Das Projekt "Plant-soil interactions in changing rice cropping systems and their influence on C and N dynamics" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Bonn, Institut für Nutzpflanzenwissenschaften und Ressourcenschutz - Pflanzenernährung (Prof. Werner) durchgeführt. Plant-soil interactions drive the input, cycling and losses of C and N in soil. This subproject aims at elucidating the input and fate of C in the soil-plant systems and its effect of N retention in soil under different paddy management (continuous vs. alternating with maize cropping). In particular we will investigate (i) how much of the assimilate C is released by the plants into the rhizosphere soil, and how this rhizodeposition is affected by N supply, soil density and crop variety during plant development, (ii) how the exudation of C and N responds to land use change, (iii) how C released into the rhizosphere affects the turnover of soil C and utilization of fertilizer N, and (iv) to what degree leaching contributes to the loss of C and N from the rooted surface soil. To answer these questions, we will combine the use of isotopic 13C and 15N labeling in laboratory and field experiments with a sophisticated characterization of root exudates, root border cells, and compound-specific isotope tracing in the residues of bacteria and fungi in rhizosphere, bulk soil as well as within different dissolved organic and inorganic carbon species in soil leachates. In this way and in collaboration with SP 2, 5, 6, and 7 of this research unit, our project links the cycling of C and N in paddy soils to one of its most prominent drivers, the release of organic compounds by roots.
Das Projekt "SP 2.1 Design, modeling and evaluation of improved cropping strategies and multi-level interactions in mixed cropping systems in the North China Plain" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Kulturpflanzenwissenschaften (340), Fachgebiet Allgemeiner Pflanzenbau (340a) durchgeführt. In China, the productivity of arable land needs to be further increased. However, with N-fertilizer rates being extremely high already and due to a shortage of irrigation water, further yield increases are not possible by increasing the amount of these input factors. Strategies to reduce or avoid negative environmental effects including water saving while maintaining high yields have to be developed. Yield increases, may be possible by appropriately adjusting cropping systems, either by design (e.g. intercropping as a mixed cropping system), crop sequence and rotation, or improved input factor efficiency. The main objective of this subproject will be to design, model and evaluate improved cropping strategies and multi-level interactions in mixed cropping systems. Based on a process-oriented modeling approach, the project will emphasize on the evaluation of cropping system prototypes including different crops (spring maize, summer maize, wheat, peanut), different designs (intercropping, mixed cropping), different crop sequences and rotations (e.g. spring maize monoculture versus double cropping winter wheat-summer maize) and different input factor levels of water and nitrogen for different regions and agro-climatic conditions in the North China Plain. By doing so, the project aims at exploring the possibilities and at creating new methodologies for improving the cropping systems in the North China Plain. Within the modeling approach competitive relationships between crop species regarding yield, solar radiation, water and nitrogen will be analyzed and modeled. The project will design the necessary methods and basic approaches for the description of the relevant indicator parameters and transfer these into a thorough modeling approach.
Das Projekt "Barley dwarfs acting big in agronomy. Identification of genes and characterization of proteins involved in dwarfism, lodging resistance and crop yield" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft durchgeführt. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an important cereal grain which serves as major animal fodder crop as well as basis for malt beverages or staple food. Currently barley is ranked fourth in terms of quantity of cereal crops produced worldwide. In times of a constantly growing world population in conjunction with an unforeseeable climate change and groundwater depletion, the accumulation of knowledge concerning cereal growth and rate of yield gain is important. The Nordic Genetic Resource Center holds a major collection of barley mutants produced by irradiation or chemical treatment. One phenotypic group of barley varieties are dwarf mutants (erectoides, brachytic, semidwarf, uzu). They are characterized by a compact spike and high rate of yield while the straw is short and stiff, enhancing the lodging resistance of the plant. Obviously they are of applied interest, but they are also of scientific interest as virtually nothing is known about the genes behind the development of plant dwarfism. The aim of this project is to identify and isolate the genes carrying the mutations by using state of the art techniques for gene cloning at the Carlsberg Laboratory. The identified genes will be connected with the mutant phenotype to reveal the gene function in general. One or two genes will be overexpressed and the resulting recombinant proteins will be biochemically and structurally characterized. The insights how the mutation effects the protein will display the protein function in particular. Identified genes and their mutant alleles will be tested in the barley breeding program of the Carlsberg brewery.
Das Projekt "Ecological Land Use Planning and Sustainable Management of Urban and Sub-urban Green Areas in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Göttingen, Burckhardt-Institut, Professur für Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege durchgeführt. Malaysia has been identified as one of the worlds mega diverse countries being extremely rich in biodiversity. Tropical rainforests, the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on earth, still cover an average 60 Prozent of the country (Soepadmo, 1998). The rainforests are estimated to contain about 12,500 species of flowering plants, and more than 1,100 species of ferns and fern allies (MSET, 1998). The dominating plant family is dipterocarp trees many of which produce commercial timber being native to Borneo as well as to Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippine, Thailand etc. Large portions of these species are endemic and uniqueto the Malaysian archipelago.There is also great diversity in fauna, including about 300 species of wild mammals, 700-750 species of birds, 350 species of reptiles, 165 species of amphibians and more than 300 species of freshwater fish. Endemism in flora and fauna is high. As with other cultures, it is assumed that much of the traditional knowledge about these flora and fauna are heritage of the many traditional societies and communities that are dependent on them for their livelihood (Soepadmo, 1998).Unfortunately, much of Sabahs natural vegetation has been altered and degraded due to unsustainable and destructive human practices. Their existence continues to be threatened. Certain forest types are in danger of being totally eradicated from Sabah, while many plant species will likely disappear before they have ever been described. The fragmentation of natural forests also threatens the viability of various wildlife populations. The State is undergoing rapid development and the transformation of rural areas into urban is also accelerating. Many green areas are lost which causes serious threats to biodiversity in the country, because green areas play a very important role in buffering negative impacts on conservation areas.The objective of this study is to provide the information for developing a concept for sustainable urban green management in Kota Kinabalu district as well as to judge the ecological sustainability and to describe the importance of urban green area for the public. A focus is placed on the terrestrial and aerial inventory of the natural resources, including trees, birds, and biotopes. Furthermore, the study tries to explore the perception and attitude of local people, concerning urban forests and green areas. It also explores and investigates the possibilities for implementing an urban green management concept.The terrestrial data collection accordingly comprises of four fields: (1) tree inventory/survey, (2) bird survey/observation, (3) public perception survey, and (4) the mapping and classifying of urban forest functions.i).
Das Projekt "SP 2.2 QTL analysis and optimization of breeding schemes for improved nitrogen-use efficiency of maize and wheat for sustainable cropping systems in the North China Plain" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Pflanzenzüchtung, Saatgutforschung und Populationsgenetik (350), Fachgebiet Angewandte Genetik und Pflanzenzüchtung (350a) durchgeführt. In China, agriculture needs to be intensified by increasing the productivity per unit land. However, the possibility to improve yield by further increasing the amounts of input is very limited due to already very high input amounts of fertilizers and irrigation water in the present cropping system. Hence, the development and characterization of improved varieties, especially with regard to traits of utmost importance for sustainable resource use, such as nitrogen- (NUE) and water-use efficiency (WUE), is crucial for a sustainable agriculture in the North China Plain. The decision about the requirement of one common or two separate breeding programs for developing varieties adapted to low and high N fertilization strongly depends on an appropriate estimation of the correlation between yield at different fertilization levels. Therefore, maize and wheat varieties are evaluated in multiple locations in the North China Plain. Adopting novel breeding approaches based on doubled haploids (DH) can speed up the process of developing new varieties substantially and rapidly provides suitable cultivars for new cropping systems. Therefore, optimum breeding strategies for maize breeding are modeled and simulated to optimize alternative breeding schemes with respect to the optimum allocation of test resources using different optimization criteria. Modeling of production systems and material flows is a powerful tool to increase sustainable resource use by identifying cropping systems, which combine reduced inputs with high yields. However, an appropriate model requires knowledge about the genetics of crop growth and yield and its interaction with environmental factors. Therefore, maize and wheat populations developed by the Chinese partners in the first project phase are phenotyped in multi-location field trials and genotyped with molecular markers to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) for NUE.
Das Projekt "Recrystallization regimes in an ice sheet - Towards a microstructure-based law of ice" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Heidelberg, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen durchgeführt. A detailed understanding of the dynamics of polar ice sheets is essential for an accurate climate reconstruction and for the prediction of sea-level fluctuations. Today, the required simulations of ice movement are based on general, empirical material properties of ice. A more accurate description of these properties has to be extracted from the ice micro-structure over the entire ice sheet. This project will provide the necessary data-set for a quantitative parameterization of the entire grain boundary network based on microscopic image sequence analysis. Owning to the complexity and scope of the image data, specific and efficient methods of digital image processing (DIP) have to be developed and verified. Initially, the DIP methodology will be applied to the entire length of the East Antarctic EDML ice core, where the main emphasis will be the data reduction with regard to geometric parameters of grains and the evolution of grain boundaries. One goal is to document the extend to which the depth profiles of these micro-structural parameters are coupled with profiles of tracers and climate proxies in ice cores. The variability of subgrain boundaries with regard to the change of dislocation density represents a first indications of the depth dependence of ice viscosity and thus the rate of deformation. In this project, we will perform a semi-quantitative analysis of this aspect of micro-structural influence on ice dynamics.
Das Projekt "Sub project: Spherule layers in the 2011 ICDP drilling in the Barberton Mountain Land: Early impact record on Earth" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung durchgeführt. The 2011 ICDP drilling 'Barberton Mountain Land' drilled relatively unweathered rare late Archean volcanic and sedimentary rocks including the oldest known impact ejecta layers on Earth. The chemical signature (high Iridium concentrations, Chromium isotopic ratios) of some of these up to tens of cm thick Archean spherule layers advocate that these ejecta deposits formed dominantly from extraterrestrial material. The ejecta layers contain millimeter sized spherules that are larger and form thicker layers compared to any impact ejecta layer known from Phanerozoic sediments, including the global ejecta layer of the Chicxulub impact catering event that terminated the Mesozoic era of Earths history. We propose to conduct 1) bulk chemical analyses of major and trace elements, 2) petrographic, micro-chemical and mineralogical characterization of the impact ejecta layers, and 3) LA-ICP-MS elemental mapping of platinum group element (PGE) distributions. This aims at 1) characterization of the ejecta layers, 2) identification of the phases hosting the extraterrestrial PGE signature, 3) discrimination of the primary geological evidence of the impact event from those characteristics that resulted from syn- and post-sedimentary alteration. We want to exploit the geological evidence for extracting key information regarding size, type and frequency of projectiles impacting the Archean Earth.
Das Projekt "Constraining carbon gross fluxes with oxygen isotopes (COCO)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie durchgeführt. Oxygen isotopes in atmospheric carbon dioxide can be used to obtain a better understanding of biospheric carbon fluxes, which must be understood in order to predict vegetation and climate change in response to anthropogenic greenhouse forcing. The main objective of this proposal is therefore to improve understanding of carbon flow in the biosphere by enhancing a comprehensive global 3D model of the movement of stable oxygen isotopes in plants, soil and the atmosphere. This objective will be achieved by measuring unknown fractionation factors, and by improving descriptions of plant and soil processes, including processes that had previously been omitted, and incorporating complementary tracers in the existing model. The resulting model will be the most comprehensive description of oxygen isotopes in atmospheric carbon dioxide up-to-date, where complementary tracers constrict individual aspects of the isotope cycle. The model will strictly constrain gross biospheric carbon fluxes, allowing direct comparison between measured and modelled oxygen isotope ratios in atmospheric carbon dioxide. This isotope model will then be incorporated in an Earth Systems Model (ESM) currently being developed. This will allow further detailed studies of biosphere/hydrosphere, biosphe re/atmosphere and biosphere/climate interactions, as well as studies of human influences on the Earth climate system. The ability to track oxygen isotopes in the biosphere components of the ESM will substantially reduce the uncertainty in inferred carbon sources and sinks on scales ranging from regions to continents, thus greatly improving the ESM's predictions of climate change and climate variability.
Das Projekt "Description of the Nature of the Accidental Misuse of Chemicals and chemical products (DeNaMiC)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung durchgeführt. The overall objective of this project is to provide an overview of the nature and extent of injury from chemicals and chemical products in the European region and detail information on the circumstances of how these exposures occur. The outcomes of this research will improve understanding of accidental poisoning and exposure to chemicals in household consumer products. The aim is to identify what data are available to characterise the nature and extent of injury from chemicals in household consumer chemicals and chemical products within Europe, and to find out what conclusions can be drawn from these data sources. It also aims to explore the feasibility of extracting information from poison centres databases for the same purpose, both retrospectively and prospectively. It is envisaged that the project findings will be used to evaluate and improve risk assessment and risk management measures to reduce the incidence and severity of poisoning exposures. To address the specific objectives of the project the work has been divided into five subcomponents as outlined below. 1. Undertake a literature review of published statistical data on the nature and frequency of incidents and events related to accidental exposures to household chemical products to provide an overview of what information is currently available1. 2. Review the data collected by two poisons centres on the circumstances of exposure to consumer chemical products by undertaking a retrospective analysis of enquiries made to two key European poisons centres over a three year period. 3. Evaluate the information collected through the retrospective study to determine how useful these data are for risk assessment purposes and to what extent such data can be collected on a European-wide basis. 4. Undertake a review of risk management measures currently used to reduce risk of poisoning from chemical consumer products. This will include an assessment of the alerting mechanisms used by poisons centres and lessons learned from toxicovigilance activities (e.g. monitoring toxicity of commercial products or identifying products causing significant morbidity or mortality). 5. Design and execute a prospective feasibility study to investigate in more detail the circumstances of exposure to a defined set of consumer chemical poisoning incidents. The design of the study will take into account the results and recommendations of the other subcomponents. The study will involve four poisons centres (Lille, London, Göttingen and Prague) and will be conducted over a six month period. Selected cases reported during this time will be analysed to assess the effectiveness of controls and barriers. This will include information on the circumstances of exposure and severity of poisoning and an assessment of possible preventative measures.
Das Projekt "Characterization of manure and manure derived dissolved organic matter and its influence on the transport of antibiotics in soil" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Trier, Fach Bodenkunde durchgeführt. Antibiotika gelangen mit kontaminierter Gülle in Böden. Vorliegende Studien deuten an, dass Gülle und v.a. güllebürtige gelöste organische Substanzen (DOM) den Transport und die Sorption von Antibiotika in Böden beeinflussen. Der Kenntnisstand zur Zusammensetzung von Gülle - über den Nährstoffstatus hinaus - ist jedoch gering. Daher zielt das Projekt auf die Charakterisierung des Einflusses von Gülle und güllebürtigen DOM auf die Mobilität von Antibiotika in Böden. Spezifische Ziele sind die Bestimmung 1) der relevanten physikochemischen Eigenschaften und Variabilität von Gülle und güllebürtigen DOM durch physikalische, chemische und analytische Methoden; 2) der residualen Antibiotikabelastung von Feld-Gülle; 3) der Wirkung von Gülle und güllebürtigen DOM auf die Retention von Antibiotika in Boden-Säulen. Dazu werden die Fraktionierung und Analyse von Gülle, güllebürtigen DOM, Bodeneluaten und & 8209;segmenten, um die chemischen Mechanismen des güllebeeinflussten Transportes zu ermitteln, sowie physikalische Modellierungen der Transportprozesse kombiniert. 4) Der Einfluss der physikochemischen Eigenschaften der Sorbate auf die Retention im Boden wird anhand fünf ausgewählter Sulfonamid-Antibiotika als Modell-Substanzen untersucht.
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