Belowground Crop Ecology
Root system development and function play an important role in future more sustainable cropping systems. We investigate the development, uptake, and plasticity of roots and the responses to the soil conditions and abiotic stresses. We have a strong focus on yield stability of legumes for food and feed with emphasis on root development, drought tolerance as well as root interactions in intercropping systems. Furthermore, we study roots, acquisition of water, phosphorus, and nitrogen and root interactions at different scales from field to lab.
Root development and drought tolerance: we investigate the effect of rooting depth and distribution on tolerance towards environmental stressors such as drought.
Protein crops: we aim to develop more sustainable cropping systems including legumes with improved yield stability as a protein source for food and feed. We provide novel knowledge on the root systems of forage and grain legumes and the significance for more climate-smart systems.
Plant based food: We work with old cultivars of pea to find well-tasting, high quality protein sources that are agronomical realistic to grow for plant based foods
Intercropping: we aim to unravel root competition, facilitation and complementarity when growing two or more species together.
Root system development in 3D: we are applying CT scanning to root systems in soil uncovering the three dimensional root development over time.
- IMFABA - Examining if drought tolerance in different lines of faba bean is dependent on rooting depth and distribution in order to increase yield stability.
- PEAS & LOVE - Potential of old pea cultivars for human consumption. Genetic characterization, quality and agronomy.
- Root development in forage legumes Cultivar differences in rooting depth and distribution of red clover, white clover and lucerne and effect of intercropping on root development.
- RootOutP Investigating interactions between plant roots and phosphorus in soil using CT scanning
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Start Package grant Tenure-Track Assistant Professor
- Carbon Sequestrate in mixtures
- ClimateClover - Drought tolerance in white clover as a future breeding target
- N2CROP
- DIGIFABA
- Siegwart L, Muller-Stover D, Dresbøll DB, Larsen J, Colombi T, Keller T, van der Bom F. 2025. Belowground Interactions in a Barley Cultivar Mixture: Root Distribution and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Contributions to Uptake of Heterogeneous Phosphorus. Physiologia Plantarum 177(4) e70363 https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.70363
- Wacker TS, Smith AG, Jensen SM, Pfluger T, Hertz VG, Rosenqvist E, Liu F, Dresbøll DB. 2025. Stomata morphology measurement with interactive machine learning: accuracy, speed, and biological relevance? Plant Methods 21(1), 95 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-025-01416-2
- Wacker, TS, van der Bom, F, Delory, BM, Vetterlein, D, Postma, JA, Nagel, KA, Schnepf, A, & Dresbøll, DB (2024). Back to the roots: standardizing root length density terminology. Plant and Soil. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-07075-x
- Wacker TS & Dresbøll DB. 2023. Checking the pulse – perspectives on grain legume production. Trends in Plant Science 28 (9): 991-994. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2023.06.004
Research group members
| Navn | Titel | Arbejdsområde | Telefon | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Søg i Navn | Søg i Titel | Søg i Arbejdsområde | Søg i Telefon | |
| Agnes Karla Tillitz Pedersen | Videnskabelig assistent | |||
| Anna Marzal Monfort | Videnskabelig assistent | +4535334662 | ||
| Chuxi Zhu | Ph.d.-stipendiat | +4535328944 | ||
| Dorte Bodin Dresbøll | Lektor | +4535333452 | ||
| Frederik van der Bom | Tenure Track Adjunkt | +4535337128 | ||
| Helena Møller Nørgård | Ph.d.-stipendiat | +4535322638 | ||
| Jens Axel Knuhtsen | Ph.d.-stipendiat | +4535328733 | ||
| Katrin Magdalena Amann | Ph.d.-stipendiat | +4535323283 | ||
| Lorène Siegwart | Postdoc | +4535321512 | ||
| Tomke Susanne Wacker | Postdoc | |||
| Yannick Valentin El Khoury | Ph.d.-stipendiat | +4535325864 |
