Research groups

The research activities of the Lab of Soil and biomass chemistry (Cà Vignal 2, room 2.31) are mainly focused on native and exogeneous organic matter in soils.

Main research topics:
- characterization of organic matter in soils, sediments and biomass;
- evolution of organic matter in soils and sediments in relation to climate changes (sinks or sources of C?);
- biogeochemistry of major and trace elements;
- sustainable and safe biomass utilization in agriculture.

Main equipment:
- elemental analyser: CHNS vario MACRO cube (Elementar);
- spectrophotometer: fluorescence spectrophotometer FL 6500, able to work in em, ex, syn, and 3D scan mode, with holder for liquid, solid and dust samples (PerkinElmer);
- thermal analysis system: termogravimetric analyser coupled with simultaneous differential scanning calorimetry TGA-DSC 3+ (Mettler Toledo);
- vibratory sieve shaker: AS 200 (Retsch);
- balance: WXTE analytical balance, 6 decimal places (Mettler Toledo);
- mill: ball mill MM 400 (Retsch);
- lab oven: universal oven UF75 (Memmert).

Small equipment:
- pHmeter (XS);
- ECmeter (XS);
- set for soil sampling (Eijkelkamp);
- corers for peat and sediment sampling (Belarus, Wardenaar) (Eijkelkamp).