dr. MJ (Marie) Zwetsloot

Research

I joined the Soil Biology Group in 2019 after having completed a research MSc in soil science and PhD in plant ecology at Cornell University in the United States. My research broadly focuses on the role of plant-soil interactions in carbon and nutrient cycling in natural and managed ecosystems from the microbial to the ecosystem scale. I am particularly interested in understanding how different plant species modify and respond to their environment through root exudation and altering root growth patterns. In my current NWO Veni project, I investigate the impact of species variation in root exudate profiles on carbon and nutrient cycling using trait-based approaches. Through other projects and research programs including CropMix, I address the question of how and to what extent plant diversity can contribute to developing sustainable agroecosystems. To address the complexity of processes taking place at the interface between plants and soil, I combine research methodologies from different fields including chemical ecology, plant ecophysiology, and soil biogeochemistry.

Teaching

I teach in the following courses:

• The Living Soil (SBL51306)
• The Carbon Dilemma (SBL35306)
• Ecology II (PEN20503)

Activities

Biodiverse agroecosystems: I am the co-leader of the biodiverse agroecosystems research line of the soil cluster at Wageningen University, which brings together scientists from the different soil chair groups to share research insights and develop new projects related to the functionality of aboveground and belowground biodiversity in agroecosystems.