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:
The objective of the study is to investigate how implementation of bioenergy production in agricultural systems affects the environment, e.g. when crops are used for bioenergy production, when new crops are taken into the crop-rotation and when organic fertilizers are used for bioenergy before recycling.
The focus is on N-balances, soil organic matter and Green House Gas (GHG)-emissions. The effect of different strategies for implementation of bioenergy production on these parameters is analysed on farm scale level and on a regional level. Both organic and conventional agricultural systems for bioenergy production is analysed, but with a special emphasis on bioenergy production in organic agricultural systems.
The overall hypothesis of the PhD-project is that an increased bioenergy production is possible without increasing the environmental effects of agriculture and that bioenergy production in some cases can even contribute to a more sustainable land use.
Background
An important issue in the current national and international debate is how to counteract the global warming. In this debate production of bioenergy is seen as one way to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and to diminish the dependency on oil and fossil energy. However, if the production of bioenergy is meant to be increased substantially a new pressure on the land resource is created and there is a risk that the environmental effects of the agriculture are increased. On the other hand, a changed landuse as an effect of increased bioenergy production also gives the possibility of the introduction of crops and cropping systems that contribute to a more sustainable land use.
