Das Projekt "B 3.1: Efficient water use of mixed cropping systems in watersheds of Northern Thailand highlands" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Kulturpflanzenwissenschaften (340), Fachgebiet Düngung und Bodenstoffhaushalt (340i) durchgeführt. Worldwide an important part of agricultural added value is produced under irrigation. By irrigation unproductive areas can be cultivated, additional harvests can be obtained or different crops can be planted. Since its introduction into Northern Thailand lychee has developed as one of the dominating cash crops. Lychee is produced in the hillside areas and has to be irrigated during the dry season, which is the main yield-forming period. Water therefore is mainly taken from sources or streams in the mountain forests. As nowadays all the available resources are being used do to increased production, a further increase in production can only be achieved by increasing the water use efficiency. In recent years, partial root-zone drying has become a well-established irrigation technique in wine growing areas. In a ten to fifteen days rhythm one part of the root system is irrigated while the other dries out and produces abscisic acid (ABA) a drought stress hormone. While the vegetative growth and thus labor for pruning is reduced, the generative growth remains widely unaffected. Thereby water-use efficiency can be increased by more than 40Prozent. In this sub-project the PRD-technique as well as other deficit irrigation strategies shall be applied in lychee and mango orchards and its effects on plant growth and yield shall be analyzed. Especially effects of this water-saving technology on the nutrient balance shall be considered, in order to develop an optimized fertigation strategy with respect to yield and fruit quality. As shown in preliminary studies, the nutrient supply is low in soils and fruit trees in Northern Thailand (e.g. phosphate) and even deficient for both micronutrients boron (B) and zinc (Zn). Additionally, non-adapted supply of nitrogen (mineralization, fertilization) can induce uneven flowering and fruit set. Therefore, improvement is necessary. For a better understanding of possible influence of low B and Zn supply on flowering and fruit set, mobility and retranslocation of both micronutrients shall be investigated for mango and lychee. Finally, the intended system of partial root-zone fertigation (PRF) shall guarantee an even flowering and a better yield formation under improved use of the limited resource water. As this modern technique, which requires a higher level of irrigation-technology, cannot be immediately spread among the farmers in the region, in a parallel approach potential users shall be integrated in a participative process for adaptation and development. Water transport and irrigation shall be considered, as both factors offer a tremendous potential for water saving. Local knowledge shall be integrated in the participatory process (supported by subproject A1.2, Participatory Research) in order to finally offer adapted technologies for application within PRF systems for the different conditions of farmers in the hillsides of Northern Thailand.
Das Projekt "Energy Storage for Direct Steam Solar Power Plants (DISTOR)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Institut für Technische Thermodynamik durchgeführt. Objective: Solar thermal power plants represent today's most economic systems to generate electricity from solar insulation in them-range in regions like the Mediterranean area. By demonstrating the feasibility of direct steam generation in the absorber pipes European industry and research institutions have gained a leading position in this technology area. A key element foray successful market penetration is the availability of storage systems to reduce the dependence on the course of solarinsolation. The most important benefits result from -reduced internal costs due to increased efficiency and extended utilisation of the power block-facilitating the integration of a solar power plant into an electrical grid-adoption of electricity production to the demand thus increasing revenues Efficient storage systems for steam power plants demand transfer of energy during the charging/discharging process at constant temperatures. The DISTOR project focuses on the development of systems using phase change materials (PCM) as storage media. In order to accelerate the development, the DISTOR project is based on parallel research on three different storage concepts. These concepts include innovative aspects like encapsulated PCM, evaporation heat transfer and new design concepts. This parallel approach takes advantage of synergy effects and will enable the identification of the most promising storage concept. A consortium covering the various aspects of design and manufacturing has been formed from manufacturers, engineering companies and research institutions experienced in solar thermal power plants and PCM technology. The project will provide advanced storage material based on PCM for the temperature range of 200-300 C adapted to the needs of Direct Steam generation thus expanding Europe's strong position in solar thermal power plants.
Das Projekt "Impact of transgenic crops on fertility of soils with different management history" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau Deutschland e.V. durchgeführt. What impact does transgenic maize have on soil fertility? Among the factors that determine soil fertility is the diversity of the bacteria living in it. This is in turn affected by the form of agriculture practiced on the land. What role do transgenic plants play in this interaction? Background Soil fertility is the product of the interactions between the parental geological material from which the soil originated, the climate and colonization by soil organisms. Soil organisms and their diversity play a major role in soil fertility, and these factors can be affected by the way the soil is managed. The type of farming, i.e. how fertilizers and pesticides are used, has a major impact on the fertility of the soil. It is known that the complex interaction of bacterial diversity and other soil properties regulates the efficacy of plant resistance. But little is known about how transgenic plants affect soil fertility. Objectives The project will investigate selected soil processes as indicators for how transgenic maize may possibly alter soil fertility. The intention is in particular to establish whether the soil is better able to cope with such effects if it contains a great diversity of soil bacteria. Methods Transgenic maize will be planted in climate chambers containing soils managed in different ways. The soil needed for these trials originates from open field trials that have been used for decades to compare various forms of organic and conventional farming. These soils differ, for example, in the way they have been treated with pesticides and fertilizers and thus also with respect to their diversity of bacteria. The trial with transgenic maize will measure various parameters: the number of soil bacteria and the diversity of their species, the quantity of a small number of selected nutrients and the decomposition of harvest residues. It will be possible to conclude from this work how transgenic plants affect soil fertility. Significance The project will create an important basis for developing risk assessments that incorporate the effects of transgenic plants on soil fertility.
Das Projekt "C 1.2: Analysis and manipulation of the agro-biocoenosis for sustainable management of litchi growing systems at hillsides of Northern Thailand" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Pflanzenproduktion und Agrarökologie in den Tropen und Subtropen durchgeführt. In the hillsides of northern Thailand, the importance of fruit trees (mainly litchi) is increasing. However, fruit production is limited by a number of biotic and abiotic factors. Frequent applications of herbicides and insecticides result in a grass-dominated herbicide flora of low diversity. Further consequences are low numbers of beneficials, soil erosion and the decline of soil fertility. The aim of the proposed project is the development of a litchi production system with reduced insecticide and herbicide input, which allows both sustainable and profitable land use. This will be achieved by (a) the development of management strategies for preventive measures in pest population control and (b) the establishment of a smother vegetation which leads to an increased diversity of the system, enhancement of beneficials, improved soil conservation and fertility, and which has an additional-use potential (e.g., forage). The experimental approach for studying the effects of management measures (handling of the attendant vegetation and insecticide application in four different treatments) on plant species diversity and the beneficial fauna will be continued from phase 1 in an extended manner. In addition, the long-term monitoring of seasonal changes in abundance of the six major litchi pests, identified in the first phase, will be continued. The migration patterns of these species will also be studied since some of them migrate between the litchi plantations and the surrounding habitats. The parasitoids and predators of these pests will be identified and their abundances recorded. Participatory activities will continue in cooperation with subproject A1.2. They include regular meetings with individual farmers and group interviews for information exchange about pest problems and farmers strategies to cope with these problems. In the first phase, four promising cover legume species with potential for soil enhancement and livestock feeding have been identified. In order to increase biodiversity in fruit orchards, the effects of different mixtures of these species will be studied. At Mae Sa Mai, experiments will show if and how such mixtures, by complementary and compensatory effects, contribute to increased productivity and quality of the understorey vegetation. In addition, changes of soil chemical, physical and biological properties will be monitored. Soil scientist expert advice as well as related data flow is ensured by close cooperation with subprojects B1.2, B2.2 and B3.1. Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) will be carried out jointly with A1.2. In the view of the greater role of livestock in the region of the SFB's second research site (Phang Ma Pha), a parallel replication of the legume mixture research is intended for that site in the form of a complementary NRCT project, also including the pest component of the project.
Das Projekt "Non-exchangeable NH4-N in the subsoil:Significance for the N nutrition of plants (NitroNex)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Bonn, Institut für Nutzpflanzenwissenschaften und Ressourcenschutz - Pflanzenernährung (Prof. Werner) durchgeführt. The project is dealing with the contribution of non-exchangeable NH4-N in the subsoil for the N nutrition of plants. It is divided into two main parts: In part 1 the content of nonexchangeable NH4-N in the subsoil of the Central field experiment (CeFiT) under different crops and influencing factors will be investigated. Special consideration will be given to the drilosphere, where easily mineralizable organic material is translocated into deeper soil layers and NH4+-ions, formed after mineralization may be specifically bound in interlayers of 2:1 clay minerals in the vicinity of biopores. Furthermore attention will be given to the reduction of NO3-, translocated into the subsoil, to NH4+ as a source for NH4+-fixation. In part 2 the amounts of non-exchangeable NH4-N released from subsoils throughout the growing season will be quantified. Special attention will be given to the influence of the root system on the mobilization of NH4+-ions from the interlayers of clay minerals. Partially interlayers of clay minerals will be labelled with 15NH4+. Under field conditions, in the Central microcosm experiment (CeMiX) as well as in model experiments with special containers, that allow to take soil samples from defined distances from the root system, depletion curves of nonexchangeable NH4-N will be created.
Das Projekt "Soil aeration - the key factor of oak decline in Southwest Germany?" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Freiburg, Institut für Geo- und Umweltnaturwissenschaften, Professur für Bodenökologie durchgeführt. Many research efforts to identify the key factors of oak decline in Europe conclude that it is a 'complex disease'. This result can hardly be falsified because of its fuzziness. A significant contribution of pathogene fungi is not without controversy, because the primary pathogenicity is not proven (Johnsson, 2004). Our starting point is the resarch of Gaertig et al. (2002) who found that on a spatial integration level of 28 oak stands in Baden-Wuerttemberg the symptoms of oak health are significantly correlated with soil aeration. Large-scale changes of soil structure in oak stands during the last decades can be attributed to the mechanization of logging (Vossbrink and Horn, 2004) as well as to a decrease of earthworm activity in acidified soils. In the proposed project we want to establish a relationship between roots and aeration-relevant parameters in a three-dimensional space. This laborious procedure is necessary because the soil-air access is highly heterogeneous and by this way forms a three-dimensional pattern. This makes one-dimensional models unefficient. By modelling the soil air access in a three-dimensional space we want to test the aeration hypothesis. Important indicators of rooting are clustering of fine roots, necrosis, or space discrimination. By assessing simultaneously soil-chemical and soil-physical parameters in the same spatial resolution, alternative hypotheses can be tested. As modelling tools point statistics, non parametric regression (GAM), and a three dimensional solution of the instationary gas-diffusion equation will be used.
Das Projekt "Sub project:The effect of iron(III)-sulfide interactions on electron transfer processes in anoxic aquifers" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Bayreuth, Fachgruppe Geowissenschaften, Bayreuther Zentrum für Ökologie und Umweltforschung (BayCEER), Lehrstuhl für Hydrologie durchgeführt. Strong evidence exists that the oxidation of H2S by ferric (oxyhydr)oxides occurs also in ground water systems and may exert a major role for the sulphur and iron cycle and in particular for the electron and carbon flow in aquifers. To date, no systematic study has been performed that allows to quantitatively assess its significance in such systems. This project aims to fill this gap of knowledge. The extent of the reaction depends on mineral reactivity, which we hypothesize can be expressed in terms of a generalized kinetic model for the full pH range of environmental relvance. This model accounts for the adsorption of H2S at lower pH values and of HS- at circumneutral pH to the neutral ferric (oxyhydr)oxide surface to form the reactive species FeSH. Variations in reactivity may be caused by intrinsic factors such as surface acidity of the iron mineral and solution composition, such as ionic strength and competition with other ions. The overall goals of this project therefore are to demonstrate the validity of this approach in order to quantify the kinetics for abiotic anaerobic H2S oxidation by ferric (oxyhydr)oxides, and to elucidate the role of this process as a precursor reaction for further microbial transformation of sulphur species in the aquifer.
Das Projekt "Analysis and modeling of soil shrinkage and swelling dynamics as a function of predrying intensity and frequency and its influence on soil hydraulic properties" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Kiel, Institut für Ökosystemforschung durchgeführt. Knowledge about changes in soil pore structure during shrinkage and/or swelling processes improves the understanding and prediction of water flow and solute transport. The rearrangement of soil particles and aggregates modifies the original pore size distribution, and especially forms soil cracks. Soil cracks lead to a non-uniform soil structure and improve macropore flux. However, the geometry of soil cracks within the soil matrix upon wetting/drying cycles and its influence on hydraulic properties is not clear. Therefore, in this study, we investigate the changes of the geometry of soil cracks and of two-dimension shrinkage (i.e. vertical and horizontal) under shrinkage/swelling frequency and intensity and evaluate how far they influence hydraulic soil properties.
Das Projekt "Multi-proxy tree-ring analysis of conifer trees disturbed by insect outbreaks" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von University of British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Resources Management Vancouver durchgeführt. Insect outbreaks are a major disturbance influencing forest dynamics in many ecosystems and can affect forest productivity worldwide. Reconstruction of insect outbreak history is fundamental to forest management. While the action of cambium feeders on trees leads to the formation of scars, that of defoliators is observable via growth suppression in tree rings. The occurrence of past insect attacks can thus be inferred from such tree-ring signatures. However, it necessitates an accurate dating of events, with high temporal resolution, as well as their correct attribution to the right disturbance agent. Fire also leaves scars on trees that can occur on cross-sectional disks where insect scars are already present, thus making them difficult to distinguish. Furthermore, insect-elicited reductions in radial growth may not be clearly visible on samples, and the radial growth response to defoliation often bears a lag of one or more years. This project tackles these issues directly by proposing a multi-proxy approach aiming at improving tree-ring reconstructions of insect outbreaks. Tree rings will be investigated to study radial variations of tree-ring width, wood anatomy, wood density, and wood chemistry. While dendrochronologists have long relied on tree-ring width variations to track the signal induced by climate, geomorphic and ecological processes, they have scarcely exploited the potential of other proxies and rarely used them in combination. The most advanced studies that have embraced these possibilities are owed to dendroclimatologists. The core of this research therefore lies in the use of multiple wood traits to provide answers to the above mentioned dendroecological questions. Two conifer tree species from British Columbia and their respective pests are within the scope of this study: the mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins), a cambium feeder, on lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas), and the western spruce budworm (WSBW, Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman), a defoliator, on Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii Franco). It is hypothesized that insect outbreak disturbance in the form of bark beetle or defoliation events results in abrupt significant structural differences between the wood formed prior to and after the insect attack. Based on pioneering tree-ring research on insect outbreaks, there are great prospects that the variations of wood traits be proven useful for differentiating MPB scars from fire scars and for identifying WSBW defoliation events, possibly with higher temporal resolution. The study of multiple wood traits (proxies) will help gain an understanding of the influence of insect outbreak disturbance on wood formation and tree physiological processes, a prerequisite for improving the detection and dating of events in tree-ring series. (...)
Das Projekt "Production of Solid Sustainable Energy Carriers from Biomass by Means of Torrefaction (SECTOR)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von DBFZ Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH durchgeführt. Torrefaction is considered worldwide as a promising key technology for boosting large-scale implementation of bioenergy. It involves heating biomass in the absence of oxygen to a temperature of 200 to 320 °C. As a result, the biomass looses all its moisture and becomes easy to grind and water resistant, which reduces the risk of spontaneous ignition and biological degradation and permits outdoor storage. By combining torrefaction with pelletisation or briquetting, biomass is converted into a high-energy-density commodity solid fuel or bioenergy carrier with superior properties in view of (long-distance) transport, handling and storage, and also in many major end-use applications (e.g., co-firing in pulverised-coal fired power plants, (co-)gasification in entrained-flow gasifiers and combustion in distributed pellet boilers. Moreover, torrefaction-based bioenergy carriers may form a good starting point for biorefinery routes. The current SECTOR project is focussed on the further development of torrefaction-based technologies for the production of solid bioenergy carriers up to pilot-plant scale and beyond and on supporting market introduction of torrefaction-based bioenergy carriers as a commodity renewable solid fuel. The core of the project concerns the further development of torrefaction and densification technology for a broad biomass feedstock range including clean woody biomass, forestry residues, agro-residues and imported biomass. Production recipes will be optimised on the basis of extensive logistics and end-use testing. Much attention will be given to the development, quality assurance and standardisation of dedicated analysis and test methods. The experimental work will be accompanied by extensive desk studies to define major biomass-to-end-use value chains, design deployment strategies and scenarios, and conduct a full sustainability assessment. The results will be fed into CEN/ISO working groups and international sustainability forums.
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