2023

Joëlle Kubeneck has successfully defended her doctoral thesis in the Soil Chemistry group.

To mark World Soil Day 2023, Agroscope has published the Geochemical Soil Atlas of Switzerland. The atlas presents a survey of the geogenic distribution of 20 toxic and/or essential elements in Swiss soils, and several other soil parameters, using soil samples from across the country and interpolation to produce the cartographic visualisations. Jolanda Reusser, based at Agroscope and the IBP is lead author, and Ruben Kretzschmar is a contributing co-author.

The new publication in Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, follows the transformation of ferrihydrite and lepidocrocite in periodically flooded rice paddy soils. The work comes out of the ERC IRMIDYN project, and was led by Katrin Schulz, with Luiza Notini, Andrew Grigg, Joëlle Kubeneck, Worachart Wisawapipat (Kasetsart Univeristy), Laurel ThomasArrigo (now at the University of Neuchatel) and Ruben Kretzschmar.

Andrew has successfully defended his doctoral thesis.

The annual Soil Chemistry Group hiking trip was held in the Aletsch Arena in 2023, with two days of hiking and great views of the Aletsch Glacier.

Soil Chemistry was represented at Switzerland’s largest Science Festival, Scientifica, with fun for young and old.

Congratulations to Katrin Schulz for a successful defense of her doctoral thesis!

Congratulations to Maureen Le Bars who has received an ETH Career Seed Award.

A key aspect of the ERC 'IRMIDYN' project is the development of techniques to study Fe mineral transformations in soils and sediments using isotopically labeled Fe minerals and ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. The approach is explained in a new publication in Environmental Science & Technology, titled 'A New Approach for Investigating Iron Mineral Transformations in Soils and Sediments Using ⁵⁷Fe-Labeled Minerals and ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer Spectroscopy'.

A new publication in the journal Environmental Science & Technology demonstrates the importance of mineral protection for the understanding of soil organic carbon mobilisation and degredation under reducing conditions.