Department of Ecology, Lund University, Sweden

The soil ecology group

What makes the soil environment special? Most nutrients and energy come from dead organic matter (plant and animal parts), soil pores are filled with air and water, for instance rain water that transports particles downwards, and plant roots that penetrate the soil matrix form pores and exudate organic substances. In this dynamic system, fungal mycelia, bacteria, actinomycetes and invertebrates spend most of their life cycles. The intriguing interactions between soil organisms, the responses of soil organisms to the environment, the distribution of the organisms, and the impact of the environment on populations and communities parameters (also anthropogenic ones) are dealt with within soil ecology.

Members:
Professor Katarina Hedlund e-mail
PhD, Post Doc Helene Bracht Jørgensen e-mail
PhD, Research Fellow Tina D'Hertefeldt  e-mail  Research project
PhD student María Ingimarsdóttir e-mail  Research project
PhD student Helena Hansson e-mail
PhD student Erkki Palmu e-mail

Current projects

SOILSERVICE
This is a new research project in the 7th EU framework program, started in April 2008.

BIORHIZ
The EU research training network BIORHIZ is a Marie Curie research training network for post docs and PhDstudents and work with different aspects of fundamental research of soil plant interactions. The project has officially started in April 2004 and will continue until 2008.

Diversity in soil food webs (a Formas funded project)
The current debate on how the control of ecosystem structure and functioning depends on the feedbacks between above- and belowground organisms have shown that soil processes can function at low levels of species richness in soil. The project wants to challenge the widely acknowledged assumption in terrestrial ecology that there is a low degree of specific interactions in soil food webs.

More biodiversity at less cost: an integrated ecological-economic approach to preservation of small landscape elements.

Previous research projects

The EU thematic network CONSIDER (Conservation of Soil Organism Diversity under Global Change) ran from 2003 until 2007 and its main aim was to evaluate methods and indicators for conserving/restoring soil biodiversity.

Trophic Linkages: a key to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with economic development (TLinks) is a EU financed project within the Global Change, Climate and Biodiversity Key Action and run from November 2001 until 2005. The main objectives of TLinks were to find criteria and indicators of the success of schemes aimed at conservation and restoration of biodiversity of species rich communities on ex-arable land.

Biodiversity restoration in the EU project CLUE (Changing land usage and enhancement of ecosystem processes) (1996-1999).

Swedish environmental protection board/Formas (1997-1998, 2000-2002) - Methods for optimizing soil biodiversity at changing land usage

Crafoord foundation and NARP for material/instruments and networking within the project “Dispersal and gene flow of soil animals” that deals with long range and short range dispersal of invertebrates in the Arctic.

Dissertations

Torsten Gunnarsson. 1987. Soil arthropods and their food: choice, use and consequences.
Lena Tranvik. 1992. To sustain in a stressed environment: a study of soil Collembola.
Katarina Hedlund. 1993. Animal-microbial interactions: the fungivorous Collembola.
Maria Sjögren. 1994. Dispersal in and ectomycorrhizal grazing by soil invertebrates.
Annakarin Augustsson. 2001. On enchytraeids and naidids: Life history traits and responses to environmental stress
Dagmar Gormsen. 2001. Colonization processes of soil fauna and mycorrhizal fungi.
Helene Bracht Jørgensen. 2002. Food selection and fitness optimisation in insects
Natalia Ladygina. 2009. Indirect biotic interactions in the rhizosphere.

Visitors' address: Ekologihuset, Sölvegatan 37, Lund, Sweden. Map
Mail address: Lund University, Department of Ecology, Sölvegatan 37, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden
Telephone: direct number: +46 - 46 - 22 + ext. See staff
Text: Katarina Hedlund
Webmaster: Erling Jirle
Latest update: March 26, 2010.