SOAR is a research school. In addition to the focus on PhD students, SOAR also includes graduates, postdocs and supervisors in the activities and networks. This is important because they also constitute the research environment, in which the PhD student is under education. SOAR wants to contribute to the professional discussions with a special focus on the organic food and farming systems.
The research interests of SOAR cover a wide range of subjects within organic agriculture and food systems:
Farming system research
Crop production
Resource management
Ecosystem services
Climate change mitigation and adaptation
Livestock production
Animal health and welfare
Consumer and citizens’ involvement
Regulations and policies
Food chains
Food sovereignty
Name
Bolette Lind Mikkelsen
Project
Climate change effects on plant health
Supervisors
Michael Lyngkjær LIFE/KU
David B. Collinge LIFE/KU
Poul Erik Jensen LIFE/KU
Rikke Bagger Jørgensen Risø/DTU
The aim of this PhD project is to understand and describe how predicted changes in our future climate may affect growth of crop plants and their interaction with pathogenic microorganisms. The emphasis will be on the responsiveness of leaves to climate stress in relation to their light environment and how this might influence resistance responses to fungal pathogens.
The project will examine phenotypic, physiologic, cellular and molecular effects of the climatic factors during specific plant-microbe interactions, including both biotrophic and necrotrophic fungi that may act differently to the tested climatic factors, i.e. powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei) and spot blotch (Bipolaris sorokiniana)
Background
There are no data available on the host plant-pathogen interactions of European cereals in a new climate, where more environmental factors are changed simultaneously. The project will yield entirely new insights into the effects of climate change on plant growth and disease resistance, especially in barley, and we will learn about specific effects on host-plant physiology and disease resistance mechanisms in different host genotypes from old land races to modern cultivars. This information is highly important, so it is possible to meet predicted harmful effects to crop production in time through plant breeding
