Soil life in agricultural areas mapped

The soils in the Netherlands are the best mapped in the world. We know all about their composition and physical and chemical properties. One aspect, however, merits more attention: soil life. SoilPros, funded by the Dutch Research Council, focuses on soil biodiversity in its new charting.

Wim van der Putten, professor of Functional Biodiversity at WUR and NIOO, is the initiator of the extensive project. ‘We plan to take a thousand soil samples for analysis. The samples will be taken randomly. We will use the current mapping and our knowledge of soil use. Analysing the biological composition of the soil is not new, but determining all life in the same sample is something that is ordinarily not done.’