Urban Greening and Vegetation Ecology
The department works with establishment, restoration and maintenance of green spaces in urban and semi-urban environments. Green areas play a major role for well-being, health and the environment, and help to make the urban areas interesting for biodiversity conservation as well. The department also works extensively with conservation of soil resources in development projects, with soil relocation and re-vegetation. The department also works with long time series of vegetation monitoring and restoration biology. Knowledge of soil, vegetation, local climate and local hydrology are important academic elements used in research and consulting.
The department has 15 employees at Campus Ås, at Landvik in Grimstad and Særheim at Jæren, and has a national focus and work area. The competence is broadly composed and consists of 9 people with a doctorate, of which 4 have professor competence. The majority has more than 10 years of experience in R&D work ranging from basic to applied research and consulting. Several employees have supervision for students at the MSc and PhD level.
The department has specialized expertise in:
- Soil chemistry, soil physics, growth media, geology, quaternary geology and hydrogeology
- Vegetation, vegetation ecology, plant nutrition and stress physiology
- Nature management, environmental monitoring and ecosystem services
The department's most important work areas:
- Relocation of soils and preservation of soil quality in development projects
- Vegetation and growth media for golf, parks and green roofs
- Nature restoration
- Multifunctional blue-green infrastructure in cities and towns
- Urban ecology and urban environmental quality
- Development of waste-based fertilizer and soil improvement products
- Improvement and development of growth media for greenery, horticulture and agricultural production
- Long-term vegetation monitoring in forests
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