CV

Bo Elberling
Professor, Dr. Scient, PhD.

Full professorship in soil environmental biogeochemistry with research and teaching in soil dynamic processes, soil physics, subsurface gas dynamic, soil-root and plant interactions and net exchange of gasses between the soil and the atmosphere.

Soil processes in focus the last 10 years include: phosphorus availability, pyrite oxidation, heavy metal tracing and accumulation, soil organic matter turnover, nitrous oxide production and hotspots, soil oxygen transport and consumption & methane oxidation.

Place of work

Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen

Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark

Phone:  +45 3532 2520 (office); +45 2363 8453 (mobile)

E-mail: [email protected]

Scientific education                                                                      

2005: Dr. Scient., Environmental Soil Biogeochemistry (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

1996: PhD, Biogeochemistry (Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Canada & Institute of Geology,University of Aarhus, Denmark)

1993: MSc, hydrogeology (Institute of Geology, University of Aarhus, Denmark)

Employment                                     

2005- Full professorship in Environmental Soil Science at Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2016-2020: Affiliated Faculty, Department of Geosciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska

2007-2013: Professor II (20%), The University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS, Norway

2002-2007: Guest lecturer, UNIS, The University Courses on Svalbard, Norway

2002-2005: Associated professor, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen

2001-2005: External associated professor, Institute of Geology, Aarhus University

2000-2002: Associated research professor, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen

1997-2000: Assistant research professor, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen

1997: Research scientist (University of Waterloo, Canada, 3 months)

Responsibilities and membership       

Director and head of the board for Arctic Station, Disko (West Greenland)

Centre leader of Centre for Permafrost (funded 2012-2023) current activities until 2028

Board member and WP leader of Global Wetland Center

Membership:

Board member of The Royal Danish Geographical Society

Board member of The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters

Member of Norway “Videnskabsakademi for Polarforskning”

2020-22: Vice president of The Royal Danish Geographical Society,

2018-2022: Committee member of the Villum Young Investigator Programme

2008-2011: Member of National Research Foundation evaluation board (Norway)

2006-2014: Head of Research: Terrestrial Ecosystem Analysis

2005 and until today: Board member for Arctic Station, University of Copenhagen

2004-2014: Member of Zackenberg Basic Working Group for the Zackenberg Research Station

2003-2013: Scientific head of the physical-chemical laboratory at IGN 

Regular reviewer including the following journals: Science, Nature, Nature Climate Change, Nature Geoscience, Global Change Biology, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Advances in Ecological Research, Applied Geochemistry, Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research, Cold Regions Science and Technology, European Journal of Soil Sciences, , Journal of Hydrology, Water Resources Research, Water, Air and Soil Pollution. Associated guest editor for Biogeosciences.

Teaching                                                        

Biogeochemical Cycles & Impacts in Society (SVS)

Environmental Soil Science

Problem-oriented Project Work (POP)

Project Course in Geography and Geoinformatics

Field and Method course (Greenland) every second year

Field courses in physical geography - Skallingen (Denmark) – including lectures

Regular PhD-courses:

Organic matter in soil; pools and processes

COGCI course in Ecosystem processes

Theory of science, multi-disciplinarity, methodology and research design in spatial sciences and geography

Supervising:

At present, supervising four MSc-students and three PhD-students: Hans Frederik Engvej Hansen, Birgitte Kortegaard Danielsen & Bingqian Zhao.

Completed >75 MSc-students and 26 PhD-students since 2000: Jens V. Søndergaard, Louise Askær Jensen, Asger Nielsen, Jørgen Hollesen, Christian Juncher Jørgensen, Thilde Bech Bruun, Philipp Semenchuk, Sarka Vaclavkova, Cecilie Skov Nielsen, Thor Markussen, Ludovica D'Imperio, Mette Bendixen, Nynne Larsen, Stefanie Härtel, Samuel Faucherre, Mojtaba Karami, Rasmus Fenger Nielsen, Laura Helene Rasmussen, Emily Pickering Pedersen, Jonathan von Oppen,  Candice Casandra Power, Sebastian Fabian Zastruzny, Lena Hermesdorf & Hanbo Yun.

Postdocs: Eva Walderndorff (2009-2011), Lars Liengaard (2011-2012), Christian Juncher Jørgensen (2011-2014), Marie Arndal (2012-2014), Daan Blok (2012-2015), Wenxin Zhang (2015-2019), Andreas Westergaard-Nielsen (2015-2019), Jana Voriskova (2016-2020) & Ludovica D'Imperio (2016-2021), Louise Mortensen (2020-) & Peiyan Wang (2022-).

Publications

Peer reviewed journal papers: 266

(21 in Nature & Science journals)

Google scholar citations:

21,382 citations; H index; 72 (12 June 2025)

Danish popular/outreach publications: 32

Books: 8

Research interests

Biogeochemistry, soil sciences and environmental impact and modelling: My research has focused on the controls and environmental impacts resulting from oxidation processes in soils, including sulphide oxidation and chemical fluxes in frozen soils, heavy metal release and mobilization and decomposition of organic matter in natural and managed ecosystems. Research is based on field measurements, laboratory experiments and modelling.

Key topics covered the past 8 years include: polar carbon and nitrogen cycling; permafrost thawing; nitrate dynamics, flooding and nitrous oxide production; forest carbon and nitrogen dynamics; pyritic oxidation and acid mine drainage;  diffusive and advective oxygen transport; heavy metal mobility and toxicity, soil development rates, archaeology – burial mounds and kitchen middens & tropical land use changes and changes in soil fertilization.

Ongoing PI projects (externally financed)

2024-2029: Global Wetland Center (GWC, funded by Novo Nordic Foundation, 60 mill DKR, WP leader)

2012-2028: Center for Permafrost (CENPERM, center of excellence funded by Danish National Research Foundation, 100 mill DKR, PI and Center director)

2019-2025: Versatile Emerging infectious disease Observatory (VEO, funded by Horizon 2020, partner-PI)

2021-2025: Understanding Arctic browning from macro to nano (VR-project funded by Swedish Research Council)

2024-2028: Mercury sources in the arctic: the use stable isotopes to trace future sources (MINAMATA, funded by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency)

Previous PI-projects

2021-2023; Greenhouse gas emissions from paddy ecosystems (funded by Asia Pacific Network, APN)

2016-2020: REsearch and Management of Archaeological sites IN a changing environment and Society, REMAINS in Greenland (funded by VELUX fonden, partner-PI)

2014-2018: Coffee production in Costa Rica – nitrous oxide emissions and environmental controls (Coffee-Flux observatory funded by French national research infrastructure ANAEE-F, partner-PI)

2014-2017: Effects of snow depth and snow melt timing on arctic plant ecology (SnoEco funded by The Norwegian Research Council, National project PI)

2012-2017: DiskoBasis – Ecosystem monitoring at Arctic Station (funded by Danish Energy Agency, PI)

2011-2015: Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century (PAGE21, funded by EU, a large-scale integrating project, FP7, PI/KU, partner lead)

2011-2014: International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic (INTERACT, funded under 7th FWP (Seventh Framework Programme), PI on Arctic Station, Disko, partner lead)

2010-2014: Nitrous oxide dynamics: The missing link between controls on subsurface N₂O production/consumption and net atmospheric emission (funded by Danish Natural Science Research Council, PI)

2008-2012: Microbial oxidation of pyrite in anaerobic groundwater systems (MOPAG, funded by GeoCenter – Denmark)

2010-2012: PERMAGAS: impact on permafrost, gashydrates and periglacial processes following climate changes in Greenland (funded by GeoCenter – Denmark)

2009-2012: Climate changes and kitchen-midden: when permafrost thaw (funded by Augustinus Fonden)

2010-2011: Environmental studies of Brazilian wetlands in relation to climate change (funded by Danish Agency for Science)

2009-2011: “Project de faisabilité des resource de l’énergi renouvelables au Mali” (funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark)

2007-2010: Oxygen availability controlling the dynamics of buried organic carbon pools and greenhouse gas emissions (funded by Danish Natural Science Research Council)

2009-2010: Permafrost observatory in the Nordic Arctic: sensitivity and feedback mechanisms of permafrost changes (funded by Norden)

2008-2009: International University Course on High Arctic Permafrost Landscape Dynamics in Svalbard and Greenland (funded by Nordic Council of Ministers, the TSP Norway IPY project & UNIS)

2007-2009: Carbon cycling in tundra soils affected by goose grazing and increasing winter snow (partly funded by UNIS, University of Copenhagen and Danish Natural Science Research Council)

2007-2009: The Ikka fiord and carbonate columns (funded by Villum Kann Rasmussen Fonden)

2005-2009: Soil mapping within High Arctic valley, Zackenberg (funded by Environmental Department, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Denmark)

2006-2007: The Origin and Genesis of Coastal Barrier Systems (funded by Danish Natural Science Research Council)

2006-2007: Nitrate reduction in pyritic sediments – biologically driven? (funded by GeoCenter Copenhagen)

2004-2006: Snow and temperature control of biogeochemical oxidation processes in natural and managed High Arctic ecosystems (funded by Danish Natural Science Research Council)

2003-2006: Natural spatial subsidies in continental Antarctic soils (funded by the Antarctic Research Committee (ARC) and New Zealand Antarctic Institute)

2004-2005: Carbon sequestration and water quality in forest ecosystems - interactions between tree species and soil types (funded by SJVF, Danish Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council)

2002-2005: University Support for Environmental Planning and Management in Vietnam (USEPAM, funded by DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency)

2001-2004: Carbon pools and turnover in relation to land use in grassland in Africa: Northern Senegal and Tanzania (Danish International Development Agency)

2000-2003: Quantification and modelling of gas behaviour and weathering processes in the unsaturated zone (Danish Natural Science Research Council)

1999-2002: Environmental controls on sulphide oxidation and heavy metal transport and accumulation in Arctic ecosystems (DANCEA, Environmental Department, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Denmark)

1996-1999: Chemical fluxes in frozen soil (MIKA, Environmental Department, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Denmark)

1996-1999: Soil solution chemistry and soil weathering in Arctic soils at Zackenberg, NE-Greenland (co-operation project with University of Washington, USA)

1997-1999: Soil acidification and pH-measurements of soil solution (Greenland)

1997-1999: Chemical fluxes in mine tailings deposited in Arctic Canada (co-operation project with University of Waterloo, Canada)

1996-1997: Natural oxidation of sulphide minerals within gossans located in High Arctic Greenland (Danish Natural Science Research Council)

1995: Field measurements of oxygen uptake in relation to water draw down and atmospheric pressure cycles (Danish Natural Science Research Council)

1995: Gas transport modelling of oxygen advection and consumption in the unsaturated zone

1994: Development of in-situ methods to evaluate oxygen uptake from the surface of tailings

1994: Stepwise cementation experiments and laboratory measurements of diffusion coefficients (Institute of Geology, Aarhus University)

1993: Laboratory experiments on oxidation of mine tailings in columns including oxygen diffusion and release of oxidation products

1993: Programming a diffusion model and simulation of transport and reaction controls for pyrite oxidation in tailings (project at University of Waterloo, Canada)

Extented research visits                                    

2011: Research visit to University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

2010: Research visit to Lincoln University, New Zealand

2008: Research visit to University of California, Santa Barbara & University of Arizona, USA

2005/06: Research visit to Plant and Microbial Sciences, University of Canterbury, New Zealand and field work in Antarctica

2002: Research visit to Plant and Microbial Sciences, University of Canterbury, New Zealand and field work in Antarctica

2001: Research visit to Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

2000: Steno scholarship, Danish Natural Science Research Council Steno grant (3 years)

1999: Research scientist at Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Washington, USA

Short presentation

I am geologist by training and have worked as a soil scientist since 1995 with a focus on geochemical and biological processes in soils across the globe. I am fascinated by the diversity of nature and the opportunities it gives to people. I have lost my heart to several places around the globe; including tropical agriculture systems in Africa and Central America, natural wetlands in Denmark, extreme soils in the Pantanal (Brazil), Antarctica and  Greenland. At the centre of excellence (Center for Permafrost), we focus on how soil, plants and microorganisms as an integrated arctic ecosystem are affected by climate fluctuations. 

Short presentation

Environmental soil science and biogeochemistry

Research goals: Quantitative assessment and optimization of carbon and nitrogen use in terrestrial ecosystems under current and future climate conditions.

Research relates to: local-regional and global greenhouse gas exchange and budgets, landuse changes, climate change, soil formation and contamination.

Examples of recent senior authored publications:

Søndergaard, J., Elberling, B., Sonne, C. Larsen, M.M., Skov, H & Dietz, R. (2025) Spatial and trophic-level mercury isotopes trends in high-trophic Greenland biota: indicators of sources and pathways. Nature Communications 16, 5135.

Jiao, Y., Kramshøj, M., Davie-Martin, C.L., Elberling, B & Rinnan, R. (2025) The active layer soils of Greenlandic permafrost areas can function as important sinks for volatile organic compounds. Communications Earth & Environment 6, 32.

Virkkala, A-M., Rogers, B.M., Watts, J.D., Arndt, K.A., Potter, S., Wargowsky, I., Schuur, E.A.G., See, C., Mauritz, M., Boike, J., Bret-Harte, S.M., Burke, E.J., Burrell, A., Chae, N., Chatterjee, A., Chevallier, F., Christensen, T.R., Commane, R., Dolman, H., Edgar, C,W., Elberling, B. et al. (2025)  Wildfires offset the increasing but spatially heterogeneous Arctic-boreal CO₂ uptake. Nature Climate Change 15, 335-335.

See, C.R., Virkkala, A-M., Natali, S.M., B.M. Rogers, M. Mauritz, M. Aurela, C. Biasi, S. Bokhorst, J. Boike, S.M. Bret-Harte, G. Celis, N. Chae, T.R. Christensen, R. Commane, S.J. Connon, S. Dengel, H. Dolman, C.W. Edgar, B. Elberling, et. al. (2024). Decadal increases in carbon uptake offset by respiratory losses across northern permafrost ecosystems. Nature Climate Change 14, 853–862.

Maes, S., Dietrich, J., Midolo, G., Schwieger, S., Kummu, M., Vandvik, V., Aerts, R., Althuizen, I. Biasi, C., Elberling, B. et al., (2024) Environmental drivers of persistently increased ecosystem respiration with warming in the tundra. Nature 629, 105–113.

Yun, H., Ciais, P., Zhu, Q., Chen, D., Zohner, C.M., Tang, J., Qu, Y., Zhou, H., Schimel, J., Zhu, P., Shao, M., Christensen, J.H., Wu, Q., Chen, A., & Elberling, B. (2024) Changes in above- versus belowground biomass distribution in permafrost regions in response to climate warming. PNAS 12 (25) e2314036121.

Elberling, B., Kovács, G.M., Hansen, H.F.E., Fensholt, R., Ambus, P., Tong, X., Gominski, D., Mueller, C.W., Poultney, D.M.N. & Oehmcke, S. (2023). High nitrous oxide emissions from temporary flooded depressions within croplands. Nature Communications Earth & Environment 4, 463.

D’Imperio, L., Lib, B., Wang, P., Christiansen, J.R., Rojas, S.K., Westergaard-Nielsen, A., Holm, P.E, Oh, Y., Ambus, P., Brandt, K.K., Tiedje, T. & Elberling, B. (2023) Spatial controls of methane uptake in Arctic upland soils across climatic and geological regions. Nature Communications Earth & Environment 4, 461.

Mishra, U., G. Hugelius, E. Shelef, Y. Yang, J. Strauss, A. Lupachev, J.W. Harden, J.D. Jastrow, C-L. Ping, W.J. Riley, E.A.G. Schuur, R. Matamala, M. Siewert, L.E. Nave, C.D. Koven, M. Fuchs, J., Palmtag, P. Kuhry, C.C. Treat, S. Zubrzycki, F.M. Hoffman, B. Elberling, P. Camill, A. Lemeeva & A. Orr. (2021) Spatial heterogeneity and environmental predictors of permafrost region soil organic carbon stocks. Science Advances 7, eaaz5236.

Voigt, C., Marushchak, M.E., Abbott, B.W., Biasi, C., Elberling, B., Siciliano, S.D., Sonnentag, O., Stewart, K.J., Yang, Y., Martikainen, P.J. (2020) Nitrous oxide emissions from permafrost-affected soils. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 1, 420–434.

Buchwal, A., P.F. Sullivan, Macias-Fauria, M., Stroeve, J.C., Forbes, B.C., Ropars, P., Blok, D., Myers-Smith, I., Angers-Blondin, S., Boyle, S., Zetterberg, P., Boudreau, S., Post, E., Boulanger-Lapointe, N., Lévesque, E., Tape, K.D., Hallinger, M., Rachlewicz, G., Elberling, B., Gamm, C., Young, A., Welker, M.J. (2020) Divergence in arctic shrub growth responses to sea ice decline. PNAS 117, 33334–33344.

Oh, Y., Zhuang, Q., Liu, L., Welp, L.R., Lau, M.C.Y., Onstott, T.C., Medvigy, D., Bruhwiler, L., Dlugokencky, E.J., Hugelius, G., D’Imperio, L. & Elberling, B. (2020) Reduced net methane emissions due to microbial methane oxidation in a warmer Arctic. Nature Climate Change 10, 317–321.

Natali, S.M., Watts J.D., Rogers, B.M., Potter, S., Ludwig, S.M., Selbmann, A-K., Sullivan, P.F., Abbott, B.W., Arndt, K.A., Birch, L., Björkman, M.P., Bloom, A.A., Celis, G., Christensen, T.R., Christiansen, C.T., Commane, R., Cooper, E.J., Crill, P., Czimczik, C., Davydov, S., Du, J., Egan, J.E. Elberling, B. et al (2019) Large loss of CO₂ in winter observed across pan-arctic permafrost region. Nature Climate Change 9, 852–857.

Prevéy, J.S., Rixen, C., Rüger, N., Høye, T.T., Bjorkman, A.D., Myers-Smith, I., Elmendorf, S.C., Ashton, I.W., Cannone, N., Chisholm, C., Cooper, E.J., Elberling, B., Fosaa, A.M., Henry, G., Hollister, B., Jónsdóttir, I.S., Klanderud, K., Kopp, C.W., Levesque, E., Mauritz, M., Molau, U., Natali, S., Oberbauer, S., Panchen, Z., Post, E., Rumpf, S.B., Schmidt, N.M., Schuur, T., Semenchuk, P., Smith, J.G., Suding, K.N., Totland, Ø., Troxler, T., Venn, S., Wahren, C-H., Welker, J. & Wipf, S. (2019) Warming shortens flowering seasons of Arctic and alpine plants. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3, 45–52.