Thorunn Helgason
Lead for Sustainable Food Production for AgriFood at York
Visit Thorunn Helgason's profile on the York Research Database to see publications, projects, collaborators, related work and more.
Dr Thorunn Helgason is a senior lecturer in the Department of Biology.
Thorunn’s research focuses on variation in biodiversity, distribution and function of key microbial groups in field based systems. Microbes, (bacteria, archaea, fungi) are key functional groups in ecosystems, acting as drivers of major transitions in nutrient cycles. Recent advances in next generation sequencing technologies allow the microbiome of field systems to be studied in detail, and current research projects use these technologies to understand nutrient cycling in agriculture and epidemiology in honeybees.
A major research area in Thorunn's research group is the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF). These symbionts are key conduits of mineral nutrients between plants and soils, and variation in AMF communities has the potential to affect large scale ecosystem function.
Visit Thorunn’s profile on the Department of Biology website.
Thorunn is the local lead for Sustainable Food Production
Research as part of the Sustainable Food Production theme aims to combine soil health, resilient and productive crops and livestock, novel diagnostics in crop and animal disease surveillance and treatment and predictive modelling to promote resilient, sustainable food production.