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Soil spectroscopy

The time, cost, and labour intensiveness of current methods for soil analysis necessitate a shift to rapid and cheaper alternatives. Recent advances in sensing technologies are promising and offer potentially effective methods for soil property quantification and characterisation. 

Our aim is to use novel breakthrough technologies. We adapt such state-of-art spectroscopic methods as: 

  1. Visible Near-Infrared (vis-NIR)
  2. Mid Infrared (MIR)
  3. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) 

Application of infrared spectroscopy (IR) for the analysis of the key soil properties is based on the fact that spectra hold information on soil fundamental composition − its organic and inorganic materials. IR is a fast, non-invasive and inexpensive analytical method that can be applied for both laboratory and field analysis. 

There is a need to expand our lab and field spectroscopy to remote sensing activities and bridge the gap between the two areas of research.

Cecilie Hermansen

Postdoc Department of Agroecology - Soil Physics and Hydropedology