Research Platform Scheyern
Since soils are an extremely limited resource world-wide, pressure on agricultural land will increase as a consequence of increasing world population and rapidly changing environmental conditions. The necessity for an efficient plant production for food or renewable energy use is often in conflict with the need for sustainable land use. New land management practices are therefore required but have to be studied with respect to their effects on ecosystem functioning and their impacts on factors affecting human health.
We are currently already facing increased temperatures, drought events in spring, and in contrast extreme rainfall in summer with visible effects such as soil erosion and plant damage. Impacts on factors affecting human health can be expected from intensified land use (increase of pesticides and fertilisers, new cropping systems) and consequences of climate change (invasion of new species, or changes in species composition). This may lead to an increase of fungal toxins in the food chain, occurrence of new allergens as pollen or pesticide residues, formation of multiple anitbiotic resistence through heavy metals and medicines, and the spread of new pathogens due to global transport or due to changes in the environment.
The research station Scheyern provides a plattform that enables to study effects of climate change at an ecologically relevant scale. With this platform, hypotheses rising from studies under controlled conditions can be tested and results validated in the field. In Scheyern, this is realised with respect to effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning as well as in relation to factors influencing human health.
Research Topics:
Climate change and ecosystem functioning: trace gas fluxes, water and carbon budgets, C-sequestration
- TERENO - (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observato¬ries) (tereno.net)
- Quality of bioenergy plants under abiotic and biotic stress
- Efficiency, water and nutrient budgets of agroforestry systems
- Productivity, nitrogen budgets and trace gas emissions under different land use practices
Climate change and health: new pathogens, invasive species
- Mycotoxins in food, Biocontrol of phytopathogens
- Antibiotic resistance and land use
- Effects of changes in biodiversity on human health