Rik Rutjens

After having obtained a bachelors and masters degree in Applied Maths at Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands) and a PhD in Maths at University of Nottingham (UK), I am currently a postdoc in Dr. Samantha Grover's Soil-Athmosphere-Anthroposphere lab in the School of Environmental Science.

Project summary:

As part of the Australian Government’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, farmers can gain Carbon Credits by sequestering soil carbon through improved management practices. However, measuring changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) is difficult, as changes in SOC are typically small, whilst variability in the field (both spatially and temporally) is often substantial and measurement errors can be considerable. Additionally, the sample size is generally small; the Government requires a minimum of 9 samples, whereas plots can be as large as 200 ha. My work therefore aims to identify improved sampling protocols to reliably detect changes in SOC in a practically feasible way.