Actually, Jan Willem van Groenigen is more of a ‘soil-bio-geo-chemist’, he says, smiling apologetically. He is an expert on the nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon cycles in the soil, and how soil life influences these cycles. After concluding his master’s and PhD in Soil Sciences in Wageningen, Van Groenigen worked as a researcher at the University of California in Davis. In 2001 he joined Alterra, now Wageningen Environmental Research. After some time he transferred to the Soil Biology Group of Wageningen University, where he was appointed personal professor in 2017. ‘I have a strong drive to understand soil nutrient cycles, because almost all major environmental issues can be linked to the soil. The answer to these issues is often also found there. But you cannot really understand the soil without understanding soil life.’
Too much fertiliser impacts the environment. Fortunately, we can utilise the nutrients that are already available in the soil more efficiently, in keeping with circular agriculture. Wageningen scientists study the effect of earthworms on nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Earthworms eat both organic materials and soil particles and discharge…