
Environmental Geosciences
Research Group Alewell

University of Basel
Environmental Geosciences
Bernoullistr. 30
CH-4056 Basel
Switzerland
phone: +41 61 207 0480
About Us
In a world where basic resources become limited and where 95% of all food and feed stems from soils, we focus on soil health and soil degradation in upland (oxic) as well as wetland (anoxic) soils. On small scale, we develop and apply isotopic (component specific as well as bulk), radiogenic and biomarker tracers. We use these tracers as indicators of wetland status (natural, drained or restored) as well as to asses soil degradation of upland soils with a focus on soil erosion. To bridge from small scale to large scale we apply modelling and remote mapping, ranging from local, regional to global scale. To achieve the latter, automated machine learning and geostatistics are used to interpolate remote tools (aerial photos, satellite data). To assess soil degradation, we include evaluation of nutrient budgets and export (especially phosphorus loss from soil ecosystems in the light of the imminent threat of peak phosphorus). More recently, we have added soil hydraulic properties in our assessments of soil health status. Soil – atmosphere interactions are considered in the evaluation of ice nucleation properties of soil and plant particles, as wind-blown soil dust has potentially a major effect in the atmosphere influencing climate and weather patterns by inducing the formation of ice in tropospheric clouds.
Info - News - Events
24.10..22 jobs | we are hiring for our new projects:jobs.unibas.ch |
24.10.22 Thesis | MSc- Arbeit bei Agroscope: Paddy rice as a climate-smart solution for the agricultural use of degraded peatlands? |
7.9.22 Thesis | BSc-/MSc- Arbeit im Bereich Mercury monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention in Switzerland. |
5.9.22 news | Dr. S. Scheper in Nature Communications Mercury isotope evidence for Arctic summertime re-emission of mercury from the cryosphere |
15.6.22 news | Boden des Jahres 2022: Der Pelosol – stabiler Ton oder doch verwundbar? Dr. Simon Scheper (Dähre) von Dr. Simon Scheper. |
3.5.2022 news | Pelosol - Boden des Jahres 2022: Informationen zum Thema können Sie in der Publikation (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jpln.202200024) nachlesen oder in einem Videobeitrag (https://youtu.be/Iu6acXMFSaI) ansehen. |
10.3.22 news | Completed project: Tracking soil erosion with Big Data - “WeObserve” - as short video now avaiable https://youtu.be/iLBwN8BwiEI. |