Soil is a limited resource for agriculture, and its productivity can be greatly influenced by farm management. Therefore, it is important to expand the scientific understanding of soil ecosystems and to develop strategies for sustainable use of the soil. The BonaRes Centre for Soil Research, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), is dedicated to this goal and deals with the transfer of new knowledge about soil functions into scientifically based decision-making tools for soil management.

Long-term experiments (LTEs) also play an important role in this research, in which the effects of different long-term soil management strategies on the soil ecosystem can be investigated. In Germany, there are more than 200 LTEs with a duration of at least 20 years, in which mainly effects of mineral and organic fertilization, crop rotation and tillage are examined. To tap the full potential of these experiments, they are recorded in a repository according to uniform standards. Modern, scientifically based methods of carrying out LTEs must be used to ensure the meaningfulness of these experiments.

The aim of the planned virtual workshop is to exchange experiences about the application of modern standards in LTEs and to derive recommendations for the use of these trials for ecosystem research and modelling. The workshop will discuss the requirements for statistical evaluation and data acquisition of LTEs, and methods and selected results of biological, chemical and physical soil parameters will be presented.

Registration & Program here

photo: University Giessen