We study the effects of plants and root-associated fungi on wind erosion within the alpine environment of Tibet. China is one of the countries most affected by desertification processes and Tibet, in particular, a key region in desertification combat. The presented project focuses on the Barkha Plain surrounded by Mount Kailash and the Lake of Manasarovar (Ngari Prefecture). This Western Tibet region experienced little scientific attention but, nowadays, faces rapidly increasing touristic activities and expanding local settlements associated with socio-economic changes that are serious threats to the delicate ecological balance and potential triggers of desertification. It exists almost unanimous agreement that revegetation is the most efficient and promising strategy to combat wind erosion and desertification in the long term. However, re-colonising success is often poor, mainly under extreme environmental conditions. Compared to conventional practices, the approach of the presented project attains better accordance with natural succession processes and promises acceleration of both plant and soil development and, conclusively, more efficient desertification control. The project assesses the potential of native plants and symbiotic fungi to control wind erosion and desertification processes. It aims to identify key plants and fungi that increase soil aggregate stability and efficiently drive succession into a natural and self-maintaining cycle of the ecosystem. Furthermore, it provides crucial information for implementing environmentally compatible and cost-effective measures to protect high-elevation ecosystems against desertification. Within three successional stages (early, intermediate, late), field investigations are performed on the basis of Modified-Whittaker plots. Classic methods of vegetation analysis and myco-sociology are combined with analysis of distribution patterns at different scales (patchiness, connectivity). Comprehensive soil analysis is performed comprising grain size distribution, aggregate stability, pH as well as water and nutrient contents. Additionally, important parameters of wind erosion are measured concurrently and continuously to assess their magnitude and variability with respect to vegetation and soil at different levels of development. The parameters addressed, include sediment transport, air temperature, radiation, precipitation, relative humidity as well as speed and direction of wind. Surface moisture is recorded periodically and roughness described. Species and environmental parameters are checked for spatial correlation. Cutting edge technologies are applied in laboratory work, comprising molecular methods for fungal species identification and micro-tomography to analyse soil structure. Furthermore, successfully cultivated fungi and plants are subject of synthesis experiments and industrial propagation in view of practical implementation in restoration measures.
In the South-Indian city of Chennai (formerly called Madras), disastrous tropical monsoon linked with excessive precipitation frequently lead to wide-flat floods in the coastal plains. Caused by rapid urbanisation, the population in urban and periurban areas is more and more affected by these events. Besides the marginalised population living in disfavoured areas, increasingly also the more wealthy population that settles in flood prone areas is affected. Interdisciplinary assessments are needed to explain the complex causes of floods. The project analysed environmental aspects of risk exposure as well as socioeconomic aspects of risk perceptions and response strategies. By combining natural-scientific with socio-scientific approaches, a holistic perspective of the complex reasons and impacts of flooding could be covered. The project consisted of the following steps: 1. Analysis of flood risk exposure: Physio-geographic, hydrological and meteorological realities in risk areas were assessed using remote sensing (RS) data and geographical information systems (GIS). 2. Analysis of risk perception and management: Affected marginalised poor segments of the population, affected middle class groups as well as local planning authorities were interviewed to analyse local perceptions of floods and dominant management strategies. 3. Development of a flood risk map: The results of the risk assessment were integrated in an interactive flood risk map. The map - using several different layers - functions as a flood risk management tool including often neglected socioeconomic and socio-cultural parameters which reflect local vulnerability. 4. Holding of two workshops: A policy workshop with different stakeholders involved in flood management and affected by floods was held in Chennai in August 2007. This workshop was to foster communication and dialogue between different stakeholders and to create awareness on the current situation and problems in the area. A roundtable with the partners from India and organisations dealing with flood management and flood relief measures took place in October 2007 in Freiburg in order to present and discuss the findings and to strengthen future co-operation, communication and networks.
The Eastern Plains region of Colombia is a large tract of tropical savannah covering approximately 17Prozent of the Colombian land mass. It is an agriculturally poor region where current agricultural practices of cattle ranching have rapidly lead to poor soil fertility and low productivity. In Colombia, agriculture represents a very important part of the economy. In an attempt to economically stabilize the region the government has developed a regional plan for the Eastern Plains. This includes converting pasture land into cropping systems that provide food security for the growing Colombian population and reducing poverty.Cassava is the key crop in the regional plan for economic development and stability. However, cassava is a plant that is almost completely dependent on a symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to efficiently obtain nutrients and grow. AMF have already been shown to greatly enhance cassava yields in the field, even when added to soil that already contains AMF. They also allow farmers to reduce fertilizer inputs and use much cheaper sources of phosphate. However, to realistically use AMF to increase cassava yields and make cassava cropping more profitable, it is necessary to inoculate with native AMF in a sterile based carrier, with low transport costs. This project seeks to isolate native AMF from soils in the eastern plains and from the roots of cassava in native undisturbed populations, screen them for effectiveness in increasing cassava yields and then put some of the most effective ones into a clean sterile culture system on artificial media for mass production. These AMF isolates will be used as inocula in field trials. Because cassava is so mycorrhiza-dependent, we also propose to screen the genetic diversity of cassava for mycorrhizal responsiveness. The Swiss group will use their expertise in molecular genetics of AMF to develop a molecular marker system for quality control of AMF inoculum in cassava roots and perform a pilot AMF breeding approach to cross AMF and obtain genetically novel AMF for use in the field. The Swiss partner will train the Colombian group in these technologies. The results of the project will be disseminated within the framework of the socio-economic plan for the region developed by the National University of Colombia's Institute for Studies in Orinoquia. Researchers in that institute will use the results of this project to make economic projections of the impact of the results on small farms and cooperatives in the Eastern Plains and at the whole regional level. They will then accordingly disseminate the information to agronomists, farmers and land-owners in the region.
Im vorgeschlagenen interdisziplinären Projekt soll das Potenzial eines neuen, vor kurzem gebohrten, aber noch ungeöffneten Seesedimentkerns einer Schlüsselregion in Nordamerika untersucht werden. In vernetzten Arbeiten dreier Gruppen der Universitäten Köln, Heidelberg und Tübingen und in Zusammenarbeit mit der LacCore-Einrichtung der Universität von Minnesota (USA) ist eine Multi-Proxy-Studie des plio-pleistozänen Archivs eines großen ehemaligen Rift-Sees in Idaho (westliches Nordamerika) geplant. Der Bohrkern wurde als Mehrwert der im Rahmen des ICDP-Projekts HOTSPOT im Hangenden und Liegenden erbohrten vulkanischen Sequenzen (Lokation Snake River Plain) gewonnen. Das Archiv des Idaho-Paläosees ist nach dem Baikal- und Elgygytgyn-See die dritte über ICDP finanzierte Bohrkampagne in Seeablagerungen der Warmzeit-Periode des Pliozäns und der vor ca. 2,7 Millionen Jahren einsetzenden Vergletscherung der Nordhemisphäre, all dies zusammen in einer Sedimentsequenz. Darüber hinaus ist der Paläosee Idaho das erste Archiv dieser Art im kontinentalen Nordamerika. Für die koordinierten Arbeiten der drei Gruppen werden die folgenden Schritte vorgeschlagen: (1) Öffnung des Kerns, Beschreibung und Logging des Kerns sowie Rekonstruktion der Ablagerungsentwicklung des plio-pleistozänen Idaho-Paläosees; (2) Erstellung eines Altersmodells der erbohrten Sequenz aus einer Kombination von Magnetostratigraphie, absoluter Datierung von Basalten und Pyroklastika und orbitalem Tuning; (3) Erarbeitung einer Dokumentation der bestmöglichen Paläoklima-Proxies aus einer Kombination von Element- und Isotopengeochemie, Sediment-Zusammensetzung, Korngrößen-Analytik und Palynologie; (4) Pollen-basierte Paläoklima-Rekonstruktionen; (5) Testserien zu Hypothesen der klimatischen Telekonnektionen, des meridionalen atmosphärischen Wärme- und Feuchtetransports im mittleren bis späten Pliozän und der möglichen Bedeutung großräumiger atmosphärischer Zirkulationsänderungen für das Einsetzen der Vereisung der Nordhemisphäre vor ca. 2.7 Millionen Jahren.
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.
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.
In the second phase of subproject 3.1 is envisaged to model representative farms. The models will be structured in a way that not only the production but also the material balances can be represented. In particular the nitrogen balance, the carbon balance and the water balance will be incorporated. Gas and particulate matter emissions can be considered as well, as far as there are sufficient data available. The modelling aims at integrating on farm level all baseline data surveyed in other sub-projects and at quantifying and valuating at farm level the already worked out management measures for reducing environmental burden while increasing production efficiency. The focus will be on measures for reducing nitrogen fertilisation, the interrelation between management activities and carbon/nitrogen balance, effects of nitrogen deposition on the operational nutrient management, water efficiency, etc. Another part for the impact analysis shall be the extent to which cropping practices elaborated in other sub-projects can be alternatives for the prevailing wheat-maize-rotation. Thereby cotton, groundnuts, soybeans, vegetables, and row intercropping are to be analysed and valued on farm level. Furthermore, the sub-project shall provide other sub-projects with indicators which are necessary in order to optimise breeding and management programmes under consideration of economic factors. Another aim of the sub-project is to carry out economic impact analyses of possible policy measures. To do so, realistic concepts of the Chinese agricultural policy as e.g. a reduction of the subsidies on means of production, in particular on nitrogen, water, etc. and their possible impact on quantities produced, input quantities applied, nutrient and water efficiency, income and other criteria are to be investigated. Furthermore, the influence of stages of an increasing mechanisation on production, income and structural changes can be investigated. Finally, open questions and approaches for further research will be derived through a sensitivity analysis.
Intensive maize-wheat double cropping is a common plant production system at the North China Plains. More than 600 kg N/ha as mineral N fertiliser are applied annually while only 300 to 350 kg N/ha are removed with plant products. Despite of this extraordinarily high level of N-fertilisation, the yield potential in the common wheat-maize cropping system is by far not fully taped yet. Beside low N utilization efficiencies (partly less than 30 percent), frequent lodging and environmental pollution including leaching and gaseous losses of N are the results of the excessive use of fertiliser-N. Within this study, different N-fertilisation, tillage and cropping strategies shall be investigated with their potential to maintain high levels of SOM and to guaranty high and stable yields in the long term in the North China Plain. Future developments like climate change and increasing demand for energy production from plant residues shall be considered. Special emphasis will be put on the fate of (fertilised) N which preferably should be available for plant uptake and built up of organic matter but may also disappear by leaching and gaseous losses. A combination of lab experiments, existing and newly established long term field experiments combined with computer modelling shall be used to extrapolate short and medium term findings into the future and up to a regional scale.
The increasing specialization and intensification of the agricultural food production in the North China Plain is leading to restrictions in nutrients and production cycles at farm and regional levels. As a result, livestock production in the North China Plain is entailing serious environmental negative impacts related to manure surpluses and recycling of nutrients, mainly leading to problems associated with water, soil and air pollution. On the other side higher nutrient demands in the local crops is leading to the purchase of chemical or mineral fertilizers when local or on-farm nutrients are not available. Therefore, the efficient use of organic fertilizers not only depends on their availability in the farms, but also on their nutritional composition. Likewise, soil nutrient requirements and plant physiological needs have to be taken into consideration. Indeed, the closer the nutrient cycles and the lower the environmental negative impacts and farm losses are, the greater the chances for a more sustainable resource use in the North China Plain. In the context of the IRTG, aspects of livestock farming in production systems in terms of widely closed nutrients cycles will be integrated. The material flows in different animal husbandry systems will be analysed and the environmental impacts dependent on livestock farming techniques, farms operability and their respective management will be investigated. The applicability and effectiveness of the technical and organizational measures for the reduction of material losses and, the environmental burdens caused by livestock and manure mismanagement in the North China Plain will be reviewed. The benefits and profits for the local cropping systems as result of the application of organic fertilizers originated from livestock farming will be both, ecologically and economically, evaluated as an alternative to replace the use of mineral fertilizers.
Wide applications in Europe show that weed management strategies can be considerably improved when computerized expert systems, decision models and population-dynamic models are applied. If these management systems are transferred and adapted to the specific production systems of the North China Plain, herbicide use can be significantly reduced and the evolution of persistent weed populations in the major arable crops can be avoided. The main objective of this subproject will be to create efficacy-based models analyzing herbicide performance in major crops and to create population-based models for herbicide use analyzing the yield losses caused by weed competition. For these models it is necessary to determine the sensitivity of major weed species to herbicides and to explore the potential of reduced dose rates for herbicide use. Furthermore it is necessary to investigate weed management practices combining preventive (timing of seeding, crop rotation and tillage) and direct methods (chemical and physical methods) of weed control. For population dynamic models it is necessary to determine long-term economic weed threshold estimating the changes in the soil seed bank. Finally both models will be combined in a decision support system for weed control in North China Plain Production Systems. The applicability of this decision support system will be tested in field experiments.
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