Lena Mellin

Current Research Project

My PhD project is part of the Smart manure PhD cohort at the UFZ. In the cohort, four doctoral students are working on possible solutions to the problem of pollutant contamination of agricultural fields, which can occur through the application of liquid manure. Due to industrial processes in animal feed production, the administration of antibiotics and other factors, manure can be contaminated with harmful metals, antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria that have the potential to damage soil health in the agricultural field, lead to yield and quality losses in crops and spread antibiotic resistance.

In my project, I am investigating five different undersown crops with regard to their suitability as phytoremediators*. Undersown crops, i.e. crops that are grown on the field at the same time as the main crop, would at best remove some of the pollutants or at least ensure that they are less accessible to the main crop through biogeochemical processes. This application as a phytoremediator would add to the known advantages of growing undersown crops (e.g. reduction of soil erosion and - evaporation), thus making it all the more interesting as a building block of sustainable agriculture.

*Phytoremediation is a term for the use of plants to purify soils and combines the processes of phytoextraction, phytostabilization and others.

CV / Scientific Career