Ingeborg Callesen

Short presentation

I have worked with terrestrial ecosystem research since 1994, and until 2006 specializing in forest soil science and forest ecology based on field experimentation, field observation (tree growth, phenology, pedology, forest site classification), and statistical modeling using soil databases. Main subjects are carbon storage and cycling, nitrogen storage and leaching from forest ecosystems soil C and N interactions with macro climate, and management aspects of bioenergy including assessment of biomass potential and bioash application. 

The experimental research methods have focused on soil chemistry and soil water chemistry in old common garden experiments established by the Danish Forest and Landscape Research Institute in the 1960ies and 1970ies, and observational monitoring data (national nitrate monitoring 1986-1993). In 2007 I included sustainability science in my research portfolio putting focus on the bioenergy sector in a cross disciplinary team work including environmental and energy economics. In the following post doc project management engineering and life cycle impact assessment was combined with experimental climate change research putting focus on climate change effects on ecosystem services. 

During my entire research life effects of nitrogen on ground water quality and nitrogen cycling in forest ecosystems has been a continued effort, including the interpretation of the natural abundance of the stable isotope ¹⁵N in litter and soil fractions of broadleaved treespecies. 

The work with sustainability assessment (2007-) has led to the insight that interpretation of systems rely on the world views and nature views incorporated in them and may imply the existence of parallel knowledges and paradigms. Research cooperation with the humanities and arts, and social sciences e.g. bioethics, ecological economics and environmental economics is warranted to examine the multi-facetted aspects of the human-nature interaction. The concepts of 'ecosystem health', 'ecosystem damage' and 'ecosystem services' e.g. can only exist in a cross disciplinary context.

Current research

Current projects:

Improving National forest inventory-based carbon stock change estimates for greenhouse gas inVENTories (INVENT). FACCE Eragas.  National teamlead and leader of WP2 Improving soil C change estimates. 2017 - 2020. www.eragas.eu. Innovationsfonden.

INVENT project to develop forest carbon monitoring and accounting
Forest land in Europe annually sequesters atmospheric carbon comparable to the emissions from the agricultural or industrial process sectors. Despite its importance, the full potential of carbon sequestration on forest land in climate change mitigation strategies is not utilized. In large part, this is due to the high uncertainty of carbon stock change estimates of living biomass and forest mineral soil using current national-level methods. New estimation methods, which increase the spatial resolution of estimates by incorporating existing auxiliary data sources, are required to further mobilize the mitigation potential of forest land in Europe. INVENT will use national forest inventory, spatially-explicit remote sensing, and local forest harvest data to increase the precision and spatial resolution of living biomass estimates. INVENT will use forest and soil inventory data, spatially-explicit remote sensing data, and modeling procedures to increase the accuracy and spatial resolution of forest mineral soil carbon stock change estimates. INVENT will apply the developed methods to quantify the effects of forest mitigation measures at the national and sub-national scales. The derived methods and their application will be demonstrated in national greenhouse gas inventories and in case-studies that strengthen the trans-national exchange of knowledge within the consortium countries of Denmark, Latvia, Norway, and Sweden. The results will demonstrate the general applicability of the derived methods to reduce the uncertainty in living biomass and forest mineral soil carbon estimates in greenhouse gas reporting on forest land.

@Facce_eragas @Innovationsfonden

Former projects:

Sinks2: Soil carbon in Danish forests– data consolidation and model development. Danish energy agency. 2014 - 2016.

Oak health: Site classification of oak stands in poor health. Role project scientist. Danish Nature Agency 2015 - 2017

Geosmart cities:  Role: In steering committee. 2016-2017. MUDP

Teaching

Jordbundslære og skovøkologi