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Project properties |
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| Title | That sounds like Frass! Does strip cropping interact with addition of flytilizer (insect based fertilizer) to enhance soil community diversity and increase nitrogen mineralization? |
| Group | Soil Biology |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Frank Harris, Gerlinde De Deyn, Marie Zwetsloot |
| Examiner(s) | prof.dr R.Creamer |
| Contact info | frank.leeharris@wur.nl, gerlinde.dedeyn@wur.nl or marie.zwetsloot@wur.nl
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| Begin date | 2024/05/01 |
| End date | |
| Description | Strip cropping has been proposed as a viable strategy to diversify intensive monocultural production systems through space and time thereby supporting the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector. Flytilizer is a novel insect based fertilizer made of frass and exuvae from reared insects, which is a biproduct of insect protein production. The flytilizer has been shown to have some community altering properties above ground and has also has a low CN ratio, thus making it a good fertilizer. The increase in microbial niche space often associated with plant diversity in strip cropping and decomposition of this fertilizer could yield an interactive effect, furthering plant and soil health. We are looking for a motivated masters student to measure soil life, microbes and N-mineralization in our strip cropping fields. You will be working with the Cropmix team, on our cabbage and oat combination in close proximity to a supplementary entomology team looking at the above ground portion of this. Research will consists of field work and laboratory analyses. |
| Used skills | Literature review, writing proposal and thesis, experimental design, field work, lab skills, data analysis. |
| Requirements | Required courses for MSc thesis Soil Biology |