Profile

I received a MSc in Agriculture in 1993, and was already then mainly specialized in soil science. My research interest mainly involves the “classical” inorganic aspects of soil chemistry. My PhD project, accomplished in December 1999, dealt with the solution chemistry of aluminium in acidic soils, and was performed at the Department of Soil Science, SLU, under the supervision of Dan Berggren-Kleja, Ingvar Nilsson, and Jon Petter Gustafsson. In the year 2002, I worked in a postdoctoral project with Prof Francis Andreux and others at l'Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, France (Laboratoire GéoSol, UMR INRA 1229) on dissolved organic matter in forest soils.

From 2003, my research mainly involved weathering of potassium in agricultural soil, and clay mineral changes associated with this, in a series of projects with Prof. Ingrid Öborn, Dr Stefan Andersson, and Dr Ylva Andrist-Rangel at SLU and Dr Stephen Hillier at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. For the moment, I am working on base cation budgets in forest ecosystems as a way to calculate the contribution of weathering, which is an issue important to sustainable forestry when the society’s demand for bio-fuels is increasing. The assessment of uncertainties in such budgets is difficult but nevertheless an important part of the work. I am also involved in projects on phosphorus adsorption mechanisms in clayey soils, on the use of intense liming as a means to mitigate phosphorus losses from such soils, and in a project where we evaluate variables for soil monitoring with relevance for organic-matter processes. Collaboration partners of the latter projects involve Prof Jon Petter Gustafsson, PhD student Ann Kristin Eriksson, Ass Prof Kerstin Berglund, Prof Thomas Kätterer and others.

Since the year 1992, I have instructed students in field exercises, and in exercises of soil physics and soil chemistry in the lab; in 1999 I was trusted, by one of my co-supervisors, with giving lectures in soil chemistry. My experience includes basic courses in soil science at various educational programmes (agronomy, biology, environmental science, landscape architecture etc), an advanced soil chemistry course, and biogeochemical aspects at a course for civil engineers in energy systems. In spring 2011 I received a 90 ECTS exam in pedagogy at Uppsala university.  

Publications

Papers in peer-reviewed journals 1998–2011

Simonsson, M. & Berggren, D. 1998a. Aluminium solubility related to secondary solid phases in upper B horizons with spodic characteristics. European Journal of Soil Science 49, 317–326 (21 citations in ISI).

Gustafsson, J.P., Lumsdon, D.G. & Simonsson, M. 1998. Aluminium solubility characteristics of spodic B horizons containing imogolite-type materials. Clay Minerals 33, 77–86.

Simonsson, M., Berggren, D. & Gustafsson, J.P. 1999. Solubility of aluminum and silica in spodic horizons as affected by air-drying and freezing. Soil Science Society of America Journal 63, 1116–1123 (10 citations in ISI).

Simonsson, M. 2000. Interactions of aluminium and fulvic acid in moderately acid solutions: Stoichiometry of the H⁺–Al³⁺ exchange. European Journal of Soil Science 51, 655–666.

Gustafsson, J.P., Berggren, D., Simonsson, M., Zysset,  M. & Mulder, J. 2001. Aluminium solubility mechanisms in moderately acid Bs horizons of podzolized soils. European Journal of Soil Science 52, 655–665 (25 citations in ISI).

Brandtberg, P.-O. & Simonsson, M. 2003. Aluminum chemistry in the O horizon changed by a shift in tree species composition. Biogeochemistry 63, 207–228.

Simonsson, M., Kaiser, K., Danielsson, R., Andreux, F. & Ranger, J. 2005. Estimating nitrate, dissolved organic carbon and DOC fractions in forest floor leachates using ultraviolet absorbance spectra and mulivariate analysis. Geoderma 124, 157–168.

Andrist-Rangel, Y., Simonsson, M., Andersson, S., Öborn, I, & Hillier, S. 2006. Mineralogical budgeting of potassium in soil: a basis for understanding standard measures of reserve potassium. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Scienc, 169, 1–11.

Andersson, A., Simonsson, M., Mattsson, L., Edwards, A.C. & Öborn, I. 2007. Response of soil exchangeable and crop potassium concentrations to variable fertiliser and cropping regimes in long-term field experiments on different soil types. Soil Use and Management 23, 10–19.

Simonsson, M., Andersson, S., Andrist-Rangel, Y., Hillier, S., Mattsson, L. & Öborn, I. 2007. Potassium release and fixation as a function of fertilizer application rate and soil parent material. Geoderma 140, 188–198.

Ulén, B., Johansson, G. & Simonsson, M. 2008a. Changes in nutrient leaching and groundwater quality during long-term studies of an arable field on the Swedish south-west coast. Hydrology Research 39, 63–77.

Ulén, B., Johansson, G. & Simonsson, M. 2008b. Leaching of nutrients and major ions from an arable field with an unfertilized fallow as infield buffer zone. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B: Soil and Plant Science 58, 51–59.

Simonsson, M., Hillier, S. & Öborn, I. 2009. Changes in clay minerals and potassium fixation capacity as a result of release and fixation of potassium in long-term field experiments. Geoderma 151, 109–120.

Simonsson, M., Andersson, S., Andrist, Y., Mattsson, L. & Öborn, I. 2003. Kvantifiering av mineralvittringens bidrag till grödornas kaliumförsörjning på olika typer av jordbruksmark. Poster for the conference Ekologiskt lantbruk: vägar, val, visioner, 18–19 November 2003. SLU, Uppsala

Simonsson, M., Andersson, S., Andrist-Rangel, Y., Mattsson, L. & Öborn, I. 2005. Kan vittring av markens mineral ersätta handelsgödsling med kalium? Poster for the conference Ekologiskt lantbruk: att navigera i en ny tid, 22-23 November 2005. SLU, Uppsala.

Simonsson, M., Eriksson, J. & Öborn, I. 2008. Kaliumtillståndet i mark och gröda—regionala mönster och betydelsen av jordart och modermaterial. Final report of SLF project No H0648338, with Swedish title as the report (Electronic document (pdf)).

Popular and educational science

Brandtberg, P.-O. & Simonsson, M. 2005. När markerna surna. Fakta Skog nr 15, 2005. Fakulteten för skogsvetenskap, SLU, Umeå.

Simonsson, M. 2006. Minskad eller ingen K-gödsling: funkar det? Invited talk at the agricultural extensionists’ conference Hushållningssällskapens Intensivrådgivarkonferens at Kolmården, 3 September 2006.

Eriksson, J., Nilsson, I. & Simonsson, M. 2005. Wiklanders Marklära. Studentlitteratur, Lund, 337 p. (A comprehensive revision of a Swedish textbook in science for undergraduate students; I worked as an author, coauthor, and, until my postdoc, as chief editor.) In 2011 we issued a second edition, published by Studentlitteratur and titled ‘Marklära’.