Fatima El Khosht

I hold a degree in Agricultural Science (Agronomist) with a specialization in soil and crop management. Previously, I worked as a research assistant at the Department of Soil and Environment and the Department of Crop Production Ecology at SLU. After that, I pursued further studies to become a secondary school teacher in biology and natural sciences, and worked as a teacher for several years.

Since autumn 2021, I have been back at SLU and the Department of Crop Production Ecology. In June 2022, I started my PhD position in the Agrarian Cropping Systems research group, with Sigrun Dahlin as my main supervisor and Ingrid Öborn, Göran Bergkvist, and Christine Watson as co-supervisors.

In my PhD project, I investigate the role of ley (temporary grassland) in crop rotations — both in terms of the yield of annual crops and soil fertility, with a focus on potential nitrogen mineralization, bulk density, and soil organic carbon composition.

For this part of the project, I use data from one of SLU’s long-term field experiments, where three different six-year crop rotations are compared: two including two years of ley (one grass-only and one mixed ley with legumes and grasses), and one rotation consisting solely of annual crops. These crop rotations are tested under four different nitrogen fertilization levels. The experiment was initiated in the 1960s and is conducted at three locations in Sweden: Uppland, Gotland, and Västra Götaland.

Another part of the project focuses on evaluating the potential for establishing grass-clover leys by undersowing in autumn-sown cereals, with particular emphasis on clover survival and performance. This is being studied in two-year field trials at four sites in Sweden. The background to this work is the increasing occurrence of early summer droughts, which hinder the traditional spring establishment of leys. At the same time, autumns are becoming longer, which may open up new opportunities for late-season clover establishment — something previously considered challenging.