Olaf Schmidt

Olaf Schmidt is an academic educator and researcher with over 20 years of experience teaching, supervising, and mentoring students at university level. His teaching spans agricultural zoology, agri-environmental science, soil ecology, and scientific writing.

Olaf’s research focuses on soil science, with a particular interest in the living component of soils and how soil biology, ecology, and biochemistry interact with plants, animals, and land management. His work helps to improve understanding of how healthy soils support productive agriculture, biodiversity, and wider ecosystem services.

He has contributed nationally collected soil biodiversity data from Ireland to major European and global datasets. This includes co-authoring global studies on soil nematodes and earthworms, as well as a recent European “data warehousing” initiative developed through an international COST Action network. These large-scale datasets provide essential baselines for monitoring soil health and biodiversity, including for emerging policies such as the EU Soil Monitoring Law.

Within the Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water, Olaf focuses on soil quality and biological soil health. His work aims to generate robust data on soil health and ecosystem services across Ireland’s main land uses, evaluate the effectiveness of land restoration measures, and provide evidence to support policy decisions on the protection, sustainable management, and restoration of soils.