Olof Andrén: Ecology, Environmental Conservation & Soil Biology

Professor, Soil Biology/ Agriculture; Docent, Environmental Conservation

I have a BSc from Uppsala University in Sweden, and a PhD as well as "Docent" grade from SLU. Between 1976 and 2011 I worked at SLU, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. I resigned in 2011 from a permanent position as Faculty Professor in Soil Biology/Agriculture, which I had accepted in 1994.

I am available as consultant, co-worker, co-author, co-applicant, evaluator etc., in the fields of ecology, agriculture, soil biology, soil carbon modelling, soil biodiversity - or science in general. My CV and publication list will give hints to what I can assist with.

I have worked with the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAREERI), Lanzhou, China, where I held a 'Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists', i.e., I worked in China for at least three months per year until 2014. I also worked with IITA and formerly TSBF in Nairobi, Kenya.

I am Associate Editor for the journal Ambio (by the the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) and member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Arid Land (China).

2014 - 2016 I was consulting for CarbonWealth/SkyMining on catching carbon dioxide in rapidly growing grass in the tropics, and presently starting up cooperation with other companies. Also consulting and gathering practical experience in solar heating and solar electricity generation - in Sweden and in the tropics.

Experience highlights:

Written +100 reviewed papers in scientific journals, books and encyclopedias
Supervised +15 doctoral students
Initiator and leader, numerous research projects in Sweden, China, and Kenya
Section Leader, co-Director etc. for various SLU constellations
Reviewer, associate editor, consultant for hundreds of papers in scientific journals
EU, IPCC evaluator and contributor to guidelines etc. Evaluated African Universities for the World Bank in 2015.
Co-developer of ICBM (Introductory Carbon Balance Model, with Prof T Kätterer), a model used for agricultural soil carbon reporting for IPCC in Sweden, Canada (not IPCC), USA, Norway and China (in progress)
SAS and Excel programming for statistics, modelling and presentation (400+ programs) .
Also the free statistical package R, for ICBM programming.
Invited speaker/organizer to international conferences in France, USA, Australia, Sweden
Languages: Swedish, English (scientific), some German, a little French, minor Swahili, a few words in Chinese...
Licensed pistol shooter & gym instructor, Coastal Skipper, Marine radio, motorcycle driver etc.

I can work at an hourly fee, e.g., for correcting clarity and logic of scientific papers, or an agreed contract for longer periods.

Contact:

Mail: prof@oandren.com alt. ollexxl@live.se
Mob: +46 709419113

News
2021-08-01 Consulting for Skymining on carbon capture from atmosphere to soil

2020-08-01 Evaluating applications for Qatar etc.

2019-06-18 New paper published: "Shoot and root production in mixed grass ley under daily fertilization and irrigation: validating the N productivity concept under field conditions" in Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems. By Katharina H. E.Meurer, Martin A. Bolinder , Olof Andrén , Ann-Charlotte Hansson , Roger Pettersson and Thomas Kätterer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-019-10006-3

2019-03-01 New paper published: Biochar addition persistently increased soil fertility and yields in maize soybean rotations over 10 years in sub-humid regions of Kenya. Field Crops Research 235 (2019) 18–26.

2018-01-01 Summing up 2017: Working with biochar ms, editing for Ambio journal, some editorial missions, co-writing on optimal nutrition, writing on solar electricity...

2017-06-08 Updated document on options for solar heating and electrical generation. See 'Solar electricity and more...' In Swedish!

2017-03-20 Evaluated applications for a French research organisation

2016-10-23 Updated document on options for solar heating and electrical generation. See 'Solar electricity and more...' In Swedish!

2016-10-01 Working with ECOCOAL project on carbon sequestration in Senegal. Investigating options for solar panel electrical generation.

2016-01-30 Published paper: Andrén O, Zhao XY, Kätterer T, et al., 2016. Agroecosystem research in Uppsala, Sweden and Naiman, China: Some observations 1987–2014. Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions, 8(1): 0001–0008. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2016.00001.

2016-01-30 Oct Nov 2015 Travelling in Africa evaluating Universities for World Bank funding. Working with Napier grass in Senegal. Programming etc. on Swedish long-term field trials.

2015-06-23 Kenya on biochar finished for now. ICBM on Swedish long-term experiments - advanced R programming. Some Brazilian tropical grass. no snow today.

2015-01-11 New year. Contract work for IITA, Kenya on biochar. More work on Brazilian tropical grass. Etc. Some snow today.

2014-10-31 Internal report on agroecology of tropical grass in Northern Brazil

2014-08-18 Invited speaker to Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, conference International Conference on Restoration and Utilization of Desertified Lands - talk -' Agroecosystem research in Uppsala, Sweden and Naiman, China – some observations 1987 – 2014'

2014-04-9 New papers published:

LUO, Y., XueYong ZHAO, Olof ANDRÉN, YangChun ZHU, WenDa HUANG. 2014. Artificial root exudates and soil organic carbon mineralization in a degraded sandy grassland in northern China. Journal of Arid Land, doi: 10.1007/s40333-014-0063-z.

Yongqing Luo, Xueyong Zhao & Olof Andrén (2014): Soil organic carbon in relation to cultivation in arable and greenhouse cropping systems in Lanzhou, NW China. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B - Soil & Plant Science, DOI: 10.1080/09064710.2014.901407

2014-01-01 Happy new year! ...and I am available for limited consultancy work again. No snow yet.

2013-11-15 Back in Sweden. Contributed to about 10 scientific papers during my stay in China...some rest required

2013-10-18 New version of ICBM package for download. Error in R program for simulation. Also new R programs for base and sim ICBM, and calculations of Et0 using functions. See ICBM.

2013-10-08 New version of ICBM package for download. Minor bug in R program. See ICBM.

2013-09-18 Now in Lanzhou again. Will be here or travelling in China until Nov 15. Will work with papers on climate and decomposition, lecture a bit etc. Raining today - good for air quality.

2013-06-14 In Uppsala. Got a copy from my dear friend André Bationo, AGRA, of the book "Lessons learned from Long-term Soil Fertility Management Experiments in Africa" (Springer, 2012).

I participated in the project and I am a co-author of Ch1 "Overview of of Long Term Experiments in Africa". Highly recommended book. One minor problem - my name in the author list is "A. Olle"! (A little mixup with my nickname and family name...)

2013-05-22 New zip file with collection of ICBMs in R, SAS, Excel. See ICBM section

2013-05-16 Now versions of ICBM in R. See ICBM section.

2013-05-09 In Lanzhou. Working with re-coding ICBM to the free statistical package R. Some success. Next week I will lecture in Yinchuan, Ningxia and then back to Lanzhou. Then 2500km to next field station in Naiman...via Beijing...

2013-04-01 I am working in Lanzhou, China April - May. Finishing papers on Lanzhou agriculture, SOC, litter decomposition etc.

2013-03-01 Good news! My long-term coworker and former PhD student, Thomas Kätterer has accepted a Faculty Professor position in Ecosystem ecology at SLU, Uppsala, Sweden.

2013-02-10 Evaluation of proposals for a Science foundation in a North African Country

2013-01-29 New assigment for IITA, Nigeria. Assisting in proposal writing.

2012-11-29 New paper for download.  Andrén,O., T. Kätterer, J. Juston, B. Waswa and Kristina Röing de Nowina 2012. Soil carbon dynamics, climate, crops and soil type –calculations using introductory carbon balance model (ICBM) and agricultural field trial data from sub-Saharan Africa. African Journal of Agricultural Research 7(43):5800-5809. DOI: 10.5897/AJAR12.205.

2012-11-20 Back in Sweden and Uppsala. Finished  gym trainer course in Stockholm.

2012-10-11 Going to Naiman, Inner Mongolia, China and Lanzhou, Gansu, China. Will stay for a month as part of my Visiting Professorhip. I may be off the Internet during some field trips.

2012-09-14 New paper:  Bolinder, M.A., J.G. Fortin.,F. Anctil., O. Andrén., T. Kätterer., R. de Jong and L.E. Parent. 2012 in press. Spatial and temporal variability of soil biological activity in the Province of Québec, Canada (45-58^oN, 1960-2009) – calculations based on climate records. Climate Change 0:000-000.

2012-08-29 A package for calculating soil C balances ready for download at the ICBM page. One zip file complete with all you need!

2012-08-25 New paper: M. Carlsson, O. Andrén, J. Stenström, H. Kirchmann & T. Kätterer (2012): Charcoal Application to Arable Soil: Effects on CO2 Emissions, Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 43:17, 2262-2273

2012-07-03 Great news - Thord Karlsson successfully defended his doctoral thesis: Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics in Agricultural Soils - Plots, regions, models! (I was co-supervisor)http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/8902/ Also changed web hotel to one.com. Recommended.

2012-04-11 New paper published: Parent, L. E., Cinara X. de Almeida, Amanda Hernandes, Juan J. Egozcue, Coskun Gölser, Martin A. Bolinder, Thomas Kätterer, Olof Andrén, Serge E. Parent, Francois Anctil, José F. Centurion, William Natale. 2012. Compositional analysis for an unbiased measure of soil aggregation. Geoderma 179-180:123-131.

2012-02-20 Published 2012: CO₂emissions from cropland in Norway estimated by IPCC default and Tier 2 methods by Signe Kynding Borgen, Arne Grönlund, Olof Andrén, Thomas Kätterer, Ole Einar Tveito, Lars Reier Bakken, and Keith Paustian . J Greenhouse Gas Measure Managem. 2-5-21. DOI: 10.1080/20430779.2012.672306

2012-01-17 ICBM - the modelling page - now revised - Excel files and descriptions for free download...

2011-12-22 Back in Sweden from Nairobi, which was as usual. And now: Merry Christmas to all past, present and future clients!

2011-12-04 Leaving for Nairobi for FAO TSBF-CIAT ICRAF planning workshop on African long-term trials. Will be back in Sweden on 16 Dec, but will read email while away.

2011-11-01 Long-term agricultural field trials in Africa - interpretation of results and further planning. ICRAF, CIAT-TSBF, Nairobi, Kenya.

2011-10-15 ICBM in life cycle analysis, agricultural crops. Swedish University Agric. Sci.

2011-09-09 Current work: Evaluation for University, Mauritius; Co-authorship scientific paper on soil carbon in Sweden/Kenya; Ditto for Norway