Plant-Soil Interactions

Course manual 2024/2025

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

• Scheffer & Schachtschabel. 2016. Soil Science. Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-30941-0

• Randall & Smith. 2019.  The Biology of Agroecosystems. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780198737520

• Hillis, D. et al. 2020. Life: The science of biology. 12th Edition. MacMillan Learning. ISBN: 9781319315788

Practical training material

• There is a Canvas module for each week, which includes modules for the activities in that week: lectures, working groups, and quizzes. 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 and working group/ quiz 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.
• Can evaluate how plant-soil interactions can be managed, and how changes in plant-soil interactions will affect the functioning of agricultural systems.
• Can formulate a research question and proposal for a project on a food production system.
• Can design and execute a comprehensive semi-structured interview.
• Can analyse the data gathered via literature search and semi-structured interview.
• Can design a visual or audio-visual representation.
• Can find, evaluate, and assess different viewpoints and relate their own findings to the broader societal issues on sustainable agriculture.

Teaching methods

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

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

Working groups (werkcolleges - WCs) are for deepening and broadening understanding of the material covered in the lectures, applying this knowledge to new situations, and developing presentation and design skills.

Online quizzes are for testing your understanding of the material and practising exam questions.

The Group Project has the aim of understanding real-world food production systems, and analysing and critically evaluating how plant-soil interactions can be managed in these real world systems, including their trade-offs.

Self-study will broaden and deepen understanding of concepts and mechanisms introduced in the lectures.

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:

Attending all scheduled education activities is strongly advised. By doing so, you actively contribute to a lively learning community and significantly improve your chances of successfully completing the course. The designated mandatory activities play a crucial role in achieving the course objectives and are essential for your overall progress. By registering for this course, you are complying with the rules regarding attendance and agreeing to actively prepare for and participate in the mandatory activities.

The Working Groups are compulsory and the student has to attend at least 4 out of the 5 Working Groups (werkcolleges). 

The Working Groups include class discussions and group assignments. The material is not just limited to literature, but also involves articulating and applying the ideas, theories, and concepts from the literature. Therefore, the quality of the Working Groups largely depends on the attendance, preparation, and active participation of every student.

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 working group assignments that will need to be submitted as well as online quizzes - these will be pass/fail.

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) or attend the Working Groups (although it is recommended to attend them), 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

Working group assignments

The Working Groups (WGs) are interactive and have the aim to broaden and deepen the students' understanding of the topics and concepts explained in the lectures. Some WGs will require group assignments to be submitted through Canvas. These assignments are pass/fail. Feedback will be given during the tutorials by the lecturers delivering the WG.

Quizzes

The quizzes allow students to assess their learning progress and to prepare for the exam questions. They are not compulsory but strongly recommended.

Poster or video (Group Project)

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 critically 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 WG, 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 in the quizzes. The exam consists of open questions that test the student’s understanding of concepts and mechanisms and their ability to synthesise these. Feedback can be requested after the exam. There will be a resit exam in January for those students who do not pass 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

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