Aluminium sulphate (Al2(SO4)3) is usually added during the drinking water treatment processin order to precipitate organic and inorganic material, resulting in aluminium-based drinkingwater treatment residual sludge (WTR). Since 2003 Swedish law no longer permits WTR tobe deposited in lakes, and there is an interest to explore the possibility to utilize WTR as soilamendment. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of WTR application on cropgrowth and concentrations of macronutrients and trace elements (including micronutrients andpotential toxic elements). A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted with three soils; a clayloam rich in phosphorous (P), a loamy sand rich in P, and a silty loam with a low soil Pconcentration, and two crop species Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam. cv.

The main project Dry preservation of food waste from households includes a new technique concerning drying and storage of dried biowaste as well as a study of the sorting of household waste and further usage of the dried biowaste. A question asked in the project is, can the dried biowaste be used as a soil amendment? If organic waste is used as a soil amendment, precaution concerning hygienic safety risks has to be accounted for. The objective of this M. Sc.

Pathogenic microorganisms pose a big threat towards food production. Meanwhile, negative impacts on humans and environment are seen by the use of pesticides. Biological control agents are an alternative to the use of chemical pesticides, and plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria, such as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens has been shown to have good properties as biocontrol agents. Before these bacteria can be used commercially their impact on other soil organisms has to be evaluated. This thesis looks into what biocontrol bacteria are and how they might affect earthworms.

This is a study made because I would like to see how much money can be saved when reduced soil preparations is used. This is a case study, the farm is located in the north vest part of Skåne, Sweden. I have calculated with four different soilpreparation methods. Alternative 1: Conventional soil preparation, the way the farm is managed today. Alternative 2: Ploughing on depth of 12 centimeters, with a ridge packer followed with sowing. Alternative 3: Eco-tillage Alternative 4: Direct drilling The results of my study showes that Alternative 2 is the most profitable. Alternative 4 is very good if you see to dieselexpenses and hours of work, but the yield is far to low. If the numbers are further analized, it showes that in spring barley the differense between Alternative 2 and Alternative 4 is at a minimum. So if there is lack of time for one reason or another, this might be an alternative in spring barley. The differense in how the farm is managed today and the most profitable alternative in the study, Alternative 2 showes that it can be saved up to 60 940 SEK..

Ethanol produced from lignocellulosic biomass has the potential to become a promisingalternative to gasoline. In this work the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF)technology was applied for ethanol production from hardwood with focus on cell growth,ethanol production and contamination.The SSF was performed at PH 5.5 and 35°C for different suspended solid concentrations(8%, 10% and 12%) of pretreated birch slurry which contained 16 % total suspended solids.Two different hexose fermenting yeast strain (Ethanol Red) and pentose fermenting yeaststrain were used.Quantifying the concentration of chemical components and metabolites in the fermentationmedium demonstrated that glucose and xylose are the major fermentable sugars in the slurry.The higher load of slurry (12%) represents a higher content of carbohydrates and potentiallyhigher end concentration of ethanol. Moreover, more lactic acid is produced with the lowerload of slurry (8 % or 10 %), presumably due to a result of a less inhibitory environment forbacterial growth. In this context, acetic acid sticks out as the most important inhibitor withconcentrations of 15.2 and 12.5 and 9.7 g/l respectively in the 12 %, 10 % and 8 % (ofsuspended solids) trials. Using pentose fermenting yeast may lead to higher ethanolproduction, lower xylose uptake and lower lactic acid formation.

Vinderosion på jordbruksmark har länge varit ett välkänt faktum trots att någon utförligare undersökning om dess omfattning och skadeverkan inte tidigare genomförts. Mot bakgrund av detta har därför ett nordeuropeiskt projekt, WEELS (Wind Erosion on European Light Soils), dragits i gång som syftar till kartlägga vinderosionen på sandig jordbruksmark i norra Europa och som man i slutändan hoppas ska kunna resultera i en vinderosionsmodell. Detta har genomförts med SOIL modellen, en matematiskt fysikaliskt baserad modell för simulering av vatten och värmeflöde i en skiktad jordmånsprofil..

Hunger is a problem in some parts of the world (www, FAO 1, 2012). The lack of food is often a result of insufficient knowledge in soil fertility management (Röing de Nowina, 2012). Ongoing hunger and malnourishment are quite prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and are often combined with poverty (www, FAO 1, 2012). Farming is the most common occupation in this area and the farms are often small-scale farms with subsistence crops and a few cattle. The farmers who operate these small-scale farms are economically a weak group.

Today it is common to spray against most weeds by using very expensive weed-killers. The goal for every farmer is to have as low costs as possible for their use of machines and weed-killers. Therefore it is in everyones interest to find other methods to fight the weeds. Finding a way to reduce the rise and growth of weeds already at the preparation of the soil would lower the number of laps over the field and also decrease the amount of weed-killing dose. Tests show that by harrow in the dark it is possible to reduce the population of weeds with up to 60%, but the normal reduction would be about 20-30%. To verify the results above we made tests by using two different methods of preparing the soil. We tested ploughing and harrowing in daylight and during night. Later we checked the number of different weeds in areas prepared in daylight and during night. By studying the results from the different methods used we found a considerable reduction of some kinds of weeds in areas prepared during night..

Forest streams and the associated riparian zones are sensitive to disturbances and changes that occur within these riparian areas. Particularly sensitive are small streams of low order, which will have large impacts down-stream. The disturbances that occur in the riparian zones are reflected quickly in the stream. Driving with forestry machines in the riparian zone will have detrimental effects to the soil and water. Driving the machines will lead to changes in the mineral soil composition, resulting in the reduction of porosity, less infiltration, compaction, and an increased bulk density.

Reduced tillage has increased in Sweden during several years, primarily to decrease costs andincrease efficiency in crop production. Despite this, mouldboard ploughing is still the mostcommon primary tillage method on most farms. The aim with this thesis was to compare theuse of pesticides and the occurrence of weeds on ten farms in Skåne and ten farms inMälardalen that use different soil tillage systems. The object of the study was also to clarifywhy the farms had chosen their specific soil tillage system and the consequences it has had onweed occurrence and use of pesticides. The result showed a slightly higher use of pesticideson the farms that use reduced tillage.

Eutrophication of the Baltic Sea is a serious problem. A major contributing factor is diffuse losses of phosphorus (P) from agricultural land in surrounding countries. In order to estimate P losses, environmental monitoring of small agriculture-dominated catchments is being carried out in most of these countries. Evaluation of the risk of P leaching to waters is usually based on chemical tests originally developed to quantify the amount of soil P available for plant production. The tests are performed in different ways in the different countries and a number of different extraction agents are in use.

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from human activities fossil fuels will have to be replaced with renewable energy alternatives, such as bioenergy. Sweden has a great potential to produce bioenergy derived from forest products and there is currently a great interest within Sweden in using stumps for bioenergy production. However, the environmental consequences of the method need to be investigated before stump removal can be performed on a large scale. Swedish forest soils contain large carbon pools and a different land use may change conditions so that soils that presently act as sinks of carbon could potentially turn into sources of carbon release instead. This study investigates the initial effects of stump harvesting on the emissions of three greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The emissions were measured from the soil surface in a Norway spruce forest located in the southern part of Sweden.

There is a great need to reduce nutrient leaching from arable land into lakes and oceans. By using several different types of models it has previously been possible to describe nutrient losses in a catchment area with a minimum unit of sub-catchment level. At present, it is instead desirable to model a smaller catchment with an opportunity to re-connect the results to the corresponding fields in the catchment. Such models already exist but they are not fully able to properly describe Swedish conditions and land characteristics in our region.With the approach of creating such a model, SLU has developed a project with this work as its first stage. The model is expected to be created under the working name SWE-model which stands for Soil Water Environment and is in this first stage supposed to apply the SOIL model in catchment scale. During the procedure to describe the first step in the process of developing such a model adapted to Swedish conditions and which works in the catchment scale with an area of about 10-30 km2, focus has been set on calculating the transport of water flow from different hydrological response units. Regardless of the processes occurring in the soil after the water has been added, it is assumed that all the water which flows from each simulated unit is drained.In the first step the hydrologic response units were identified based on land use and soil type in the study area. With the help of a script with functions that retrieve and transform data, certain units were chosen for simulation. The script was also created in this project. Finally, the model results were aggregated and summarized for each unique unit, for each sub-catchment, and also for the whole catchment.From the results it is possible to see similarities in the flow dynamics between modeled and measured data. The efficiency coefficient has been calculated to correspond to the mean of the measured values for the whole simulation period. With an automated calibration process the model should be able to perform better. The volume error gives an indication of overestimation from the model..

Acid sulphate soils is a wide spread problem along the northern coast of Sweden. This is causing great damage through low pH and leaching of metals out into the streams. These soils are estimated to be found in several places in Sweden but also in many other areas in the world. One of these areas in Sweden that are believed to contain these sediments is Mälardalen. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extension of the acid sulphate soils in this area.

Better, more efficient fertilizers with great productivity and economic returns are needed, but it is important today to find fertilizers that are also sustainable. It is also important to carefully monitor their impact on the environment, including potential side-effects. In this context, the microbial communities that carry out numerous essential functions contributing to a functional ecosystem are of particular interest. The present study is a complement to a pot experiment that investigated the potential of different waste products for use as fertilizers and how they affect the microbial community. In the pot experiment, the clearest treatment change in microorganism community function was found in the fully fertilized treatment used as a positive control. The question was whether this was indirect, i.e.