Method development to tap into 'black box' soil

Sven Kirchner, a Master’s Degree student in Biology at the Radboud University Nijmegen, recently started his internship at iDiv. Until November Sven will be working on measuring plant root exudates and plant root volatiles.

“I did my first Master internship at the Molecular Interaction Ecology group of the Radboud University in Nijmegen, which is also led by Prof. Nicole van Dam, who afterwards offered me the chance to do my second Master internship here at iDiv. Whereas my first Master internship was focused on the effects of aboveground herbivory and constitutive and induced defences, I will now get the chance to look into the 'black box' soil and learn about the more hidden half of plants. I am especially excited about getting the chance to help Alexander with the development and testing of methods for measuring root exudates and volatiles belowground.”

Sven Kirchner is supervised by Dr. Alexander Weinhold.