University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical faculty
The University of Ljubljana is a leading public institution of higher education in Slovenia that strives to promote basic and applied research. The Centre for Soil and Environmental Science, which belongs to the Biotechnical Faculty is the leading group in the field of National Soil Surveys, Soil pollution assessment and Soil Quality monitoring. Research activities of the group are focused on soil genesis in relation to soil properties, agricultural soil management, soil conservation tillage, nutrient cycling and fertility, GHG emissions, pesticide risk assessment, bioremediation of contaminated soils and land-use planning.
Role within SOB4ES
University of Ljubljana (UL) will be actively involved in all work packages of SOB4ES. UL primary focus will be on WP2, which involves the analyses of soil biodiversity under various intensities of major EU land-use types. UL will contribute by providing soil samples from multiple Slovenian sites in the Alpine South and Mediterranean Mountains environmental zones, encompassing different land-use types.
UL will analyse soil nutrients and heavy metals across all sampled sites. Moreover, UL team will quantify selected soil nitrogen cycling guilds, along with total bacteria, fungi, and archaea, for the entire Consortium. In WP3, UL will participate in the development of the indicator framework, establish links between biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ES), and contribute to the mapping of ES across Europe.
Further, UL’s involvement extends to WP5, where UL will apply their knowledge for practical applications aimed at promoting soil biodiversity.
