Rastislav Skalsky
Research Scholar
Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Research Group
Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program
Biography
Rastislav Skalsky joined IIASA in June 2012. As a research scholar in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Research Group of the Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program, he focuses on process-based agro-ecosystem model upscaling with spatial data on soil, topography, and land use for large-scale simulations at regional, continental, and global scales using the IIASA EPIC model.His research also includes crop model validation and calibration for a variety of practical research topics on crop production and environmental impacts of agricultural systems. He has been working on the integration of soil and agro-ecosystem information with citizen observatories in the domain of land use and land management. Most recently, his focus has been on analyzing soil organic carbon and soil erosion as measures of sustainable crop production and implementation of soil conservation aspects into large-scale crop modeling, including the exploration of novel AI-based methods for a more efficient and dynamic transfer of crop system simulations into integrated land-sector models and end-user services.
Skalsky obtained his master’s degree in environmental sciences in 1999, and a PhD in soil science in 2008, both from the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 1999, he started his career at the National Agricultural and Food Centre, Soil Science and Conservation Research Institute (NPPC-VUPOP) in Slovakia, where he worked as a senior researcher until September 2023, mainly focusing on national-scale soil organic carbon modeling and communication of evidence-based knowledge for decision and policymaking support in the Slovakian agricultural sector. Between 2015 and 2022, he also served as the Slovak national focal point for the International Network of Soil Information Institutions (INSII), consisting of nationally mandated institutions and Global Soil Partnership (GSP) partners, working together at UN FAO to develop the Global Soil Information System.
Last update: 03 MAY 2024
Publications
Jägermeyr, J., Müller, C., Ruane, A.C., Elliott, J., Balkovič, J. , Castillo, O., Faye, B., Foster, I., Folberth, C. , Franke, J.A., Fuchs, K., Guarin, J.R., Heinke, J., Hoogenboom, G., Iizumi, T., Jain, A.K., Kelly, D., Khabarov, N. , Lange, S., Lin, T.-S., Liu, W., Mialyk, O., Minoli, S., Moyer, El.J., Okada, M., Phillips, M., Porter, C., Rabin, S.S., Scheer, C., Schneider, J.M., Schyns, J.F., Skalský, R. , Smerald, A., Stella, T., Stephens, H., Webber, H., Zabel, F., & Rosenzweig, C. (2021). Climate impacts on global agriculture emerge earlier in new generation of climate and crop models. Nature Food 2 873-885. 10.1038/s43016-021-00400-y.
Kostková, M., Hlavinka, P., Pohanková, E., Kersebaum, K. C., Nendel, C., Gobin, A., Olesen, J. E., Ferrise, R., Dibari, C., Takáč, J., Topaj, A., Medvedev, S., Hoffmann, M. P., Stella, T., Balek, J., Ruiz-Ramos, M., Rodríguez, A., Hoogenboom, G., Shelia, V., Ventrella, D., Giglio, L., Sharif, B., Oztürk, I., Rötter, R. P., Balkovič, J. , Skalský, R. , Moriondo, M., Thaler, S., Žalud, Z., & Trnka, M. (2021). Performance of 13 crop simulation models and their ensemble for simulating four field crops in Central Europe. The Journal of Agricultural Science 159 (1-2) 69-89. 10.1017/S0021859621000216.
Jost, E., Schönhart, M., Skalský, R. , Balkovič, J. , Schmid, E., & Mitter, H. (2021). Dynamic soil functions assessment employing land use and climate scenarios at regional scale. Journal of Environmental Management 287 e112318. 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112318.
Khabarov, N. , Smirnov, A. , Balkovič, J. , Skalský, R. , Folberth, C. , Van Der Velde, M., & Obersteiner, M. (2020). Heterogeneous Compute Clusters and Massive Environmental Simulations Based on the EPIC Model. Modelling 1 (2) 215-224.
Laso Bayas, J.C. , Gardeazabal, A., Karner, M., Folberth, C. , Vargas, L., Skalský, R. , Balkovič, J. , Subash, A., Saad, M., Delerce, S., Crespo Cuaresma, J., Hlouskova, J., Molina-Maturano, J., See, L. , Fritz, S. , Obersteiner, M. , & Govaerts, B. (2020). AgroTutor: A Mobile Phone Application Supporting Sustainable Agricultural Intensification. Sustainability 12 (22)