Laura Sofie Harbo, PhD
Post doc
Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture
Thünen Institute
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About me
About me
Research interests
I am interested in how the growing amount of soil, climatic and environmental data can be used to understand local, regional and global soil carbon dynamics in relation to human activities, such as agriculture and climate change mitigation efforts. My research focuses on modelling soil carbon dynamics, both mechanistically and statistically and through machine learning. I work with a broad range of data sources, including soil monitoring networks, climatic stations, flux towers, current and historical maps, and global/regional databases. My primary region of research so far is Europe and China.
Current position
I am currently working with Florian Schneider at the Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture to model subsoil compaction using reciprocal modelling. The model is applied to data form multiple soil monitoring networks (SMNs) from across Europe.
I am continuously working with data from various European soil monitoring networks to explore potential pathways for minimizing uncertainty in soil carbon stock calculations. My research includes theoretical and practical explorations of novel applications of soil monitoring data.
Academic background
I am a Danish soil scientist and modeller, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and raised in Denmark and Canada. I earned my Bachelor of Science degree in Geography and Geoinformatics from University of Copenhagen (UCPH) in 2017, and attended Australian National University (ANU) for a semester in 2016. For my bachelor thesis, I worked with data from two flux towers in Denmark to compare GHG emissions from a forest and an agricultural field over several years.
In 2019, I recieved a double Master's degree from Sino-Danish Center in Beijing; Master of Science in Water and Environment from University of Copenhagen & Master of Engineering in Water Science from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS). During my master thesis, I modelled the photosynthetically active radiation uptake of various crops in three different crop rotations.
I completed my PhD in Soil Science entitled "Quantifying changes in Soil Organic Carbon stocks" at the Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University (AU) in May 2023 under the supervision of Jørgen E. Olesen and Lars Elsgaard. My PhD was centered about the fourth collection of data in the Danish soil monitoring network, including calculating the SOC stock changes in the past decade, as well as identifying sources of uncertainty relating to carbon sequestration calculations in temperate agricultural soils.
Between May 2023 and October 2023, I worked as a postdoc with Lars Elsgaard at the Institute of Agroecology, Aarhus University.
Current projects:
Second inventory of the German agricultural soil inventory
BZE-LW 2 - Bodenzustandserhebung landwirtschaft Wiederholung
Past projects:
AI4SoilHealth
SoilCompaC (EJP Soil)
SINKS2: Kvadratnet 2019 (Danish soil monitoring network, fourth sampling campaign)
Peer-reviewed articles
All articles are available on ResearchGate, Google Scholar, Web of Science and upon request. I strive to publish my articles Open Access (OA).
2025:
Harbo, L. S., Lama, R., Lemming, C., Elsgaard, L.
Importance of sampling frequency for the observed dynamics of SOC content in the Danish long-term soil monitoring network
Geoderma Regional, 2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2025.e00931
Using data from 14 frequently sampled (7-11 times over 30 years) sites in the Danish long-term soil monitoring network, we modelled the observable SOC dynamics of different sampling frequencies. Comparing the temporal changes in SOC from frequent sampling to the temporal dynamics of decadal sampling, we find that there is no difference in the overall observed trends on SOC changes over time, suggesting that decadal sampling intervals are suitable for capturing long-term SOC changes. Year-to-year variability in SOC content is high, indicating that short-term fluctuations may mask long-term trends if data from a short period of time is used to generalize towards long-term SOC dynamics.
2024:
Froger et al. (31 coauthors, including Harbo., L. S.)
Comparing LUCAS Soil and national systems: Towards a harmonized European Soil monitoring network
Geoderma, 2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.117027
Comparing national soil monitoring network data from 12 member states of the EU, we found a high degree of variability in sampling designs and strategies of the different member states as well as the LUCAS Soil dataset. Overall, the national soil monitoring networks covered various land use types and soil types more accurately and representatively than the LUCAS Soil survey. The observed clay content, organic carbon content as well as pH in the national soil monitoring networks differed from the values found in LUCAS Soil.
Overall, there is a need to harmonize national soil monitoring networks in Europe, to increase the comparability of the results and improve the use of the data from these networks across borders.
Martins, J. T., Bloch, N. F., Anggrob, K. L., Liang, Z., Harbo, L. S., Rasmussen J., Peixoto, L.
Cover crop mixtures enhance belowground carbon input and suppression of spontaneous flora under Danish conditions
Geoderma Regional, 2024
2023:
Harbo, L. S. , Olesen, J. E., Lemming, C., Christensen, B. T., Elsgaard, L.
Limitations of farm management data in analyses of decadal changes in SOC stocks in the Danish soil monitoring network
European Journal of Soil Science, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.13379
We reported the changes in SOC stock for Denmark between 2009 and 2019, using data from the fourth national sampling campaign in the Danish soil monitoring network (Kvadratnettet). On average, the SOC stock increased by 1.2 Mg C ha-1; the gains in the subsoil SOC stock outweighed topsoil SOC stock losses.
In the topsoil, SOC stock loss was correlated with inherent SOC stock (mean of 2009 and 2019 SOC stock); this correlation was nbot found in the subsoil, incidating that large subsoil SOC stocks are less vulnerable to degradation as compared to the topsoil SOC stocks.
We found that the SOC stocks at a national scale were relatively stable between 1986 and 2019, using data from sites that have been sampled in all four national sampling campaigns.
2022:
Harbo, L. S., Schultz, G., Heinemann, H., Poeplau, C.
Flower strips as a carbon sequestration measure in temperate croplands
Plant & Soil, Volume 30, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05718-5
23 flower strips across Germany were sampled; the observed above- and belowground C input were used to run the RothC model to estimate the C sequestration potential of flower strips in temperate croplands. On average, the flower strips were able to increase the SOC stock in the topsoil by 0.48 Mg C ha-1 year-1 over the first 20 years after establishment. This is roughly comparable to the p
Dong et al.
Effects of land use on soil microbial community structure and diversity in the Yellow River floodplain
Journal of Plant Ecology, 2022
Harbo, L. S., Olesen, J. E., Liang, Z., Christensen, B. T., Elsgaard, L.
Estimating organic carbon stocks of mineral soils in Denmark: Impact of bulk density and content of rock fragments
Geoderma Regional, Volume 30, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2022.e00560
Site-specific bulk density is essential for achieve accurate SOC stock estimates. Using data from the Danish soil monitoring network, we show that using a standard bulk density value for each soil-type leads to a random error in the SOC stock estimate, while neglecting rock fragment content leads to a systematic overestimation of the SOC stock.
In Denmark, the error associated with the standardised bulk density is oftentimes greater than that associated with neglecting rock fragment content, as the rock fragment content in Danish cropland soils on average is 2%; thus, the overestimation is approximately 2%.
While the average effect of applying the standardised bulk density is negligible on a national scale, the SOC stock for individual sites ca be up to 25% over- and underestimated.
Harbo, L. S., De Notaris, C. , Zhao, J., Olesen, J. E.
Productivity, light interception and radiation use efficiency of organic and conventional arable cropping systems
European Journal of Agronomy, Volume 132, 2022
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