Department of Soil Quality
SOQ Newsletter 5, September 2014
Please welcome the 5th edition of the SOQ newsletter. The next release is scheduled for
December 2014, so please send in contributions before December 1, to Marnella van der Tol
Follow us on Twitter :
@SOQ_WUR
Introducing MSc students
Hi, my name is Yilina Bai. I am from China and studying my master
degree at Wageningen University. My thesis is about Competitive
Adsorption of SOM and Phosphate on Goethite. I am doing my Master
thesis at Wageningen University under supervision of Liping Weng and
Tjisse Hiemstra.
Hello everyone. My name is Yun Xu. I am from China. My major is
Environmental Sciences with specialization in Soil Chemistry & Chemical
Soil Quality. I just started my MSc thesis with regards to the Competitive
Adsorption of Different SOM on Goethite, under the supervision of Liping
Weng and Tjisse Hiemstra.
Hello everyone! My name is David Argüello and I am from Ecuador. I am
studying a MSc in Earth and Environment at Wageningen University. My
specialization is Soil Chemistry. I started my thesis last June under the
supervision of Liping Weng. I will be researching the effects of pH on Plant
Uptake of Selenium.
Hi, my name is Emilio Lopez. I study MSc Plant Sciences with Natural
Resource Management specialization. I started my thesis in May with
Liping Weng and Diederik Keuskamp. I work in collaboration with David
Argüello in the experiment “The effect of pH in the uptake of
micronutrients by Italian ryegrass”. See you around!
Hello everyone! My name is Evert Jan Dijk and I started my
thesis about the activation of biochar with Ellis Hoffland and
Tjisse Hiemstra. Here in Wageningen, I’m enrolled in the
master Organic Agriculture as a follow-up on the bachelor’s
degree I obtained in the city (actually a village) of Dronten at
the CAH, university of applied sciences. In Dronten my main
focus was entrepreneurship in animal sciences, but a good
deal of soil and plant science courses were given. There, my
attention shifted from animal science to soil science. That’s
why I could do my bachelor thesis about soil compaction and
earthworm excrements. I initially started my studies to
become a farmer in order to continue the family farm. During
my studies however, I realized that being a farmer would
probably not bring lifelong satisfaction. For me, this was not
an easy process. Sometimes it still appeals to me, especially
in springtime. Working on the farm I understood that the soil
(land use) is the most important production factor, even for a
dairy farm. After a little roaming and working, I decided to follow a master course in
Wageningen. I am happy that I got the chance to write my thesis under the supervision of Ellis
en Tjisse. Together with them, I want to investigate the possibilities and effects of activated
biochar on the retention of nutrients. Some of you I have already met and I’m looking forward
meet all of you!
Hello! My name is Rianne Prinsen and I am a MSc Plant Sciences
student. On the 1st of September I started a minor thesis on grass
and clover interactions with different clover genotypes. Gerlinde
and Janna are my supervisors. I wanted to do a thesis in the SOQ
department with some practical work and that works out well,
because I already worked in the greenhouse for two days :). In
the weeks to come I will figure out what tests I want to do with
the plants.
Hello, I am Sasja van Rosmalen. I am currently doing the MSc Earth and
Environment. This September I started my thesis. I will focus on phosphor in
combination with earthworms and fertilizers. My supervisors are Mart Ros,
Gerwin Koopmans and Jan Willem van Groenigen.
Introducing our PhD colleague: Paulo Veras de Paiva…….
Hello! I'm a Brazilian PhD candidate at the Terra Preta Programme, which is a joint research
effort trying to understand and reproduce some attributes of a remarkable anthropogenic soil
from the Amazonian region, for agronomic and carbon
sequestration purposes. We are quite a large faction, and
you probably heard us speaking portuñol by the coffee
machine. Within this group, I'm investigating how to realize
terra preta promises for the smallholder Amazonian slashand-burn farmers, and how to bridge the gap between
prospects and practices. It is not an easy task and, although
native from a country where terra preta is indigenous, I
don't know its recipe. But I do know how to make
caipirinha! And if you are also interested about related
topics, we can definitely speculate about it. I did my BSc. in
Agronomy (UFV) and my MSc. in Tropical Biodiversity
(PPGBio), and started my PhD in 2011 under the supervision of Drs. Ellis Hoffland, Thom
Kuyper (SOQ) and Conny Almenkiders (KTI). I'm also supervised by Dr. Etelvino Novoty, from
Embrapa. Embrapa is a Brazilian agronomical research institution where I'm also employed.
You can find me in Atlas B.301. Besides terra preta, I’m also interested in beer diversity, trips
to explore the old world, and to learn as much I can by the time I’m here.
…… and Luis Gonzaga García Montero
“Hola”, my name is Luis G. García Montero, I am a Spanish guest-PhD student (sandwich)
under the supervision of Thom W. Kuyper. I am biologist and
currently working at the Department of Forest Engineering of
the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). Some years
ago, I started to study the ecology of black truffle in natural
oak forests. This famous fungus has showed me a nice world
of “truffle hunters, dogs, black-markets, cook recipes…”, but,
especially the black truffle shows me an interesting and
complex net of biological interactions among
ectomycorrhizae, trees, soils, animals and the “black box of
soil organisms". In the end, all these have led me to
Wageningen, trying to dig into soil biology. In
correspondence, let me know when you want to visit Madrid.
Introducing our guest PhD student
Hi everybody! My name is Deivid Lopes Machado. I am from Brazil, where I obtained my
Graduation in Forest Engineering and my Master’s Degree in
Environmental and Forestry Sciences at Rural Federal University of
Rio de Janeiro. Since my graduation (2004) I have studied some
aspects of nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems, such as: litter and
nutrient production, decomposition, soil fauna and organic matter.
I studied ecological succession (passive restoration) in ecosystems
of Savanna (Cerrado) and of Tropical Rain Forest (Atlantic Forest).
Now, I am PhD candidate in Forest Science at São Paulo State
University, where I am studying how different associations of trees
species (15-year-old forests plantation undergoing restoration
processes) may affect the litter and nutrient production, the leaf
decomposition, the macro and mesofauna, and the organic matter.
Here in Wageningen under supervision of Ron de Goede, I will analyze my data (multivariate
analyses) which were already collected in Brazil. I also would like to learn about the local
forest ecosystems and if possible to follow ongoing research activities.
Success for Wenfeng Cong et al.
Plant species richness promotes soil carbon and nitrogen stocks in
grasslands without legumes, The Journal of Ecology, 2014 (DOI:
10.3410/f.718471700.793496643), has been selected for
F1000Prime. It was recommended as being of special significance
in its field by Faculty Member Andrew Hector.
Here is the full recommendation:
"Experimental manipulations of plant diversity have shown that
diverse communities are often more productive in the short term and more stable over time
than depauperate alternatives. However, the interpretation of these experiments is difficult. In
particular, it can be challenging to separate out the role of individual species and groups. Key
amongst these are the legumes since they can fix atmospheric nitrogen. For that reason, Frank
Berendse, Jasper van Ruijven and colleagues established a plant diversity experiment without
legumes. The results always form an interesting contrast with those plant diversity experiment
that do involve legumes (e.g. Cedar Creek; the BIODEPTH project; Jena etc.). Here the subject
are long-term C and N stocks. The results show higher C and N stocks in diverse communities
(in the absence of legumes). Increased C input outweighed increased soil respiration to
generate higher C stocks and this was associated with a positive feedback that produced
higher N mineralisation rates."
Find out more about F1000Prime
Also the environmental editor of JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments (USA) came
across this article and he intends to publish the research methods as a peer-reviewed videoarticle. Discussions about this are ongoing.
Also, the science writer + production editor of Science for Environment Policy, a news service
published by the European Commission's Environment Directorate-General, is planning to
publish a feature about this paper. Once published, the article will be sent out to over 18,000
policymakers, academics and business people across Europe to assist in the development of
effective, evidence-based policies.
Science for Environment Policy is a free service that provides news of the latest environmental
research that has been specially selected by our independent scientific advisors. Readers gain
a unique insight into the vital scientific issues relevant to current EU environmental policy.
Please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/subscribe.htm
Gregory Mensah finished his MSc
On Monday August 18, our MSc student Gregory Mensah gave a presentation about his
internship on: Implementation of N2Africa Project
in Ghana: Putting nitrogen fixation to work for
smallholder farmers in Ghana. This presentation
was the final part of his MSc. Gregory already went
home to find a job in Ghana.
World cup football!
The world cup football was a good opportunity for our colleagues to express their baking
creativity. Angie had baked a lovely cake to celebrate the Dutch victory and their first place
finish in the first round and, because the Canadian team did not qualify for the championships.
Gerlinde brought home-baked cookies because Belgium won 2 matches in a row and is also a
qualifier for the next round. As you will all know, neither the Dutch – nor the Belgium team
did make it to the finals.
Triplets for Dorien and Wouter
On August 14, our former PhD student Dorien Kool gave birth to two girls and a boy. They are
all three fine but have to stay in hospital to gain weight, before they can go home with mum
and dad.
Rhizosphere4 conference
The leading theme for the conference is ‘Stretching the Interface of Life’. The rhizosphere is
the true hot spot of belowground interactions with strong feedbacks between plants, soil biota
and the soil environment.
Please visit Rhizo4.org for more information and registration.
SOQ PhD thesis defences at Wageningen
On Tuesday June 3, Ingrid Lubbers defended her thesis. For quite an audience her proud
supervisor and promoter congratulated her. After the ceremony all invitees went to the café
‘Onder de Linden’ for drinks and food and handing over presents. From her SOQ colleagues she
received a first edition of Charles Darwin’s book on earthworms.
On Friday July 2, Wenfeng Cong successfully defended his thesis: On soil organic matter
dynamics in species-diverse grasslands and intercrop system. His supervisor in China, prof.
Fusuo Zhang came over to participate in the ceremony.
Upcoming oral defence ceremonies:
Karst Brolsma on Friday October 10 – 11.00 hours. On: ‘Linkages between Plant traits and
Soil Ecology in the Rhizosphere and through Litter Decomposition’.
Inge Regelink on November 7 – 16.00 hours. On: ‘Natural
nanoparticles in soils and their role in organic-mineral interactions and
colloid-facilitated transport.
Edvaldo Sagrilo on December 9 – 13.30 hours. On: ‘Soil and plant
responses to pyrogenic organic matter: carbon stability and symbiotic
patterns.
Andreas Duffner on December 15 – 11.00 hours. On: ‘Chemical and
biological rhizosphere interactions in low zinc soils’.
All presentations will be at the Aula of Wageningen University, Generaal Foulkesweg 1, building
362. Graduation ceremonies can be followed real-time on the internet, click here.
The Atlas Work Floor Survey:
Coffee or tea?
Author for correspondence is [email protected]. Electronic supplementary material and references at request.
In September 2014, the Atlas work floor survey was held for the third time. The main question was: Do
you prefer coffee or tea? This month’s topic was inspired by the arrival of the new coffee machines, which
has caused quite a stir in Atlas and far beyond. Never mind the sexist stereotypes displayed at the
machines' computer screen, nor its gruelling spelling errors: what true workaholics bothers most is what
the machines' arrival means for scientific productivity. Before we turn to the results of the survey, our
field correspondent Jan W illem van Groenigen was asked for his vision on things.
"This is not good. Basically, this will disrupt work productivity at three interacting levels. The first is quite obvious: it is
now impossible to simultaneously print and get coffee; you cannot log in to both machines at the same time. For me
personally, this means a drop in productivity of about 12% right there, as drinking coffee and printing is the main
activity of a staff member, and until now I was able to do combine these activities efficiently. Second, the new machines
take significantly more time to brew coffee than the previous machines. Third, the quality of the coffee has improved,
resulting in people drinking more coffee. This 'caffeine cascade' will have dire consequences if we don't act fast".
Jan Willem gives a simple and anonymized example: a colleague, let's call him Hisse Tjiemstra, likes to drink Cafe Latte.
After pushing the "Start" button it takes 30.83 seconds for the machine to brew a latte. However, as Hisse pointed out, it
takes an additional 13.07 seconds for the machine to clean itself. Add a conservative 16 seconds or so for placing the
cup, staring at the screen for various reasons and making a choice and a Cafe Latte takes a full minute. Jan Willem:
"There are approximately 40 people living on the third floor, all served by one coffee machine, and we have several
coffee tourists coming from other floors. If everyone would follow Hisse's example during coffee break, it would take up
to an hour for everyone to get their coffee, let alone drink it. You cannot even contemplate the ramifications of people
wanting to drink two cups. Scientific life as we know it would grind to a halt".
Obviously, this is an unsustainable situation. But what about Hisse's choice at the machine? Serving times differ
significantly between different choices, a field study by Jan Willem reveals (Table 1): "This is dramatic. It takes 65.5%
more time to get a double espresso than a Latte Macchiato. And I'm not even mentioning the chocolate options or hot
water!" However, Jan Willem emphasizes, we should not all switch to drinking chocolate milk or tea. "We need caffeine,
that's the whole point, so chocolate milk is out. And tea needs a long time to extract after the hot water has been
tapped, so that is actually the biggest time-waster of all". Should we all switch to Latte Macchiato or Hisse's favourite
Café Latte then? Jan Willem is adamant: "No, although this may seem like a smart choice at first, there are better
options. A double espresso may take the most time to brew, but it contains much more coffee than all other options. Not
twice as much, my research has shown that a factor 1.69 is more realistic (Table 2). If you then correct for the amount
of coffee you get ("yield-scaled" espresso equivalent or YSEE) you are in fact almost more than half a second faster than
with Latte machiato. So, it turns out that a double espresso is the smartest choice. Which is what I was doing all along."
Any final recommendations by Van Groenigen? "Yes, always take a strong version of whatever you drink. It takes
7.3% more brewing time but causes 8.3% more buzz. You cannot go wrong with extra strong!"
Table 1. Serving times at the new
coffee machines.
Choice
Tim e (s)
Double espresso
41.31*
*
Black coffee
38.53
W iener m elange
37.12*
Cappucino
32.74*
Table 2. A yield-scaled comparison between espresso and
double espresso.
Choice
Time
(s)
Weight (g)
Yield-scale
time (s)
Espresso
30.98*
60.39
30.98
Double
espresso
41.31*
101.83
24.50
*
Not counting an extra 13.07 seconds for the machine to
clean itself
*
Caffe au lait
31.86
Espresso
30.98*
Caffe latte
30.83*
Latte M achiato
24.96*
Choco cream
13.75
Chocolate
10.12
Hot w ater
8.93
The results of this study have been communicated to Freddy Pracht, who will figure out what this means for
next years' budget and whether this will have consequences on a personal level. He will report back to the
SOQ Management Board next week. Although the official position is that "in principle, drinking coffee should
be a matter of personal choice", anonymous sources close to the board suggest that an entry in Altiplano for
"divergent caffeinic tendencies" is being considered, and that the technical possibility of linking the software
behind the coffee machine directly to the salary payment system might be explored.
Hypotheses, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion of the Survey
Question: Do you prefer coffee or tea?
Hypotheses, also taking into account previous surveys:
1. On average, more employees drink coffee rather than tea (obvious)
2. Women are greater tea drinkers than men (anonymous)
3. Evening people drink coffee (anonymous)
4. Left handed people drink tea (anonymous)
Data for the survey were collected between September 3-10 among mostly SOQ related employees, guests
and students present in the Atlas building. The survey produced 43 responses.
Tea (%)
Total
0%
50%
100%
Coffee (%)
Fig. 1. Percentage ‘Coffee’ and ‘Tea’ for the 43 responses of the Atlas people.
The main result (Fig. 1) shows that indeed more employees, guests and students prefer coffee over tea,
confirming hypothesis 1, obviously. However, even though at least half of the coffee drinkers seemed very
convinced about their preference, this doesn’t mean that coffee drinkers don’t like tea.
The second hypothesis could also easily be confirmed. Fig. 2 shows that more women drink tea,
compared to their male colleagues. We can assume that they are mostly young females, as surprisingly
many more ‘younger colleagues’ drink tea rather than the ‘older colleagues’. Is this a generation shift?
Should we worry, if we believe our field correspondent in thinking that scientific productivity depends on
coffee intake? Probably not, since tea also consists of a substantial amount of caffeine (Fig. 3).
The third hypothesis turned out to be the more challenging. 77% of the evening people turned out
to prefer coffee over tea, but this is not an overwhelming majority when compared to the morning people,
of whom still 73% drink coffee. Even if we don’t take statistics into account, which we don’t, it is not enough
to confirm hypothesis 3.
The last hypothesis about left-handed people has to be rejected. Unfortunately only two of our four
left-handed colleagues were in the office at the time the survey was held, but both of them turned out to be
the most determined coffee drinkers (Jan Willem and Marnella).
'Older'
'Younger'
Male
Female
Tea (%)
Europe
Coffee (%)
Asia
America
Lefties, January 2014
0%
50%
100%
Fig. 2. Percentage ‘Coffee’ and ‘Tea’ for different groups based on age, sex, geography and lefties.
Fig. 3. Caffeine levels of various beverages.
DID YOU KNOW...
-
Yong still drinks tea, but is learning to drink coffee?
Paulo drinks tea today, but coffee tomorrow?
Peter starts the day with tea?
Joana drinks coffee, but góód coffee?
Erna, Tjisse and Oene are not happy with the arrival of the new coffee machine?
Erna feels discriminated because tea is one the second page?
Tjisse thinks the milk is sticky and the coffee too strong?
Oene drinks the coffee, but has to dilute with tea?
Extra’s
QUOTES
-
Abraham Lincoln: “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea,
please bring me some coffee.”
Ronald Reagan: “I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the
afternoon”.
Earl Wilson: “Science may never come up with a better office communication
system than the coffee break.”
FAMOUS COFFEE LOVERS:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Ludwig von Beethoven
King Frederick the Great
Pope Clement VIII
Sir Francis Bacon
Voltaire
Honore de Balzac
Napoleon Bonaparte
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ronald Reagan
FAMOUS TEA LOVERS:
Earl Grey
Lady Grey
Chinese Emperor Shen Nung
Catherine of Braganza
Albert Einstein
Okakura Kakuzō
C.S. Lewis
Henry James
George Orwell
Agatha Christie
Mick Jagger
John Lennon, and the rest of the English...
A few background stories related to the famous coffee and tea lovers
Johann Sebastian Bach has been so much devoted to coffee that even wrote an entire musical composition
to praise this much beloved drink. The masterpiece is called the Coffee Cantata and contains the following
lines about coffee - "If I can’t drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up
like a piece of roast goat".
Ludwig van Beethoven, another popular German composer has also been a great coffee lover. He was very
scrupulous when brewing coffee and each time he prepared it, Beethoven counted out exactly 60 beans for
his cup.
Another not less famous figure drinking coffee is Pope Clement VIII who made great contribution to the
coffee popularization among Christians by lifting the coffee ban. “Why, this Satan’s drink is so delicious it
would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall fool Satan by baptizing it and making it a
truly Christian beverage.”
Albert Einstein (1879 –1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general
relativity. He also published in a 1926 paper called "The Tea Leaf Paradox” which describes a phenomenon
where tea leaves in a cup of tea migrate to the centre and bottom of the cup after being stirred rather than
being forced to the edges of the cup, as would be expected from a spiral centrifugal force.
The phenomenon has been used to develop a new technique to separate red blood cells from blood plasma
to understand atmospheric pressure systems, and in the process of brewing beer to separate out coagulated
trub in the whirlpool.