Department of Agroecology and Environment
The department is part of the new Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (previously DIAS, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences). The department has research activities within the fields of crop physiology, crop rotation, climate and climate change, transformation- and transport processes in soil, soil quality, and mapping of vegetation and soil resources. Also, analyses at a regional and farm level including farm management and decision support are made. The research group ‘Crop Production’ focuses on the interaction between soil, plants and climate with the objective of developing sustainable agricultural cropping systems. Simulation models are developed for description of crop production and nutrient cycling at the field level. Farm level models are used for quantifying nutrient losses from agriculture, and for assessment of the impact of climate change on agriculture. The research group ‘Soil Physics and Chemistry’ focuses on hydrological factors and processes of soils and their interaction with plant production and the environment. Investigations of soil structure, soil compaction, heterogeneous surface transport processes, and water flow and transport of soluble and colloid-bound compounds through the root zone are carried out.
Facilities and resources: The department has several laboratories supporting a wide variety of physical soil measurements, pore distribution, soil stability, hydraulic and thermal properties, soil and water chemistry, and microbiology. The department has large-scale experimental research facilities including a semi-field area comprising lysimeters, a test vessel facility, climate chambers, and a classified greenhouse. The department also has equipment and expertise in field scale measurements of soil water content (mobile TDR instrument), soil electrical conductivity (EM38 sensor), and plant state variables using mobile optical sensors. The department has gathered a number of nationwide soil databases covering landscape elements, profile descriptions and hydraulic properties.
Department of Geoscience
The hydrogeophyscis group (HGG) at the department consist of 3 faculty members, 2 post docs, 6 research assistants and technicians and two engineers. Besides this the group has a number of master and Ph.D. students associated. HGG is international leading in the field of large scale hydrogeological mapping, data processing and inversion. In addition to basic research the group also develops instrumentation and software for data processing, data inversion and data management. Close links are established to users which in most cases has been counties and consulting companies. The group has international contacts, collaborates with several Danish organizations and serves as a knowledge center (GeoFysikSamarbejdet) for the ongoing hydrogeophysical mapping of the groundwater resources in Denmark.
Facilities and resources: The group has in house developed instruments for both ground based and airborne transient electromagnetic measurements (SkyTEM). Additionally, the group has a drill rig and multi-electrode resistivity equipment developed in corporation with Lunds Technical University. Computer facilities together with in-house developed processing, inversion and presentation software are also available.