Sarah De Baets

Biography

Sarah De Baets is a physical geographer (M.Sc) and obtained a PhD degree at the University of Leuven (Belgium). After her PhD she obtained a personal post-doctoral grant from the KU Leuven for 1 year, followed by a 3 year personal post-doctoral fellowship from the National Scientific Research Foundation to work at the University of Louvain (UCL, Belgium). From 01/09/2011 onwards she worked at Exeter University as research fellow. Her research projects focussed on the effects of plant roots on the resistance of soils to concentrated flow erosion and the selection of suitable species for erosion control (PhD), on the vulnerability and recovery of soils following disturbances (post docs) and on the fundamentals of root-soil cohesion (latest Leverhulme project with University of Bristol).

Research Interest

Dr. Sarah's research focuses on interactions between vegetation (with special focus on plant roots!) and related soil quality properties (e.g. soil cohesion, soil fertility) in relation to soil degradation processes and disturbances (e.g. erosion, fire).