While several continental regions on Earth are getting wetter, others are drying out not only in terms of precipitation but also measured by the increase or decrease in surface water, water stored in the soils, the plant root zone, and in groundwater. Observations, however, do not support a simple dry-gets-dryer and wet-gets-wetter logic and existing climate models fail to explain observed patterns of hydrological change sufficiently. This CRC aims to close this gap in understanding. To better comprehend the origin of these patterns, it is necessary to build a modelling framework that explains past observations as realistically as possible, accounts for potential drivers of change that may have been understudied in the past, and can predict future changes.
The CROP project aims at estimating the beneficial impact of combining contrasted root phenotypes within a single field. We will evaluate the benefit of the combination of water, carbon and nitrogen flow, microbial communities, and yield. To achieve this goal, we will use a set of complementary experimental and modelling tools.
Food, feed, fiber, and fuel: Crop farming plays an essential role for the future of humanity and our planet. The environmental footprint of agriculture needs to be reduced: less input of chemicals like herbicides and fertilizer and other limited resources like water or energy. Simultaneously, the decline in arable land and climate change pose additional constraints like drought, heat, and other extreme weather events. Achieving sustainable crop production with limited resources is a task of immense proportions. In order to achieve this, the University of Bonn together with Forschungszentrum Jülich conducts research in the Cluster of Excellence “PhenoRob – Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production” to develop methods and new technologies that observe, analyze, better understand and specifically treat plants. Our research focuses on improving the fundamental understanding of all relevant parameters like plant growth, soil, biodiversity, or atmosphere. PhenoRob, the only Cluster of Excellence in agriculture in Germany, aims at addressing these issues: Change crop production by optimizing breeding and farming management using new technologies.
Website referencing fun plant gene names. Yes Plant biologists can be funny sometimes.
Shiny app to create bingo tables for scientific conferences (plant science theme and others)
Shiny app to find science podcast. Based on this article: Science podcasts: analysis of global production and output from 2004 to 2018, MacKenzie (2018), bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/298356