Irene Marongiu

Irene Marongiu is Lead Engineer in the national program for monitoring soil organic carbon in forests and intensive grasslands at NIBIO.

With more than a decade of experience in agronomy research and laboratory analysis, Irene has a broad understanding of soil biological, physical, and chemical properties. Her laboratory skills include a wide range of techniques in soil and water quality, microbiology and plant health.

Since October 2022, Irene's main responsibilities have been to develop and implement the carbon monitoring sampling protocols, organize the fieldwork campaigns, and oversee the laboratory processing of soil samples.

Before joining NIBIO, Irene worked in Ireland as a Research technical officer for Teagasc – the Irish Food and Agriculture Development authority, and for University College Dublin (UCD). Her work focused mainly on soil quality, environment, and sustainable resources management.

She has also worked as a Junior Auditor for the EC Food and Veterinary Office, and as an agronomist and researcher on various projects across Italy, Argentina, Tajikistan and Egypt. In Tajikistan she served as a Technical Advisor in sustainable agriculture, where she developed and disseminated information on locally adaptable sustainable land use techniques, water-source protection, and disaster risk reduction.

Irene graduated from the University of Florence with a BSc. Agr. in Agricultural Science for Environmental and Food Security in 2009, and later completed a 2-year MSc. Agr. in Rural Development in 2011.

Current Project: Monitoring Carbon Content in Soil Across the Country

In summer 2023, NIBIO started registering the carbon content in the soil of forests and grassland across the country. Irene Marongiu has been coordinating the fieldwork and managing the laboratory processing of soil samples. The goal is to find out how much carbon is stored in the forest soil and grasslands, and how much this storage changes over time. The soil carbon monitoring program will provide valuable new knowledge about the forest's soil carbon storage and be useful for Norway's greenhouse gas accounting. The monitoring program aims to visit 3000 forests and 300 pastures sites by 2033. The sampling locations are systematically laid out along a grid to ensure a good statistical representation of the variation found in the forests and pastures around the country. The soil carbon monitoring program provides an important basis for further research on the soil's carbon content. By repeating the soil sampling approximately every 10 years, it will be possible to capture any changes in the soil's carbon content over time. This will provide knowledge about how much carbon the soil in the Norwegian forests and pastures absorbs or loses.