Martin Weih

Leader of a research team currently consisting of two post-docs (Dr. Jonathan Cope, Dr. Fede Berckx), two PhD students (Lorena Guardia Velarde, Joel Jensen), and four researchers (Dr. Ortrud Jäck, Dr. Carolyn Glynn, Dr. Anneli Adler, Dr. Ida Kollberg); part of the Plant Ecology group.

A complete list of publications is found here.

ORCID 0000-0003-3823-9183

Editor-in-Chief of Section “Crop Production” for the scientific journal Agriculture.

Editor for the scientific journals Plant and Soil och BioEnergy Research.

Chair of the International Commission on Poplars and Other Fast-Growing Trees Sustaining People and the Environment (IPC). You don't know what the IPC at FAO is? Check out these short video1 & video2 clips to learn about the mission of the IPC and what we are doing!

You want to learn more about intercropping and our research on "plant teams" for sustainable agriculture and forestry? Check out our web series of video documentaries and a research presentation on willow variety mixtures!

Contact: email martin.weih@slu.se; phone +46 (0)18 67 25 43; www.slu.se/weih; X (previously Twitter) @Martin_Weih

Regular teaching at all levels e.g. within the following courses:

BI1350 Växtproduktion – mark och grödor, 15 hp

BI1295 Sustainable Plant Production - from Molecular to Field Scale, 15 HEC

BI1339 Experimental approaches in plant growth analysis and phenotyping, 15 HEC (course leader)

Summer schools within Euroleague For Life Sciences (ELLS) - Bioeconomy

Plant nutrient use efficiency – concepts and approaches, 2.5 ECTS, PhD course (course leader)

Production of biomass for energy - quantity and quality aspects, 3 ECTS, PhD course (course leader)

Linking plant traits to productivity and ecosystem processes for development of sustainable solutions in agriculture

We investigate how we can make the best use of crops and the environmental conditions under which they are grown, in order to develop sustainable solutions for the production of food, feed and biomass. To achieve this, we investigate the links between individual plant traits (crop species or cultivars), crop yield, the production systems design (e.g. nutrient management, cultivation in monocultures or mixtures), and the processes that are relevant for supporting important ecosystem services (e.g. reduced nutrient losses, pest and disease control, enhanced biodiversity). Study systems mainly include cereals and cereal – legume mixtures for food and feed production; and willows and poplars grown on agricultural land for biomass production. Specifically, we address the above issues by means of various research projects with external funding from Formas, the Swedish Energy Agency, the Swedish farmers’ foundation for agricultural research (SLF), the European Union and Novo Nordisk Foundation.

The ECOLINK-Salix project is part of the global tree diversity network TreeDivNet and comprises currently two experimental field trials (one in Uppsala and one in Rostock, Germany). The overall goal of ECOLINK-Salix is assessing the effects of genotype identity and diversity in willow short rotation coppice on various ecosystem functions and, ultimately, willow growth and yield stability (e.g. resistance to drought and pests), and a summary of our corresponding research is presented on this video from my presentation at the IPC26 conference. ECOLINK-Salix is also a core infrastructure for the project MixForChange - Mixed Forest plantations for climate Change mitigation and adaptation. 

Focus on genotype – environment interaction, crop improvement and stakeholder interaction is a main characteristic of the NEWp (Nutrient Efficient Wheat partnership) project, which is a collaborative research project linking root characteristics, nutrient use efficiency and the sustainable production of spring wheat. Root characteristics are the main focus also in the HeRo - Healthy Roots project (Development of tools for the selection of robust cultivars in Swedish plant breeding, with focus on the root system). NEWp and HeRo involve the collaboration with a wheat breeder (Lantmännen) and an advanced plant phenotyping facility in Germany, which gives us access to the technology of high-speed phenotyping of a large number of relevant plant traits that we try to link to ecological processes in subsequent field-testing.

The mission of N2CROP is to establish an international hub for cutting-edge grain legume research and innovation and, ultimately, achieve sustainable agri-food systems powered by biologically fixed nitrogen to deliver high-quality plant food protein. We are here responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating a series of field trials where various cultivars and mutagenic lines of field bean with altered properties are intercropped with wheat and oats.

As a partner within the BalticWheat network, we explore new opportunities for promoting sustainable wheat production in the Baltic Sea region.

While NEWp mainly explores the route genotype – plant traits (phenotype) – resource economy, the project Improving yield and quality in Swedish wheat production – influence of nitrogen fertilization strategy and cultivar (project leader Karin Hamnér, Dept. of Soil and Environment, SLU) links wheat cultivar characteristics to nutrient management in order to improve the efficiency and sustainability in wheat production.

DIVERSify (Designing InnoVative plant teams for Ecosystem Resilience and agricultural Sustainability) was a European consortium of scientists, farmers, advisors, breeders and SMEs to co-construct a new ecological approach and tools to investigate the mechanisms underpinning the benefits associated with cropping plant teams, and the plant traits and agronomic practices promoting these benefits. The plant teams which we investigated in Swedish field trials included wheat – faba bean and barley – pea (all grown as sole crops and mixtures). Check out our web series of video documentaries and James Ajals PhD thesis to learn more about this project!

SHORT CV M. WEIH

Doctoral degree
1998, Ecological Botany, Uppsala University

Postdoctoral work
1998, University of Alaska at Fairbanks

Qualification as Associate Professor
2001, subject Plant Ecology, SLU

Promotion to professor
2009, subject ecophysiology of agricultural crops, SLU

Position as full professor
2013, subject plant ecology with specialisation on plant-plant and plant-environment interaction, SLU

Current position
Full professor at the Department of Crop Production Ecology, SLU; permanent position; c. 25 % teaching, 15 % administration, 60 % research

Publications
Author of more than 200 publications, of which more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 10 publications in peer-reviewed book chapters, 10 popular science publications, 80 reports, conference abstracts and other publications; H-index 44 (Scopus) and 54 (Google Scholar).

Teaching
Regular teaching at all levels e.g. within the following courses at the SLU:

BI1350 Växtproduktion – mark och grödor, 15 hp

BI1295 Sustainable Plant Production - from Molecular to Field Scale, 15 HEC (course leader 2008-2010)

BI1339 Experimental approaches in plant growth analysis and phenotyping , 15 HEC (course leader)

Plant nutrient use efficiency – concepts and approaches, 2.5 ECTS, PhD course (course leader)

Production of biomass for energy - quantity and quality aspects, 3 ECTS, PhD course

PhD students
Main supervisor of 8 PhD students who have defended their theses (Kassahun Embaye, PhD; Anneli Adler; PhD; Linnéa Asplund, PhD; Jan Hoogesteger, Lic.; Fereshteh Pourazari, PhD; Stefanie Hoeber, PhD; James Ajal, PhD; Hui Liu, PhD) and co-supervisor of 6 PhD students who have defended their theses (Almir Karacic, PhD; Amanuel Mehari, PhD; Sarah Baum, Dr. rer. nat., Antje Balasus, Dr. rer. nat.; Cornelia Pfabel, Dr. rer. nat.; Karin Hamnér, AgrDr.).

Currently main supervisor of 3 PhD students (Lorena Guardia Velarde, Joel Jensen, Electra Lennartsson) and co-supervisor of 3 PhD students (Saurav Kalita, Louis Dufour, Sara Capitan).

Mentor for postdoctoral students
Lorenzo Bonosi (2009 to 2011), Michaela Torp (2011), Friderike Beyer (2013 to 2015), Ortrud Jäck (2016 to 2019), Ida Kollberg (from December 2016), Jonathan Cope (2020 to 2024), Fede Berckx (since October 2022)

Evaluation
Opponent for one doctoral dissertation. Member of c. 15 PhD and 2 Licentiate examination committees.

Commissions
Referee on research grant applications for the Wageningen University (The Netherlands) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF); member of the evaluation committee for basic energy-related research at the Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndighetens grundforskningskommitte). Commissions to peer review for a number of scientific journals (e.g. Annals of Botany, Field Crops Research, Forest Ecology and Management, Functional Ecology, New Phytologist, Tree Physiology).

External funding
Grants from e.g. the EU, Nordic Council of Ministers, Formas, Swedish Energy Agency, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

Administration
1999-2005 Director of studies at the Dept. of Short Rotation Forestry, SLU;

Expert evaluator for the Swedish EPA: Salix plantations on agricultural land: possibilities for biodiversity and landscape design (2005-2006)

Chair of the Swedish National Poplar Commission (2005-2008)

Member of the Management Committee, COST action E38: Woody root processes (2005 – 2008)

President of the International Commission on Poplars and Other Fast-Growing Trees Sustaining People and the Environment (IPC), since 2012

Chair of the steering committee for the Graduate school “Bioenergy” at the SLU (2010 - 2016)

Head of Department of Crop Production Ecology (2010 - 2016)

Member of the Swedish Gene Technology Advisory board, since 2019

Complete lists of publications and citations are found here, at ORCID and Google Scholar.