi Munhoz&Nicolas Beirot (SLM)

Nano- & microplastics have detrimental effects on soil organisms&plants that vary according to various factors.

More info: www.mdpi.com/2673-8929/4/...
www.mdpi.com
October 17, 2025 at 8:33 AM
⁉️Curious about the papers led by the Soil Science cluster people published in the last 3 months? Here an overview of the words in the titles, the bigger they are the more frequently a word is mentioned..✨

🧐See something useful or interesting for you? don't hesitate to contact us: [email protected]
October 16, 2025 at 8:30 AM
📣Amazing outreach day yesterday with the Weekend of science! More than 300 visitors looking at plants, soil...🎉

Thank you to all the collaborators, great collective effort to pass our science to the general public and a lot of kids🪱🦠🌱😀!

See you next year! weekendvandewetenschap.nl/hotspots/hot...
October 6, 2025 at 7:37 AM
🎉Come to the Wageningen Hotspot of the Weekend of Science on Sunday 5th Oct!✨

You will find a variety of activities from the Soil Museum, soil painting, measuring photosynthesis, genetics, games with roots & more...

Spread the word and see you there! Info: weekendvandewetenschap.nl/hotspots/hot...
October 1, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Soil Science Cluster WUR
🎉Last week first observation together with NIOO, on their beautiful green rooftop, for the Bodemdierendagen! It was great success & we manage to find the tiny ten🪱🐛🐜 ..but also the little eleven🦠✨! Take your observation, is your turn now! How many soil organisms will you find?
bodemdierendagen.nl/nl
September 29, 2025 at 3:19 PM
🎉📣Come to Weekend of science hotspot on the 5th October🎉. Many outreach activities for the whole family organized at the Lumen/Gaia building from 10:00 a.m. till the afternoon✨! Soil, earthworms, plants, roots, genetics..all to discover in one place🪱🌱🦠🐜! weekendvandewetenschap.nl/hotspots/hot...
Hotspot Wageningen - Weekend van de Wetenschap
Kom op 5 oktober naar Wageningen Campus. Hier bezoek je het Soil Cluster en het Centrum voor Genetische Bronnen Nederland van Wageningen University & Research, kun je naar het Wereldbodemmuseum en act...
weekendvandewetenschap.nl
September 21, 2025 at 8:40 AM
📣New thematic minor available led by the Soil cluster at Wageningen University: Plastics in the Environment and Society✨! A very important topic that will be explored by different perspectives!
September 18, 2025 at 12:16 PM
📢 🪱 Abstract submissions are now OPEN for the upcoming 13th International Symposium on Earthworm Ecology (ISEE13) — hosted for the first time in Wageningen, from August 23–28, 2026!
➡️https://event.wur.nl/isee13/home-2

Submit yours by Jan 4 2026 and be part of this exciting scientific exchange!
September 17, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Soil Science Cluster WUR
✨A big thank you to all the participants and lecturers of the Soil Biology Lab skills course for assessing soil functions 🪱🦠🌱! A week full of exchanges, discussions, activities, learning and networking! Looking forward to the next edition!🎉
September 8, 2025 at 6:13 AM
🎉📣Amazing activity linking soil and music! don't miss it!
📣ART&SOIL ALERT ⁉️ Studio Metaform & our PhD candidate Doina Mani will take you into the invisible world of nematodes and their ecological stories.

🎼 Join Singing Soil @ EnergieKas, The Hague, Sept 25, 2025, Free Admission via this link: lnkd.in/e7VKAUfR
Listening Session, Workshop, Co-creation
September 12, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Reposted by Soil Science Cluster WUR
📣ART&SOIL ALERT ⁉️ Studio Metaform & our PhD candidate Doina Mani will take you into the invisible world of nematodes and their ecological stories.

🎼 Join Singing Soil @ EnergieKas, The Hague, Sept 25, 2025, Free Admission via this link: lnkd.in/e7VKAUfR
Listening Session, Workshop, Co-creation
September 12, 2025 at 6:11 AM
📣🎉New interesting publication led by Rozita Soltani Tehrani on the
effects of wastewater irrigation on soil in green spaces💧🌱!

Rozita just defended her PhD with the Soil geography group🎉

Check out the paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 11, 2025 at 1:17 PM
📣Are you an expert in soil science, sustainability, or project evaluation? The EU project SoilTribes looks for professionals to review applications for innovative soil initiatives. Your expertise will help in selecting the most impactful projects✨!

📝 Apply by Sept 12 2025. More info lnkd.in/dYh4Ct7
lnkd.in
September 4, 2025 at 5:46 AM
The earth is dotted with all kinds of earthworks, such as dikes, dwelling mound & ancient field systems

EARTHWORK dates Dutch earthworks with luminescence dating under the lead of SGL

www.project-earthwork.nl

Storymap:

storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b97a...

storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1898...
Home EARTHWORK
In het EARTHWORK project van Wageningen Universiteit onderzoeken we verschillende soorten door mensenhand aangelegde aarden constructies, zoals dijken, woonheuvels, plaggendekken en raatakkers. De nad...
www.project-earthwork.nl
September 2, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Reposted by Soil Science Cluster WUR
🪱 Publication Announcement! 🌱🍄‍🟫

Book chapter “Soil biology, health and ecosystem services: an overview”. We detail the process of selecting indicators to assess soil health in agricultural systems, applied to four key soil functions.

📂 Open access link:
lnkd.in/eXW6VQzu

Have a nice read!
LinkedIn
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August 30, 2025 at 4:47 PM
📣Great job opportunity about Sustainable soil management practices with the Soil physics and land management group under the direction of Luuk Fleskens:

www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...
Wageningen University & Research hiring Postdoc Co-Creation and Impact Monitoring of Digital Support for Sustainable Farming Practices in Wageningen, Gelderland, Netherlands | LinkedIn
Posted 11:11:03 AM. Your jobAre you a transdisciplinary researcher with an interest in the role of digitalization to…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
www.linkedin.com
August 30, 2025 at 4:44 PM
📢 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 📚
🎉 Exploring the relationship between land abandonment and landscape identity in traditional cultural landscapes: the case of Castelsaraceno, Italy

Interesting collaboration co-authored by Soil physics and land management group:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exploring the relationship between land abandonment and landscape identity in traditional cultural landscapes: the case of Castelsaraceno, Italy
Traditional cultural landscapes are often valued for their multifunctionality and are increasingly being viewed as models for informing sustainable la…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 30, 2025 at 4:39 PM