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Plant Nutrients in Agro-Ecosystems - Recent Advances in Plant and Soil Analysis
Provider: Faculty of Science

Activity no.: 5697-25-09-31There are 25 available seats 
Enrollment deadline: 11/04/2025
PlaceDepartment of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Date and time28.04.2025, at: 08:00 - 30.05.2025, at: 16:00
Regular seats25
Activity Prices:
  - Deltager/Participant outside UCPH500.00 €
  - Deltager/participant enrolled at Danish Universities0.00 kr.
ECTS credits4.00
Contact personDaniel Pergament Persson    E-mail address: dap@plen.ku.dk
Enrolment Handling/Course OrganiserDaniel Pergament Persson    E-mail address: dap@plen.ku.dk
Written languageEnglish
Teaching languageEnglish
Semester/BlockBlock 4
Grading scaleCompleted/ Not completed
Criteria for exam assessmentFinalization of a project report and active participation (>80%) in the on-site teaching. The report will be independently evaluated by two in-house researchers, both with expertise in the chosen topic.
Course workload
Course workload categoryHours
Lectures16.00
Theoretical exercises8.00
Preparation70.00
Laboratory8.00
Field Work8.00
Sum110.00
Content
Plant production faces a number of urgent challenges related to sustainability, plant and soil health and food quality. As the correct determination of the mineral composition of plants and soil materials is key to more sustainable agricultural production, precise and reliable analyses of biological materials has a central role in formulating strategies for the green transition of plant production. The course will have a focus on cutting-edge methodologies for plant and soil analyses, including considerations and hands-on training regarding field sampling, choice of analytical methods and interpretation of results. The course will also introduce strategies on how to address the current challenges facing agricultural plant production in a climate change context. As such, the course has an emphasis on how plant and soil analyses can provide a platform for designing fertilizer and management practices, to improve the climate resilience of plant-based production systems.

Aim and content
•The course will provide a theoretical foundation for conducting robust mineral and carbon analyses of soil and plant samples, including quantitative and semi-quantitative, destructive and non-destructive methods and strategies for field sampling, field analyses, sample preparation, sample analysis and data interpretation.

•The course includes hands-on field sampling and laboratory training.

•The course will focus on interpretation of analytical results with respect to understanding the processes in plant production systems that determine soil and plant health in a changing climate, including nutrient acquisition and utilization by plants and the turnover and bio-availability of plant nutrients in soils and fertilizers.

•The course will utilize in-house expertise from a range of different fields, including analytical chemistry, biotic and abiotic plant stress factors, nutrient use efficiency and food quality. Additionally, there will be guest lectures from leading commercial companies with plant and soil testing (e.g. FOSS, Agreena and FLEX fertilizer system).

Formel requirements
Master degree and currently enrolled as a PhD student

Learning outcome

Knowledge:
•Cutting-edge techniques for plant and soil analyses. There will be a focus on understanding the value of data quality and how to obtain robust analytical results.
•How plant and soil analyses can be used to determine the utilization of plant nutrients and how their bio-availability in soils and fertilizers are affected by various biotic and abiotic stress factors.

Skills:
•The students will be skilled at planning and executing plant and soil testing, including hands-on experience with all the crucial steps needed for a robust analysis of mineral nutrients. They will also be skilled with respect to how to integrate the classical concepts and methodologies of plant nutrition and soil fertility, with the most urgent challenges related to food security and food quality.

Competences:
•The students will be competent with respect to choosing and applying the most feasible methods of plant and soil testing. They will also be competent with respect to integrating these data into concepts and theories for a sustainable use of plant nutrients

Literature
Mainly peer-reviewed articles, provided by each teacher. All literature will be available to the students 4 weeks before the onset of the course.

Target group
International and Danish PhD students, with a particular interest in plant and soil analysis in the context of producing high quality plant-based foods in a changing climate.
The course is relevant for students in Agriculture, Biology, Biotechnology, but should also attract students from programs related to natural resources, environmental and analytical chemistry.

Teaching and learning methods
Each teacher will give lectures interspaced with discussions. Each lecture will relate to given literature. There will also be smaller group works and theoretical exercises.
Two of the teaching days will be dedicated to practical work (one day of field sampling/drone-based field analysis and one day with sample preparation and analysis, mainly ICP-MS and IR-MS).
All students will collect samples, prepare these for analysis and execute a plant and/or soil analysis. They will analyze the acquired data and present these as a project report, which is due two weeks after the end of the on-site teaching period

Lecturers
2 guest lecturers from a leading Danish and Nordic company, to be announced.
The guest lecturers will give insights on the most relevant analytical techniques currently on the market, and provide a commercial aspect of these techniques, i.e. which parameters that are needed for a technique to be both practical, reliable and commercially viable.

Workload

Preparations from the start of block 4 (28/4-2025)

Full-time, on site mandatory teaching all of week 20; 12-16th of May 2025. 

16th to 30th of May 2025: Two weeks of preparing and submitting the project report 

Preliminary schedule: 
Monday:
• Introduction to methods for analyzing mineral nutrients in plants and soil
• Quantitative methods
• Semi-quantitative methods
• Field methods, including drone-based methods and portable analytical instruments

Tuesday: 
• Field work at the UC research station in Taastrup
• Demonstration and testing of drone-based methods
• Drying and homogenization of samples

Wednesday: 
• Sample preparation in the laboratory (UC)
• Analysis of samples
• Two guest lectures from leading commercial companies within the field of plant and soil analysis

Thursday:
• How to integrate the classical concepts and methodologies of plant nutrition & soil fertility
  with the most urgent challenges related to food security and food quality
• Start with project work

Friday: 
• Project work
• Closing seminar, summary of main results and project reporting

 

Remarks

Course fee for participants from non-Danish Universities (except Wangeningen University): 500 € 

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