Per Gundersen

Per Gundersen

PhD, civilingeniør-kemi

 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9199-4033

  • Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C, 24 Skov & Landskab Baghus, 24-0A-AM21

1988 …2019

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Short presentation

My research area is biogeochemical cycling of N, C and water with a main focus on N cycling in forests in particular N retention and nitrate leaching from forest under elevated N deposition (both in temperate and tropical forests). I have also worked with the stable 15N isotope to investigate the fate of deposition N in forest for this I have ongoing long-term (two decades) N addition experiments. My current research is on the controls of C sequestration in forest soils (N, tree species, forest age) in particular I try to resolve the effect of elevated N deposition on the soil C-sink. Other key research has been on monitoring methods and long-term manipulation experiments, forest water quality, afforestation impacts on soil and water, tree species effects on soil and water, climate change and mitigation, greenhouse gas exchange from forest soils which all contribute to the understanding and quantification of environmental services from forests.

CV

Professor, Forest & Landscape Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Life Science. Born October 4, 1958; Married, 3 children. Education 1985: Engineer (academic), specialisation Ecology and Environmental Chemistry, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). 1989: Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences, DTU. 'Air Pollution with Nitrogen Compounds: Effects in Coniferous Forest' (in Danish), 292 pp. Employments 1989-1992: Assistant professor, Laboratory of Environmental Sciences and Ecology, DTU. 1993-2006: Senior scientist, Dept of Applied Ecology, Danish Forest and Landscape Research Institute (DFLRI). 2006: Professor, Dept of Forest and Landscape Ecology, Forest & Landscape Denmark (FLD) University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Life Science Professional career After the PhD I was strongly involved in teaching and development of a new education in environmental science at DTU. My research focused on 'critical loads for nitrogen' and resulted in a concept paper still in use in European air pollution management. From 1993 as senior scientist at DFLRI, I acted as project leader on soft money contracts. Had a 7 month sabbatical at the Ecosystem Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole USA in 1995/96. My main achievements as senior scientist was 1) a synthesis paper on ecosystem responses to N addition in forest which one of the authoritative papers in the field; 2) the compilation and analysis of observational data on N cycling leading to a number of well cited papers including the documentation of the control of soil C on the forest N cycle; 3) the use of 15N fate to track N and C retention; 4) a major synthesis on nitrate leaching from forests; 5) the development of an experimental concept for simulating ecosystem warming by use of automatic curtains keeping heat in the system at night, now used in 10+ experiments in Europe; and 6) a cooperation with S. China Inst. of Botany on N experiments in tropical forests, 15 papers. My skills in research innovation may be illustrated by my involvement in the development of 5 successful proposals (one as coordinator) during the EU FP5 programme period. Now Professor at FLD with a moderate teaching responsibility and currently supervisor for 2 PhDs. Resent works are on environmental services and C sequestration in soils. Key research topics: Biogeochemical cycling of N, C and water with main emphasis on N cycling in forests where I have become one of the leading scientists in Europe. Controls on C sequestration in forest soils (N, tree species, forest age). Afforestation impacts on soil and water. Forest monitoring methods. Long-term manipulation experiments. Climate change and mitigation. Environmental services from forests. Impact I have co-authored 80 refereed papers (69 in ISI journals) which have generated >2900 citations (Web of Science). The two best papers each have ≈300 citations. h-index: 31 . Services to academia, memberships. Subject editor of Biogeochemistry, Springer Verlag 2003-2008. Member of the steering committee for the Strategic Research Initiative on Water at LIFE-KU. Member of COST Action FP 0803 "Belowground carbon turnover in European Forests". Major recent projects coordinator / project leader responsibility 2010-2014 Forest Soil C Sink Nordic Network, NordForsk, 3 mill. DKK. Co-ordinator. 2009-2012 Carbon sequestration in forest soils - the effect of nitrogen deposition. Villum Fonden, 3,3 mill. 2006-2011 NitroEurope IP "The nitrogen cycle and its influence on the European greenhouse gas balance", 1,9 mill DKK; Activity leader for 12 experiments in forests. http://www.nitroeurope.eu/ 2005-2014 Centre of Advanced Research in Environmental Services (CAR-ES), Nordic research network, SNS 0,4 mill. DKK/yr. Co-ordinator. 2001-2005 Carbon-Nitrogen interactions in forest ecosystems (CNTER), EU-project, 11 partners from 8 countries, 3.5 mill DKK (total 20 mill. DKK). Co-ordinator. Supervision and teaching Current PhD supervision of Shimon Ozeri Ginzburg and Teresa Gomez de la Barcena. Supervision of one MSc. Visiting scholars: PhD-student Lei Liu (2010), Prof. Jiang-Ming Mo (2008) and Postdoc Yun-Ting Fang (2007-8) all South China Institute of Botany. Marie Curie post doc Lars-Ola Nilsson (2007-9) Lund Univ. Senior scientist Bjørn Berg (2005-6) Univ. of Bayreuth. Teaching: MSc course 'Land Use, Element Balances and Environmental impact', contributing teacher in three other courses. Publication counts Peer reviewed articles: 80; Monographs: 1; Book chapters: 3; Proceedings: 75; Public outreach activities: 65; Reports and report contributions: 43.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 13 - Climate Action
  • SDG 14 - Life Below Water
  • SDG 15 - Life on Land

Keywords

  • Land use and management
  • Global warming
  • Groundwater
  • ???Jord, vand og arealanvendelse???
  • Soil chemistry
  • Climate change
  • Natural resources
  • ???Planters interaktion med miljø, jord og grundvand???
  • ???Skovdyrkning og -drift???
  • Water balance

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  • 2 Membership in board of company or public organisation
  • 1 Membership in committee, council, board
  • 1 Membership in research network
  • 1 Membership in review committee

  • SkovNitrat

    Gundersen, P. (Creator), Institut for Geovidenskab og Naturforvaltning, Københavns Universitet, 2008

    Dataset

  • Soil carbon loss in warmed subarctic grasslands is rapid and restricted to topsoil

    Verbrigghe, N. (Creator), Leblans, N. I. W. (Creator), Sigurdsson, B. D. (Creator), Vicca, S. (Creator), Fang, C. (Creator), Fuchslueger, L. (Creator), Soong, J. L. (Creator), Weedon, J. T. (Creator), Poeplau, C. (Creator), Ariza-Carricondo, C. (Creator), Bahn, M. (Creator), Guenet, B. (Creator), Gundersen, P. (Creator), Gunnarsdóttir, G. E. (Creator), Kätterer, T. (Creator), Liu, Z. (Creator), Maljanen, M. (Creator), Marañón-Jiménez, S. (Creator), Meeran, K. (Creator), Oddsdóttir, E. S. (Creator), Ostonen, I. (Creator), Peũelas, J. (Creator), Richter, A. (Creator), Sardans, J. (Creator), Sigurðsson, P. (Creator), Bodegom, P. M. V. (Creator), Verbruggen, E. (Creator), Walker, T. W. N. (Creator), Wallander, H. (Creator) & Janssens, I. A. (Creator), Zenodo, 2021

    DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4745479, https://zenodo.org/record/4745479

    Dataset