dr. SQ (Sophie) van Mastrigt-van Rijssel
OnderzoekerResearch:
Managing agriculture in a sustainable way is challenging. It is interesting to study the relationship between yield and soil health. Understanding these relations better in the context dependency of climate change and geography in Europe might help to find management practices that support both yield, or the stability thereof, soil organic matter and soil health.
Biography:
I obtained my master’s degree in Forest and Nature conservation at Wageningen University, where I specialized in the analysis of fungal sequencing data in plant roots (Wageningen Biodiversity Experiment) and in the European soils (internship at SoilCares Research).
Thereafter I started my PhD research at the Terrestrial Ecology Department of NIOO-KNAW in Wageningen. Under the supervision of Wim van der Putten and Ciska Veen I looked into soil ecology under the conversion from conventional to organic agriculture in the Netherlands, where I analyzed soil biodiversity data and soil multifunctionality in relation to organic management and arable management intensity. This PhD research was part of the broader NWO-Green project: “Vital soils for sustainable intensification of agriculture”.
I joined the SGL group in 2024 and will work there on a postdoc project till 2027.