Håkan Wallander, Professor

I am a professor in soil biology and environmental sciences and I work with ectomycorrhizal fungi that form symbiotic relationships with trees. They produce several hundreds of kilogram of mycelia per hectare every year in most forest ecosystems. This is important for nutrient uptake of the trees, but also for carbon sequestration and N retention in the soil. My main research interest is to understand how this flux of carbon belowground is regulated, and how important the composition of the ectomycorrhizal community is for carbon sequestration and nutrient uptake.

Most of my research is done in Norway spruce forests in Sweden and in Europe, although I also do some work in soils that are prone to erosion and salinization in northern Africa (Tunisia) and in southeast Asia (Nepal). I work both in experimental sites where the effect of different management practices is tested, such as fertilization, intensive biomass removal and wood ash recycling, but also in monitoring sites where mycorrhizal activity is related to environmental parameters such as N deposition, pH, precipitation etc. Below are some recent publications in these fields.

Publications