Jesper Riis Christiansen

Jesper Riis Christiansen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Science. His academic work focuses on the interrelations between soil hydrology, biogeochemistry, and microbial communities, examining how environmental changes affect soils' ability to produce clean water and store greenhouse gases.

His research encompasses fundamental understanding of greenhouse gas cycling in soils, development of new methods for greenhouse gas detection, and applied aspects related to management practices and climate mitigation tools. His work spans multiple environments including forests, wetlands, and even subglacial environments in Greenland.

Dr. Christiansen teaches at all academic levels (BSc, MSc, PhD) in the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management. He is course responsible for the 1st year course "Naturgrundlaget" for Landscape Architecture students and contributes to the MSc course "Ecology and Environmental Science in Relation to Environmental Economics." Together with Associate Professor Klaus Steenberg Larsen, he co-leads the PhD course "Advanced Measurements and Analyses of Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Soils."

His current research portfolio includes several significant projects:

• MetICE - methane emissions from the subglacial environment of the ice sheet
• PEACE - hydrological modelling of lowland soils now and in the future climate and associated greenhouse gas emissions
• ReWet DK - infrastructure measuring hydrological and biogeochemical processes of restored wetlands on agriculture and in forests
• WildSoil - changes in carbon and nitrogen processes in the soil after the introduction of large grazers as nature management
• ReverCit - biogeochemical effects of top-soil removal in wetland peatlands
• RECALL - ecosystem study of methane and carbon dioxide emissions in wetland lowland soils

Dr. Christiansen has extensive experience supervising students, having guided 9 BSc and 22 MSc students since 2006, and currently serving as main supervisor for 3 PhD students and co-supervisor for 4 others. His research output is substantial with 85 publications to date, including numerous high-impact journal articles in 2025 alone.