Our research focuses on analyzing soil development in the context of land use changes and urbanization. The goal is to support the conservation of natural ecosystem services in both the landscape and urban environment. A particular focus lies on the experimental exploration and model-based description of biogeochemical reactions and transport processes in natural, near-natural, and anthropogenically influenced soils.
Research Priorities:
Biogeochemical Approaches for Sustainable Soil Management and Functional Ecosystem Services:
The ecological challenges of anthropogenically influenced soils reflect the pressures of rapid urbanization, globalization, and industrialization, leading to changes in the abiotic and biotic environment. The generation of toxic by-products and modifications to land surfaces, affecting water and energy balances, pose significant challenges. Climate change, loss of organic matter in soil, and soil compaction influence biogeochemical cycles and soil water balance, presenting challenges to vegetation. To support the provisioning, regulating, and recreational services of anthropogenically influenced soils, appropriate measures for element supplementation, structural improvement, and pollutant stabilization must be developed. A key scientific goal is to investigate the potential of organic soil amendments for nutrient recycling, plant and soil development, and pollutant stabilization. The main interest is to increase soil water holding capacity and enable long-term nutrient supply. In connection with this, we explore ways to create carbon sinks in soils, offering significant potential for climate neutrality. The enrichment and stabilization of carbon in anthropogenically influenced soils also have co-benefits: pollutant retention, activation of soil life (pollutant metabolism), and increased water storage capacity. Within this thematic area, understanding and targeted optimization of the soil-microbiome-plant system are additional research priorities. Focusing on locally adapted species contributing to the stabilization and metabolism of pollutants, enhancing the functional adaptability of flora to biotic and abiotic environments, improves the remediation of challenging ecosystems.
Non-Invasive Methods for Soil Mapping and Assessment:
To support sustainable soil management globally, there is a need to advance a) fast and non-invasive methods for assessing soil properties and contaminations; b) cost-effective and regionally optimized remediation methods; and c) sustainable monitoring. The application of non-invasive, rapid, and cost-effective methods to capture information on the spatial variability of physical, chemical, and mineralogical properties of anthropogenically influenced soils can significantly advance the management of functions and dynamics. Our use of drones with optical spectroscopy or Sentinel data is based on detecting, mapping, and monitoring pollutant concentrations and other trace metals in the soil. This approach underscores the need for further studies on biomonitoring, as plants have the ability to accumulate elements and react fluorescently, which is crucial for optical/spectral data analysis.
Soil Hydrological Process Research and Transport Simulation:
In many ecosystems, water is the limiting factor for vegetation development. Additionally, nearly all biogeochemical reactions and transport processes of energy, gases (climate-relevant gases, water vapor), and dissolved substances (nutrients and pollutants) in soils depend on soil water content. The predicted shift of precipitation from summer to winter due to anthropogenic climate change will intensify and prolong summer dry periods. This leads to reduced water availability in the vegetation period, reducing the contribution of soil and vegetation to mitigating the urban heat island effect. The temporally limited availability of water in natural and urban ecosystems necessitates the storage of water in technical infrastructure and porous media. The latter must be designed or optimized to maximize the storage of plant-available water. Linked to this are questions of efficient irrigation, as increased conflicts over the scarce resource of water are expected in the future.