Agriculture, Climate and Ecosystems
Agriculture is the main source of nutrients and biomass for an increasingly diverse range of uses in our globally connected economies. But, agriculture also contributes to climate change and the degradation of ecosystems through land use change, soil erosion, excessive water use, and pollution. These undesirable environmental impacts of agriculture are increasingly turning into risks for agricultural production itself. For example, farmers struggle to maintain crop yields on degraded soils and uncertain climate conditions, and the elevated use of agrochemicals threatens human health and the environment.
Research under this research topic focuses on reducing these and other sustainability tradeoffs resulting from agricultural production as a basis for providing sustainable healthy diets and other bio-based products. We bridge across relevant scales from processes at cell-level in the crop and animal sciences to the plant, field, and farm-levels as well as the ecosystem scale, fostering close collaboration between natural sciences, engineering, economics, and social sciences. This includes, for example, research on (1) new drought-resistant crop varieties, (2) carbon-farming practices, (3) alternative field arrangement to increase agrobiodiversity, (4) animal welfare, and (5) monitoring and modeling systems to measure and predict the eco-efficiency of agricultural production systems.
Our research aims at providing improved knowledge for the design of resilient and productive agricultural systems that minimize negative impacts on the climate, ecosystems, and human health. Through regular engagement with stakeholders, such as farmers, industry representatives, and policy makers, we seek to develop and upscale improved management and technology-based solutions for more sustainable agricultural production systems.
Third party funding
Numerous research projects in the field of “Agriculture, Climate and Ecosystems” are funded by third parties. This list provides an overview of the projects, sorted by third-party funders.
Third party funded projects
- Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob - Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production
- Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) Transregio (TRR) 228: Future Rural Africa: Future-making and social-ecological transformation
- CRC 1502: Regional Climate Change: Disentangling the Role of Land Use and Water Management
- Research Unit (FOR) 5351: KI-FOR Automation and Artificial Intelligence for Monitoring and Decision Making of Horticultural Crops (AID4Crops)
- FOR 2936: Climate Change and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa
- FOR 2589: Near-Realtime Quantitative Precipitation Estimation and Prediction (RealPEP)
- FOR 2630: Understanding the global freshwater system by combining geodetic and remote sensing information with modelling using a calibration/data assimilation approach (GlobalCDA)
- Priority Program (SPP) 2115: Polarimetric Radar Observations meet Atmospheric Modelling (PROM) - Fusion of Radar Polarimetry and Numerical Atmospheric Modelling Towards an Improved Understanding of Cloud and Precipitation Processes
- Research Grant: COVID-19 and the response of Ethiopian rural food systems
- Independent Junior Research Group: Genetic control and nutrient-dependency of root-microbe interaction in maize
- EU Horizon CLEVER: Creating leverage to enhance biodiversity outcomes of global biomass trade
- European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants (StG): NanoSoil: Nano- and colloidal plastics in soil: input, plant uptake and risk assessment
- ERC StG: BATOFF: Turning off the furnace: the intracellular brake systems for brown fat thermogenesis
- ERC StG: LAND-POLICY: A Global Evaluation of Public Policies to Mitigate and Reverse Land Degradation
- AMMOD: Development of an Automated Multisensor Stations for Monitoring of BioDiversity (AMMOD) Teilprojekt 1: Management und Koordination sowie Metabarcoding Insekten
- BioTip: Tipping Points, Dynamics and Interdependencies of Social-ecological Systems
- CaBOL - Caucasus Barcode of Life: Georgian-Armenian-German initiative to establish a joint Caucasian biodiversity research platform; Teilvorhaben: Erfassung und Barcoding der kaukasischen Fauna und Verbundkoordination, Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
- FörTax - Promotion of taxonomic knowledge as a basis for nature conservation; Teilvorhaben: Projektkoordination, Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
- GlobalTip: NamTip - A Namibian Perspective on Desertification Tipping Points in the Face of Climate Change - Teilprojekt 6: Böden
- GBOL - German Barcode of Life III: Dark Taxa: Teilprojekt 1, ZFMK: Koordination, Datensicherung, Dark Taxa, OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units), Target DNA Enrichment, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
- INTERFACES: Supporting Pathways to Sustainable Land Management in Africa
- LANUSYNCON: LANd Use SYNergies and CONflicts within the framework of the 2030 Agenda
- BonaRes: Soil³ - Sustainable subsoil management
- START: Sustainable greenhouse production types and resource efficient technologies for future cultivation
Further Activities in this Area
UNESCO Chair Human-Water-Systems
- Together with the University of Bonn, UNESCO has established the UNESCO Chair in Human-Water Systems in 2021. The chairholder is the geographer Prof. Dr. Mariele Evers.
Service Platform for Plant Experiments
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The Service Platform for Plant Experiments is an organizational unit of the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences that supports research and teaching in the field of modern crop sciences.
Core Facility Climate Chambers
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The Core Facility of the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences offers access to 12 state-of-the-art climate chambers in which a wide range of climate parameters can be precisely set and monitored to create optimal experimental conditions. The continuously dimmable LED lights offer control over both the light intensity and spectrum, with five independently adjustable channels.
Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC)
- A network of expertise at the University of Bonn, RWTH Aachen University, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Forschungszentrum Jülich dedicated to the sustainable bioeconomy.
Klein-Altendorf Sustainabiliy Campus
- The Klein-Altendorf Campus (CKA) is one of the three external laboratories of the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences. Numerous experiments are carried out here by the university institutes and cooperating research institutions, with a focus on topics relating to plant cultivation.
- The Frankenforst Campus (CF) is one of the three external laboratories of the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences. Experimental projects of university institutes and cooperating research institutions in the field of agricultural livestock farming are carried out here.
- The Wiesengut campus is one of the three external laboratories of the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences. The Wiesengut is the ecological teaching and experimental farm of the University of Bonn. Situated near Hennef on the River Sieg, the farm with around 80 hectares of arable land and grassland provides a platform for current research questions on agriculture and nature conservation.
- The bio innovation park Rheinland e. V. is a network of business and science to promote innovative solutions for a green future. The University of Bonn, Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Alanus University of Applied Sciences and companies from various sectors work together directly, searching for joint theoretical and practical solutions.
Center for Earth System Observations and Computational Analysis (CESOC)
- A cooperation in research and teaching between the University of Bonn, the University of Cologne and Forschungszentrum Jülich with the aim of comprehensively observing, understanding and forecasting the Earth system in times of global environmental changes.
The TRA's other research areas
Sustainable Healthy Diets
Our diets are often neither healthy nor sustainable, which affects the achievement of many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Transformative Technologies
Technological advancements can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Societal Change and Innovations
A sustainable development of humanity requires behavioral changes as well as strategic and adaptive governance.