This website was archived on January 11, 2020 and is no longer updated.

Contact

Prof. Dr. F. Xavier Sans Serra
Departament de Biologia Vegetal
Facultat de Biologia
Universitat de Barcelona
Avda. Diagonal 643
Barcelona 08028
Tel. +34 934039867
Fax +34 934112842
fsans(at)ub.edu
Director of the Biodiversity Research Institut of the University of Barcelona
www.ub.edu/irbio
Head of the Agroecosystems Research Group
(Agroecosystems)
www.ub.edu/agroecologia
Director Master on Organic Farming
www.ub.edu/agroecologia/masterae

University of Barcelona (UB), Spain section

The University of Barcelona (UB) is the principal centre of university research at state level. It has become a European benchmark for research, both in terms of the number and quality of research programs (www.ub.edu). The UB manages an average of 150 EU projects per year, amounting to about 8.6 million € per year. The activity of the research group "Agroecosystems" at the University of Barcelona focuses on the sustainability of arable systems, as a mosaic of micro- and macro-scale elements (fields and its adjacent boundaries and non-cropped habitats) and their related fluxes of organisms. In recent years, the research group has conducted studies to evaluate the effect of agricultural intensification on soil quality and diversity in dryland cereal fields by means of different methodological approaches in order to develop proposals for farmland management at landscape and field scales to balance crop production and soil and biodiversity conservation its functional role for ecosystem services (e.g. soil fertility, biological control, pollination) in the Mediterranean region.)

Recently, the research group has established a long-term experiment in the peri-urban agricultural area of Gallecs (Catalonia, Spain) under a Mediterranean climate to develop a system of extensive production of arable crops robust and sustainable through the introduction of reduced tillage combined with the strategic use of farmyard and green manures in organic crop rotations, which should be compatible with maintaining biodiversity and improving soil quality and crop productivity.

The mission of the research group is the analysis of the functioning of agricultural systems and the design of sustainable management models in order to provide scientific and technical knowledge that allows farmers to better manage and evaluate these improvements by using of sustainability indicators easy to understand and use.

Scientists involved

  • Prof. Dr. F. Xavier Sans Serra
  • Dr. José Manuel Blanco Moreno
  • Dr. Lourdes Chamorro Lorenzo
  • Dr. Joan Romanyà Socoró

PhD students

  • Paola Baldivieso Freitas

Technical staff

  • Alejandro Pérez Ferrer

Links

Publications

OrgPrints.org: FertilCrop publications of the University of Barcelona