On the fields of the Klein-Altendorf research campus, researchers can carry out field trials.
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Science Year of the Bioeconomy
Ploughing to depth
Science Year of the Bioeconomy
Ploughing to depth
On the Klein-Altendorf research campus near Bonn, in pits about two metres deep, researchers observe how roots make their way through the soil.
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If you see farmers with their ploughs in the fields, they usually only work the top 30 centimetres of the soil. However, about two thirds of the water resources and more than half of the nutrients are found in the subsoil below. The subsoil is usually so compacted that the plant can hardly extend its roots there. Special methods of ploughing and loosening the subsoil are hardly economical: after two or three years at the latest, the loosened soil has sealed itself off and compacted again.
The campus of the University of Bonn is about 176 hectares in size.
Researchers from the BonaRes project Soil3 are also conducting field trials there.
Their research takes them underground, considering their interest in the subsoil at a depth of 30 centimetres.
The subsoil is usually so compacted that plant roots do not extend there and, therefore, cannot reach nutrients and water at this depth.
Special ploughing methods press materials like compost into the subsoil tokeep it permanently loose. For examination purposes, pits are dug in the field.
In the two-metre deep pits, the researchers observe how the plant roots make their way into the loosened subsoil.
Researchers want to avoid this. In the Soil3 project, organic materials such as compost is pressed into the subsoil during deep ploughing, which is intended to keep the soil permanently loose. The plant is given the opportunity to use water and nutrients from areas below the topsoil as required. “So we are creating a kind of guarantee that allows the plants to get enough water and nutrients even in dry summers,” says Prof. Wulf Amelung. Successfully so: the soils of the Klein-Altendorf research campus treated in this way are now yielding an additional 20 per cent for the third year in succession – even in the drought years 2018 and 2019.
Texts: Janine van Ackeren
Image above: On the Klein-Altendorf research campus near Bonn, in pits about two metres deep, researchers observe how roots make their way through the soil.
Water
Nutrients
FertilisersThe subsoil stores large quantities of water and nutrients. However, plants often use the top 30 centimetres of the soil, the topsoil. The subsoil is too firm for the plants’ roots. In order to change this, Jülich researchers are working on methods to loosen the subsoil lastingly. Moreover, they use simulations to investigate how each individual root interacts with different soils. In this way, they can observe how changes in the soil affect roots and thus the rest of the plant.
“We are creating a kind of guarantee that allows the plants to get enough water and nutrients in the dry summers.”
Prof. WUlf Amelung, Institut für Bio- und Geowissenschaften (IBG-3)
Photos: Forschungszentrum Jülich/Sascha Kreklau, Universität Bonn/PhenoRob