Responsibility Areas of Academic Activities

Crop Science and Plant Biology

Crop production, organic farming, land management technologies; grassland husbandry; bioenergy crops; novel crops for future climates; plant physiology, biochemistry, ecophysiology and stress biology; plant acclimation and adaptation to global change; plant disease resistance under global change; plantmicrobial interactions, biogenic emissions; biosphereatmosphere interactions

Horticulture

Pomology; cultivation technologies of fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants; greenhouse production; biochemical properties and quality traits of horticultural crops; processing and postharvest technologies of horticultural crops; plant breeding and preserving genetic resources

Plant Health

Plant protection methods in different cultivation systems; chemical, biological, natural and mechanical control; economic threshold in pest management; invasive and dangerous pests; fungal, bacterial and viral diseases and their detection, epidemiology; effects of soil micro-organisms on plant health; applied entomology: pest’s and beneficial’s morphology, physiology, ecology, ethology, ecochemical communication; pollination, managed and native pollinators; use of ecosystem services for pest control and pollination; tritrophic interactions between plants, pests and beneficials

Soil Science

Soil quality and functions; soil classification; soil chemistry and physics; soil ecology and biology; soil organic matter and carbon cycle; carbon farming; nutrient cycles in soil-plant-environment continuum; plant nutrition and balanced fertilization; soil protection; soil information and its inclusion in decision making processes

Landscape and Environmental Management

Environmental protection and management measures; ecosystem services; environmental policy, citizen science; stakeholders involvement in environmental planning; systematic reviews and maps; sustainable development; environmental innovation, its transfer and promotion; the EU Green Deal; governance of protected area; landscape ecology and management; historical land-use; green infrastructure, carbon footprint, remote sensing, geoinformatics and drones; biodiversity metrics; global climate and landscape changes and its impact on biodiversity; breeding- and migration ecology of birds; environmental analyses; waste analysis and biomethane potential; rural development and planning; Estonian rural settlements; communities in rural development

Landscape Architecture

Landscape design, construction and management; landscape planning and design for human health and well-being, including Universal Design; conservation of historic sites and monuments in the landscape; planning, conservation and management of historic legacies of Modernist rural landscapes; landscape character assessment; landscape and visual impact assessment; 3D virtual and VR solutions in landscape architecture; urban green/blue space management; urban nature based solutions; public participation in landscape planning; urban acupuncture and temporary use of unused land

Biological Diversity and Nature Tourism

Biodiversity patterns, evolution, protection and monitoring; agro- ecosystems and their ecology; ecological functionality in agro-ecosystems relating to resilience towards impacts of climate change; botany, zoology and mycology; floristics, faunistics and fungistics; biosystematics; population and production biology; interpretation of biological diversity through nature tourism, planning and analysis of impacts of nature tourism on environment and society; management and depository of natural history collections and research based on them

Hydrobiology and Fishery

Limnology; ecology of inland water bodies; hydrochemistry and –physics; limnological modelling; planktology; water microbiology; ichthyology, zoobenthology, phytobenthology; hydrobotanics; biodiversity; protection of water bodies; bioresources of water bodies; ecotoxicology of water bodies; sediment geochemistry and palaeolimnology; hydromorphology; fishery; protection of endangered species of water bodies; statistical analyses of hydrobiological data; sanitation and restoration of inland water bodies; formation of biota of artificial inland water bodies; status of inland waterbodies, impact of climatic changes to water bodies

Rural Economics

Agricultural, environmental and resource economics; agricultural, environmental and rural policy; sustainable development; circular bioeconomy value chains and business models; development of collaboration and cooperation; agricultural marketing and food market; competitiveness and sustainability of rural economy; accounting and financial management in rural economy; rural information systems and analysis methods; rural entrepreneurship and strategic management; economic and social development of rural communities.

Animal Breeding and Biotechnology

Animal breeding, conservation of animal genetic resources, animal genetics, genomics, transgenic technology, animal reproduction and reproductive disorders, reproductive biotechnology.

Animal Nutrition

Livestock feeds and feeding, incl. feeding technologies, nutritional physiology, metabolism and biomarkers, animal production and product quality, animal behaviour, welfare and housing, effect of animal production on the environment

Aquaculture

Biology, genetics, genomics, biotechnology and selective breeding of aquaculture species; reproduction, feeding and rearing technologies of aquaculture species; biology of invasive non-indigenous crayfish species; conservation genetics and recovery of endangered and threatened fish and crayfish species; diseases, healthcare and welfare of aquatic organisms; biosafety in aquaculture.

Clinical Veterinary Medicine

Diagnostics, treatment and prophylaxis of diseases of animal species important for Estonia

Veterinary biomedicine and food hygiene

Animal anatomy, histology, cytology, embryology and developmental biology; physiology, immunology, pathology, microbiology, virology, parasitology, epidemiology, animal hygiene and herd health, infectious diseases, food hygiene and safety, meat inspection, food safety management systems, food and environmental toxicology, genomic epidemiology of foodborne pathogens.

Food Science and Technology

Food chemistry, physics, and microbiology, food processing technologies and basic processes, food (by-)products valorisation technologies, product development, sensory assessment, food quality, quality management.

Silviculture and Forest Ecology

Forest as an ecosystem and silvicultural methods: forest biodiversity and disturbance ecology, forest typology, carbon and nutrient cycles, forest bioproduction, forest tree breeding, nursery management, forest regeneration, forest cutting systems, forest improvement, forest plantations, dendrology, forest and climate policy, multiple use of forests, forest protection, forest pathology and wood preservation, forest entomology, game biology and management, urban forestry, dendrophysiology.

Forest and Land Management and Wood Processing Technologies

Planning of forest management and nature conservation, ecological restoration of forest ecosystems, forest inventory, dendrometry, modelling of structure and growth dynamics of forest ecosystems, decision support systems in forestry, forest economics and entrepreneurship, forest policy, private forestry, remote sensing and spatial analysis, logging technologies, forest logistics and wood trade, saw-mill technologies, wood drying and protection, technologies of wood processing and furniture industries, properties of wood and wood based materials, resources, properties and production technologies of wood fuels, innovation and production management in forest and wood processing industry, geodesy, satellite positioning, laser scanning, photogrammetry, remote sensing, land management, land administration, land policy, land cadaster, cadastral surveying, land use planning property rights, real estate management, real estate valuation.

Rural Building and Water Management

Structural engineering and construction of buildings including agricultural and industrial buildings; building’s life span management; sustainable construction; assessment of behaviour of envelope from the viewpoint of building physics; mechanics of materials and structures; composite building materials; foremost timber and timber-based materials including local natural renewable and reusable materials; hydraulic structures, structures for aquaculture and fish migration, drainage and irrigation, water supply and sewerage, hydro power, applied hydrology, water purification and water pollution control structures, waste management technologies.

Biosystems Engineering

Agricultural engineering, livestock engineering, automotive engineering, production engineering, manufacturing engineering, material science, bioenergy engineering, biochemicals, ergonomics, ergodesign.

Energy Application Engineering

Renewable energies (bio, wind, solar and geothermal), energy consumption management, energy storage, thermal energy, modelling and management of energy systems, nanotechnologies.