Zoom into Soil: Microplastics

Welcome to the Zoom into Soil: Microplastics webinar from the British Society of Soil Science.

Supported by the Soil Science Society of Ireland, join Professor Matthias C. Rillig, Director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, and Dr. Taru Sandén, Senior Expert at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), for this webinar on the topic of microplastics.

Our first speaker is Professor Matthias C. Rillig who will be presenting ‘Microplastic effects in soils’. This presentation provides a conceptual overview of the topic of microplastics and their effect on soils. Matthias is a Professor of Plant Ecology at the Free University of Berlin and is Director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research. He has a PhD in Ecology from the University of California at Davis/San Diego State University, and has written and contributed to many published works in this field. Matthias manages The Rillig Lab at the Free University of Berlin that mentors and supports students and researchers of plant, fungal and soil ecology. They carry out projects around global change, biodiversity, and the functions and ecology of soil fungi.

Our second speaker is Dr. Taru Sandén who will be talking about the MINAGRIS project and the monitoring app, SoilPlastic. Taru is a Senior Expert in the Department for Soil Health and Plant Nutrition at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). Taru is also one of the founding members of the Tea Bag Index which is a method to measure decomposition in soils with the help of commercial tea bags. She received her doctoral degree in Geography from the University of Iceland, in which she focused on soil aggregates and soil organic matter in European agricultural soils.