News

Methods enabling stakeholders for receiving information in a timely manner on plant stress in agricultural settings can help mitigate a possible decrease in plant productivity. In the framework of the OTKA 131792 project, periodic and monitoring soil and plant measurements are carried out on a small agriculturally dominated catchment in the Balaton-Uplands. The results were recently published in the Land journal.

Selenium deficient diets are a problem in large areas of the world and can have serious health consequences, thus, the biofortification of foods with Se has been an important research field for several decades. The effect of Se-enriched irrigation water on green peas and carrots was investigated in a pot experiment set up in a greenhouse on soils with different textures.

The Institute for Soil Sciences, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Section of Agricultural Sciences, Committee on Soil Science, Agricultural Water Management, and Plant Cultivation held a scientific conference entitled "Maintaining soil fertility is essential for the long-term conservation of our natural resources" in the Ceremonial Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

In recognition of the high quality of its scientific work, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) has awarded the Institute for Soil Sciences the status of MTA Centre of Excellence.

In 2022, Kálmán Rajkai has been elected as a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS). On 3rd May, the Assembly of Academics elected the new full, corresponding, external and honorary members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from among 110 researchers on the joint list of candidates.

The first citizen science programme to investigate soil conditions in Hungary was launched by the Institute for Soil Sciences in 2021. The "Life in Undies" programme is a Hungarian adaptation of the "Soil Your Undies" programme, which is already widespread in many countries.

The programme was implemented within the framework of the Széchenyi 2020 Programme with the support of the European Union and the Hungarian Government, with the participation of researchers from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of ELTE and the Centre for Agricultural Research TAKI and MGI: Establishment of the Transdisciplinary Centre of Excellence in Soil Biome Research for Sustainable Soil Resources (GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00056).

Csikós Nándor successfully defended his doctoral (PhD) dissertation entitled "Analysis of the relationship between land cover change and abundance data of Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis)" at University of Szeged, Doctoral School of Geosciences on 7th March 2022.

The International Soil Modeling Consortium interviewed Brigitta Szabó, Senior Research Fellow at our institute, about her research related to the activities of the Pedotransfer Funcions Working Group and the work of the Consortium.

Soil Taxonomy (ST), Hungarian classification (HU) and WRB were evaluated in 85 soil profiles for their applicability for biomass estimation and their correlation with ground elevation.