Plant-Soil Interactions

Course manual 2022/2023

Course content

One of the major challenges humanity faces is producing enough food for a burgeoning world population without destroying our environment. In the course Plant-soil interactions in food production systems you will get an understanding of the pressures and challenges global food production is facing, with a specific focus on the role of plant-soil interactions in these aspects. Almost every food production system depends on the interactions between plants and soils: soils underpin plant growth, but plants also modify soil properties. Plants and soils interact through a wide range of mechanisms. In this course, you will learn about the fundamental processes through which plants and soils interact, including both the biotic and abiotic components that govern these processes, and how these processes are affected by common agricultural practices and can provide solutions for the challenges global food production is facing.

Study materials

Literature

• Soil science by Scheffer and Schachtschabel

• The Biology of Agroecosystems by Randall and Smith

• Life (12th edition)

Practical training material

• There is a Canvas module for each lecture, tutorial, and laptop tutorial. These modules include the material that needs to be read, as well as extra material, and (links to) the assignments that need to be completed. 

   

Other

• Additional reading for each lecture can be found on Canvas under the individual lecture modules

Objectives

• Can describe the evolution of agricultural systems, including crop domestication and agricultural industrialisation, and the major problems that agricultural systems contribute to.
• Can explain fundamental processes in the plant, analyse how they are affected by agricultural practices, and synthesise how they relate to yield.
• Can explain how soils are formed and can explain fundamental processes in the soil, including the behaviour and transformations of soil organic matter and macronutrients, and synthesise how these are affected by agricultural management.
• Can analyse and synthesise the different mechanisms through which plants and soils interact and integrate how they are affected by management.
• CCan evaluate how plant-soil interactions can be managed, and how changes in plant-soil interactions will affect the functioning of agricultural systems.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Self-study
• Seminar
• Presentation/symposium
• Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis
• Laptop seminar

The lectures introduce and explain content, mechanisms, and concepts.

Tutorials (werkcolleges) are for deepening understanding of the material covered in the lectures.

Laptop tutorials (laptop colleges) are for testing your understanding of the material and practising exam questions.

The group project has the aim of analysing and evaluating plant-soil interactions and their relevance in the real world.

Self-study will broaden and deepen understanding of concepts and mechanisms.

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Participation in fieldwork is compulsory and cannot be replaced by assignments or other courses.
• In case of practical sessions, the student is obliged to attend at least of 90% of the sessions and to prepare himself adequately, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. In case the student attends less than 90%, the practical sessions should be redone entirely.
• In case of tutorials/seminars with assignments, the student is obliged to attend at least 7 out of 8 seminars and to prepare thoroughly for these meetings, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. If the course has more than 8 seminars, the student can miss up to 1 extra meeting for every (part of) 8 tutorials/seminars. If the students attends less than the mandatory tutorials/seminars, the course cannot be completed.

Additional requirements for this course:

The student has to attend at least 4 out of the 5 tutorials (werkcolleges).

Assessment

While the final grade will be calculated from the exam and the group project, the individual parts have to be graded higher than a 5.5. There will also be tutorial assignments that will need to be submitted and these will either be pass/fail or count towards a very small part of the final grade.

Assessment diagram

Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years

Students that took the course last year will not have to redo the group project (if they had a grade higher than 5.5 for this), but will have to retake the exam.

Inspection of assessed work

After the exam, the course coordinator will notify the students about time slots available to inspect their work and request feedback.

Assignments

Tutorial assignments

During the tutorials, the students will make individual assignments designed to broaden and deepen their understanding of the topics and concepts explained in the lectures. Some tutorials will require assignments to be submitted through Canvas, and these will form a minor contribution to the final course grade. Feedback will be given during the tutorials by PhD students delivering the tutorial.

Laptop tutorial assigments

During the laptop tutorials (laptop colleges), the students will individually and independently work on assignments that have the aim to practice exams questions and to test the student's understanding of the material. These assignments are not graded.

Poster or video

The students will select and visit a farm, and interview the farmer (this may have to be online or via a phone call) OR document a component of a food production system and highlighting the role of specific plant-soil interactions within this system (e.g. an allotment, garden, or food forest) in groups of 4 students. The purpose of the group project is to understand the relevance of plant-soil interactions for real-world food production systems. The final product of this visit will be either a video or a poster, in which the students outline how the farmer manages plant-soil interactions on his/her farm, give a theoretical framing of this, and evaluate its effectiveness. Normally, all students in a group will get the same grade, unless there is good reason to divert from this. Feedback will be given in the final tutorial, and on the completed mark form.

Written exam

The written exam will be in week 8 and covers the reading material, the material discussed during the lectures, as well as the exercises practiced during the (laptop) tutorials. The exam consists of open questions that test the student’s understanding of concepts and mechanisms and their ability to apply these to new situations/ problems. In case a physical exam is not possible due to COVID-restrictions, the written exam will be replaced by a written, 2-page essay, that will test the student's understanding of the relevance of plant-soil interactions in current discussions around agriculture. Feedback can be requested after the exam.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

We vinden het belangrijk dat je je op de UvA en bij Future Planet Studies veilig voelt. Krijg je onverhoopt te maken met ongewenst gedrag of voel je je onveilig, dan kun je terecht bij verschillende personen. Je melding wordt altijd vertrouwelijk behandeld. Kijk op onze website voor meer informatie over waar en bij wie je terecht kunt.

It is important that everyone feels safe at the UvA and Future Planet Studies. We are committed to provide social safety and we offer various forms of support for people experiencing inappropriate or unsafe situations. Consult the UvA website or Future Planet Studies Canvas page for more information and contact info.

Last year's student feedback

In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.

Contact information

Coordinator

• prof. dr. ir. Franciska de Vries