Sustainable mineral nutrition
We are interested in quantifying nutrient fluxes occurring at different scales in the tree ecosystem, with particular reference to agricultural ones. Our major goal is to provide scientifically sound data that could be used to guide the addition of mineral nutrients to optimize yields and quality of products while minimizing the risks of nutrient losses into the environment.
Major areas of interest include:
- Nutrient needs
- Dynamics of nutrient uptake and partitioning
- Storage and remobilization of nutrients
- Nutrient release from decomposing tree material in soil
We use stable isotopes, especially nitrogen, to track the movement of this element from the soil to the root and viceversa. One of our expertise is isotope tracers that we successfully used to quantify nitrogen rhizodeposition and leaf litter decomposition.