This is an Individual Researcher Profile

Researcher Contact Details

Research Title: Dr.

Contact First Name: Achim

Contact Surname: Schmalenberger

Contact Address:

Telephone Contact Number: 00353 61 233775

Fax Contact Number: 00353 61 331490

Email Address: achim.schmalenberger@ul.ie

Organisation Type: Higher Education Organisation

Higher Education Organisation Name: University of Limerick

Other Organisation Name(s) if appropriate:

Research Organisation or Company/Corporate Website: www.ul.ie

Organisation or Individual Expertise:
Expertise description My key research interests and expertise are in the following sections 1) Soil microbiological processes - I am interested in soil nutrient cycling and ecosystem services facilitated by soil microbes. This includes mobilization of sulfur (S) and phosphorus (P) from particulate and organic sources. 2) Soil formation and plant nutrition processes - I am interested in microbiological weathering as function to supply plant hosts with essential soil nutrients from rocks and minerals. 3) Plant-microbe interaction - I am interested in the association of bacteria, mycorrhiza and plant hosts to facilitate nutrient transfer and uptake 4) Genetically modified crops - I am interested in the impact of genetically modified plants on the soil microbiota and their soil ecosystem services Expertise categories Scientific research, Agriculture, Environmental protection, Life sciences Skills and competences Research funding secured since 2010. I have secured funding as a single PI and further collaborative funding as a PI and co-PI in the range of over 200,000 from Teagasc, SGM, EU FP7, Royal Society and Diamond Light Source, which include the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant. Since December 2013, I am PI in the Soil Quality Assessment and Research Consortium funded by the Irish Department of Agriculture. Peer reviewed research articles. To date, I have published 23 ISI cited papers in journals including Environmental Microbiology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, FEMS Microbiology Ecology and Molecular Ecology; 13 ISI cited research papers were published as first author of which 4 research papers were published in top class ranking journals with an impact factor of above 5. My research has been cited over 500 times so far, the best-known paper is cited 185 times to date. Research infrastructure of the organisation University Limerick University of Limerick (UL) is a national leader in 4th level graduate education and has a strategy in place to become a European leader in this area with its modern campus involving creativity, research and discovery. UL is represented by the Department of Life Sciences. The hosting department has a wide range of laboratories and infrastructure for microbiological, molecular and soil research and specialised equipment, suitbale for soil microbiology research. Laboratories: Microbiology laboratory (BS class 1 and class 2); molecular biology laboratory, soil/environmental laboratory, analytical facilities, media and autoclaving facilities, field biology unit with soil labs and greenhouse. Equipment: Laminar flows, autoclaves, flow cytometer, HPLC and GC, microtiter plate incubator/reader, PCR (G-Storm) and QPCR (Roche), various electrophoresis systems incl. DGGE, gel documentation (SynGene and Licor), AAS and Kjeldahl, incubators (at 10, 18, 25, 30, 37, 55°C). Other: UL has the state of the art Materials Surface Science institute (MSSi) adjacent to the Life Science department with access to FT-IR, SEM, TEM, raman, confocal LSM, AFM, XRD.

Organisation or Individual Expertise Keywords:
environmental microbiology plant-microbbe interaction soil nutrient mobilization biodiversity bioremediation restoration soil carbon sequestration