PhD: Modelling Impacts of Agricultural Practices on Soil Ecosystem Services
Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands
- Institution
- Wageningen University & Research
- Country
- Netherlands
- Position type
- PhD
- Subject area
- Agriculture & Food Science
- Application deadline
- 2 October 2026
- Funding
- Fully funded position
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About this position
Job description
The Earth Systems and Global Change Group at Wageningen University and Research invites applications for a PhD position (4 years) in a challenging project titled: “Modelling impacts of agricultural practices on soil ecosystem services across Europe”.
Preserving and restoring agricultural sustainability in Europe requires a monitoring framework quantifying how single and combined agricultural management practices affect European soil ecosystem services. The project aims to develop site specific recommendations for the implementation of agricultural practices in arable farming systems that enhance their contribution to a sustainable environment. The project is part of an ongoing European research project with 17 research partners. By finetuning and extending existing regional soil health assessment frameworks to assess the integrative contribution of crop, soil, nutrient and water management practices, this project will deliver new knowledge to enable farmers and policy makers to improve the ecosystem services the soil supplies, and to enable decision-makers to explore scenario outcomes, assess impacts and incorporate the results into soil quality related policy recommendations at national and EU level.
Your duties and responsibilities include:
As a PhD researcher, you will expand and improve an existing modelling framework to assess carbon and nutrient flows, and soil functions contributing to multiple ecosystem services, and the impact of management measures on regional level, assembling empirical and process-based algorithms considering agronomic and environmental impacts. You contribute to the following activities:
You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair Earth Systems and Global Change Group, which is led by Prof. dr. Hannah van Zanten and Prof. dr. Nynke Hofstra. You will be supervised by Dr. Gerard Ros, Dr. Mengru Wang and Prof. dr. Hannah van Zanten from Wageningen University, and Prof Dr. Erik Meers from Ghent University.
Preserving and restoring agricultural sustainability in Europe requires a monitoring framework quantifying how single and combined agricultural management practices affect European soil ecosystem services. The project aims to develop site specific recommendations for the implementation of agricultural practices in arable farming systems that enhance their contribution to a sustainable environment. The project is part of an ongoing European research project with 17 research partners. By finetuning and extending existing regional soil health assessment frameworks to assess the integrative contribution of crop, soil, nutrient and water management practices, this project will deliver new knowledge to enable farmers and policy makers to improve the ecosystem services the soil supplies, and to enable decision-makers to explore scenario outcomes, assess impacts and incorporate the results into soil quality related policy recommendations at national and EU level.
Your duties and responsibilities include:
As a PhD researcher, you will expand and improve an existing modelling framework to assess carbon and nutrient flows, and soil functions contributing to multiple ecosystem services, and the impact of management measures on regional level, assembling empirical and process-based algorithms considering agronomic and environmental impacts. You contribute to the following activities:
- Develop a model to simulate and upscale impact of the combinations of farming practices on soil ecosystem services for regional / EU level
- Perform an integrated spatial assessment of soil ecosystem services and adoption of farming practices, identifying synergies and trade off among arable farming practices in view of multiple ecosystem services
- Assess the impact of co-created adoption policies / measurement packages at farm system level
You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair Earth Systems and Global Change Group, which is led by Prof. dr. Hannah van Zanten and Prof. dr. Nynke Hofstra. You will be supervised by Dr. Gerard Ros, Dr. Mengru Wang and Prof. dr. Hannah van Zanten from Wageningen University, and Prof Dr. Erik Meers from Ghent University.
Apply directly to Wageningen University & Research
Emerging Scholars Council is not the employer and does not recruit for this position. It is advertised by Wageningen University & Research, and your application goes to them. We help students prepare and strengthen their applications.
Go to the official application page →Applications close 2 October 2026.
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