Assessing the cascading effects of arsenic on the health of soils, plants, microorganisms and humans: 2018 – 2021
Projektleitung: Adrien Mestrot, Moritz Bigalke (Bodenkunde)
DoktorandInnen: Miquel Coll Crespi, Hang Guan
One Health is an important emerging framework which emphasizes the connection between the wellbeing of the environment, animals and humans. Within the UniBern funded Interfaculty Research Cooperation, we propose to address a new aspect of One Health: cascading microbiome mediated health. By investigating the effects of environmental stress factors in a defined multitrophic model system including soils, plants and mice as model organisms for human health, our project will add an important new dimension to the concept of One Health. The group of Soil Science focuses on the role of arsenic as an environmental stress factor on cascading health effects.
Arsenic biomethylation across microbial phyla
Projektleitung: Adrien Mestrot (Bodenkunde), Rizlan Bernier-Latmani (Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, EPFL)
Doktorandin: Karen Viacava
Arsenic, a carcinogenic element, undergoes extensive microbial cycling in soils, including methylation. It is unclear whether this process is an arsenic detoxification mechanism or a strategy to inhibit the growth of competitors. Our overall objective is to shed light on the role of soil microbial arsenic methylation by combining state-of-the-art analytical speciation techniques with microbiological and molecular biological techniques. This research will allow a better understanding of its biogeochemical cycle and may lead to direct applications for bioremediation.
EUSTACE
Projektteam: Renate Auchmann, Yuri Brugnara, Stefan Brönnimann (Klimatologie)
The project will produce a 150 year data set of daily temperature globally at ca. 50 km resolution from land station data, marine data, and satellite information. Link zur Projektseite
Capital City Economies
Projektleitung: Heike Mayer (Wirtschaftsgeographie)
Capital cities represent a nation`s identity and function as political centers. Yet, we tend to overlook their specific economies. In contrast to traditional accounts of capital cities, our research conceptualizes the modern national capital as an innovation-driven and entrepreneurial economy. Concepts such as public procurement innovation (PPI), entrepreneurial ecosystems and regional innovation systems are important when studying these economies. We compare and contrast capital cities that are not their country`s primary economic centers – so-called secondary capital cities – and have conducted caste studies in Washington D.C., Ottawa, The Hague and Bern. This research was published in a book by Routledge in 2018. We currently examine the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Bern, Switzerland.
Cluster «Governing Telecoupled Resource Systems for Environmental Justice»
Clusterteam: Jean-David Gerber, Christoph Oberlack, Sébastien Boillat, Stefan Brönnimann, Chinwe Ifejika Speranza, Peter Messerli, Stephan Rist, Susan Thieme, Rolf Weingartner, Andreas Heinimann, Elke Kellner
Der Cluster «Governing Telecoupled Resource Systems for Environmental Justice» erforscht, wie aktuelle Dynamiken in globalen Ressourcenregimen sich auf lokale und regionale Systeme der Landnutzung auswirken, und welche Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten auf verschiedenen Handlungsebenen bestehen. Drei globale Dynamiken sind dabei Gegenstand der Forschung: großflächige Investitionen in Landwirtschaft und natürliche Ressourcen, Klimawandel und Klimapolitiken sowie Initiativen zum Schutz von natürlichen Ressourcen. Aktuelle Studienregionen sind in der Schweiz, Myanmar, Peru, Bolivien sowie globale, archetypische Muster. Weblink
Antimony in Swiss shooting ranges soils: PhD thesis and master thesis
Projektleitung: Adrien Mestrot, Moritz Bigalke (Bodenkunde); Jen-How Huang (Departement Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Basel)
Doktorandin: Jaime Caplette MSc Studentin: Stephanie Pfister
Antimony is used as a hardening agent in ammunition and is accumulating in shooting range soils. Since antimony is toxic and can cause severe health effects it is necessary to take a closer look at this poorly studied environmental pollutant. Our projects aim to examine the mobilization potential of antimony in soils. We focus on developing method to capture and quantify volatile antimony and on investigating the influence of temperature changes caused by climate change on the mobility of antimony in flooded soils.
Concentration and speciation of trace element in the sediments of Lake Wohlen
Projektleitung: Adrien Mestrot (Bodenkunde)
MSc Studentin: Lucija Stanisic
Lake Wohlen is an artificially constructed reservoir and is located downstream of the city of Bern. It is assumed that reservoirs and lakes downstream of urban areas have accumulated significant amounts of contaminated sediments. Trace elements such as arsenic, mercury and antimony present in such sediments can undergo various biotic and abiotic transformation processes such as biomethylation and biovolatilisation. These two processes are linked to the methane biosynthesis. It is documented that Lake Wohlen has the highest methane emission ever recorded for a mid-latitude reservoir due to the deposit of labile organic substances under limited contact with oxygen. The aim of this master thesis is to determine which trace elements and in which species they are present in the sediments of Lake Wohlen. Is the methylation of As, Hg and Sb related to the methane production?
Microplastics in Roadside Soils – Exploring methods to extract and measure soil microplastics and applying them to soils adjacent to roads
Projektleitung: Moritz Bigalke (Bodenkunde)
MSc Student: Benjamin Herrmann
Microplastic particles (MIP) represent a scarcely investigated, potentially underestimated threat to soils and the organisms and ecosystems depending on them. Methods to extract and measure MIP in water and sediment samples have been developed and widely adopted. Meanwhile, effective methods to extract MIP from soil samples without affecting particle size and shape need further research. This master thesis explores such methods of extraction and gives advice on how to measure them with FTIR.
Microplastics in compost
Projektleitung: Moritz Bigalke, Evelyne Vonwyl (Bodenkunde)
The contamination of compost by plastics due to improper waste separation is an increasing concern. In this project, we try to develop a method for analyzing plastics in compost samples. While plastic fragments larger than 1 mm can be identified in a straightforward manner, particles smaller than 1 mm are difficult to recover. Accelerated solvent extraction is a technique that uses high temperature and pressure conditions to extract organic materials from solids. This extraction technique is optimized in order to quantify and analyze microplastics in compost.
Sustainable soil nutrient management in organic and conventional farming
Projektleitung: Klaus Jarosch (Bodenkunde)
Organic and conventional cropping systems differ strongly with respect to forms and amounts of nutrients (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) applied to soil. While only organic inputs such as farmyard manure or compost are used in organic farming, mineral fertilizers are used with or without organic inputs in conventional farming. The form as well as the amount of fertilizer applied to the field has large consequences on the availability of nutrients. If nutrients are not taken up by crops, there is the risk of nutrient loss with potentially adverse consequences for other ecosystems. In collaboration with FiBL Switzerland and Agroscope, we analyze data from a long-term (> 40 years) field trial in Therwil, Switzerland to evaluate the effect of organic and conventional farming systems on overall soil nutrient availability, nutrient use efficiency by crops, and potential nutrient losses.
Pollutant remobilisation from Swiss lake sediments
Projektleitung: Martin Grosjean (Paläolimnologie); Klaus Jarosch (Bodenkunde)
Many Swiss lakes suffered from deteriorated water quality and algal blooms in the 1960s and 70s, caused by high phosphorus inputs by streams and rivers. Improved water protection laws led to a reduction of phosphorus inputs into lakes and improved water quality in the following decades. Despite low phosphorus inflow, several lakes still show signs of eutrophication today. It is speculated that the remobilization of phosphorus from sediments from the lake bottom may play a crucial role in this process. By analysing lake sediment cores with respect to phosphorus forms and lake productivity indicators (pigments), we aim to improve our understanding of processes driving phosphorus mobilisation from sediments in several Swiss lakes.
Biomethylation of mercury in a polluted agricultural floodplain
Projektleitung: Adrien Mestrot (Bodenkunde)
Doktorand: Lorenz Gfeller
The biomethylation of mercury to methylmercury is a process that drastically increases the toxicity of this trace element. Methylmercury formation happens mainly under the water surface in oxygen poor and organic carbon rich environments. We study the influence of flooding and agricultural practices (e.g. manure amendment) in mercury polluted agricultural floodplain soils between Visp and Raron (VS).
The occurrence and fate of microplastics in Swiss arable soils
Projektleitung: Adrien Mestrot, Moritz Bigalke (Bodenkunde)
Doktorandin: Alexandra Foetisch
Microplastic pollution have become a widespread problem and agricultural soil is of a great interest because they may have negative effect on soil ecology, fertility and the produced food. Microplastics mainly end up in agricultural soils because of the littering, the use of sewage sludge and compost, the use of plastic foils, irrigation and atmospheric deposition. In the project, we will optimize the method to analyse microplastics in soils, analyse the impact of the most important microplastic sources on soil microplastic concentrations and the effect of soil properties on the transport of microplastics.
Microplastics in Swiss agricultural soils
Projektleitung: Moritz Bigalke (Bodenkunde)
MSc Studentin: Gaby Witschi
The aim of this master thesis is to show primary findings on microplastic pollution in Swiss agricultural soils. Therefore, soil samples of distinct agricultural areas will be analysed on their microplastic content and on the occurrence of various types of microplastics. Since a direct link between the type of microplastics and the source of microplastic input and therefore the applied agricultural techniques is assumed, the sampled areas differ concerning their cultivation techniques. The project is conducted with the help of Agroscope and the office of agriculture and nature Berne (LANAT).
Systematic vulnerability of infrastructure to floods
Projektleitung: Margreth Keiler (Geomorphologie)
Forschung: Papilloud Tsolmongerel
The goal of this research is to assess failures of infrastructure due to flooding and their consequences on population and a network of infrastructure systems at the national level reflecting interdependency between elements in systems. Link zur Projektseite
Datenanalyse Hochwasser Schweiz
Projektleitung: Margreth Keiler (Geomorphologie)
Forschung: Veronika Röthlisberger
Gefahrenkarten, Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister, Schadendatenbanken: Räumliche Daten aus denen sich direkt oder indirekt das Ausmass und/oder die Wahrscheinlichkeit von Hochwasserschäden abschätzen lässt, gibt es viele in der Schweiz. Im aktuellen Projekt «Vulnerabilität Hochwasser Schweiz» suchen wir nach Beziehungsmuster zwischen erfassten Verlusten einerseits und Gebäudewerten, -merkmalen und -hochwasserexposition andererseits. Die Ergebnisse tragen dazu bei, die Verletzlichkeit von Gebäuden gegenüber Hochwasser in der Schweiz verlässlicher zu quantifizieren und helfen so mit, die Abschätzung von Schäden zukünftiger Hochwasserereignisse zu verbessern.
A coupled human and landscape model of risk and resilience in Alpine mountain communities
Projektleitung: Margreth Keiler (Geomorphologie)
Forschung: Jorge Ramirez
While progress has been made to mitigate and adapt to natural hazards, much of the existing research lacks interdisciplinary approaches that consider both natural and social processes. We develop a model of a coupled human-landscape system in European Alpine communities that contains a system dynamics component reproducing socio-economic developments and shocks that include economic crises leading to unemployment and depopulation. Additionally, the model contains climate, hydrology, and geomorphic components that replicate natural hazards like floods and debris flows.
Alpine solifluction and its environmental controls – spatio-temporal monitoring at Blauberg (Furkapass, Central Swiss Alps)
Projektleitung: Heinz Veit, Armin Rist (Paläo-Geoökologie)
The whole north slope of Blauberg – situated in the periglacial belt – is covered with solifluction lobes between 2380 m and 2700 m a.s.l. At this site we thus investigate how solifluction rates temporally and spatially depend on environmental factors such as weather, snow, vegetation, geology, relief and substrate. The gained data will be used to develop a quantitative model linking environmental conditions and solifluction rates. The model can serve as tool for paleo-geoecological reconstruction. Link zur Projektseite
Böden und Paläosole im Schweizer Mittelland
Projektleitung: Heinz Veit (Paläo-Geoökologie)
Time is a major soil forming factor. Over time, soils should become thicker and better developed in terms of intensity of weathering and differentiation in soil horizons, which is known as soil chronostratigraphy. The Swiss Plateau is an ideal natural laboratory for studying these processes, because there are quaternary sediments of different ages, allowing for the research on time dependend soil development. Besides fieldwork, we apply mainly OSL-dating of the soil parent material, to get the time frame. Link zur Projektseite
Swiss Early Instrumental Measurements for Studying Decadal Climate Variability (CHIMES)
Projektteam: Stefan Brönnimann, Lucas Pfister, Lukas Munz, Leonie Villiger (Klimatologie) / Christian Rohr, Isotta Francesco
Weather has been measured already before the start of a national network in 1863, but mostly only three prominent series are known (Geneva, Basel, Gr. St. Bernard) The project CHIMES will produce a systematic survey of pre-1864 Swiss meteorological data, digitise a large fraction of these data, perform quality assurance and breakpoint detection, and produce 2 km gridded weather reconstructions for Switzerland spanning the past ca. 200 – 250 years. Link zur Projektseite
BernClim
Projektteam: This Rutishauser, Lukas Meyer, Stefan Brönnimann (Klimatologie)
Since almost 50 years, volunteer observers form the Canton of Bern have sent in data on phenological phases and, in winter, snow and fog. These observers constitute the BernClim network. Link zur Projektseite
Stadtklima Bern
Projektteam: Moritz Gubler, Lukas Meyer, Sofya Antonowa, Stefan Brönnimann (Klimatologie)
Cities often exhibit large climatic differences over small distances. In this project, fine-grained temperature measurements are performed in the city of Bern and the surrounding areas in order to chart a «heat map» for Bern. Results are analysed together with climate model simulations. Link zur Projektseite
Soziale Innovationen im Berggebiet
Projektleitung: Heike Mayer (Wirtschaftsgeographie)
The tourism, construction and healthcare industries represent the main pillars of Swiss mountain economies and they are increasingly under pressure because of limited growth opportunities. At the same time, a general trend towards the adoption of new types of innovations that involve novel forms of collaboration as well as innovations that meet social needs can be observed. This is referred to as social innovations. While social innovations are increasingly adopted in Swiss mountain regions, there is little systematic knowledge about these kinds of innovations and, in particular, their potential to shift away from the traditional growth orientation and the lock-in that this orientation produces for industries and regions. For this SNF-funded project, we compare the industries in three Swiss mountain regions (Haslital, Adelboden and Grindelwald) that strongly differ in terms of economic structure, history and challenges they are facing. Link zur Projektseite
Digitale Multilokalität: Stadt-Land Verbindungen in den Schweizer Alpen
Projektleitung: Heike Mayer (Wirtschaftsgeographie)
Digital technologies have the potential to reshape our traditional understanding of geographical distance and, in particular, the relationship between the urban and the rural. Specifically, digital technologies enable businesses, entrepreneurs, workers, etc. to relocate part or all of their economic activities from central locations such as cities to more rural, peripheral environments such as, for example, mountain regions in the European Alps. What may result from these processes are multilocal living and working arrangements, a development we term `digital multilocality`. In this SNF project that is funded through the Digital Lives program we work with the University of Bern`s Science IT Support and use novel data to examine the ways in which digitalization is changing urban-rural linkages. Link zur Projektseite
ResiDENSE – How does housing remain affordable in a dense city? Analysing the Governance of Densification for Housing Sustainability in Cities
Projektleitung: Jean-David Gerber (Raumentwicklung und -planung)
Forschung: Gabriela Debrunner
In the last decade, in many countries facing intensive population growth and scarcity of land, densification became a central policy objective of spatial development. However, local public authorities have been struggling to develop reliable strategies to implement densification due to intertwined public and private interests and increasing residents’ resistance strategies. Using a (neo)institutionalist approach, this project takes Switzerland and Denmark as case studies to analyse the governance of densification promoting housing sustainability on different levels.
Gesundheit, Arbeit und soziale Differenzen: Eine institutionelle Ethnographie von Schweizer und deutschen Spitälern
Projektleitung: Susan Thieme, Marina Richter, Carole Ammann (Geographie und Nachhaltige Entwicklung)
This interdisciplinary project aims to unveil social diversities in the health care labour market by contextualizing the institutional logics of personnel policy within hospitals in a situation of staff shortage and under the pressure of neoliberal restructuring. We conduct an institutional ethnography of a Swiss acute hospital to understand the institutional logic that shape personnel policies in this specific place. This perspective is combined with a multilevel intersectional lens to capture how personnel policies are structured by categories of social difference. With this perspective, we trace power geometries based on differences such as gender, age or migration. Both approaches, institutional ethnography as well as intersectionality, represent feminist theoretical and methodological perspectives in research and allow to analyse power, inequalities and their making in socio-spatial contexts.
Lives being born in the emotional tech industry: Rethinking care and intimacy through embodied and emotional robots
Projektleitung: Jasmine Truong (Postdoc Sozial- und Kulturgeographie)
This study provides novel ways of making sense of the emotional dimension of our robotic future. Through a transcultural approach (Japan-Switzerland) it deals with embodied and humanoid robots that promise to meet fundamental human desires for care, love, and intimacy. It is assumed, that embodied and emotional technologies not only expand human's capacity to love and care for, but also reconfigure our ways of experiencing and thinking about intimacy. This focus on humanoid machines raises the question as to what extent the embodiment, moving actions and reactions of robots reconfigure the model «Human» and thus contributes fundamentally to the discussion of the human-machine relationship.
‹Reproductive Precarities›: Eine Dissertation zu Eizellenspende-Arrangements zwischen der Schweiz und Spanien
Projektleitung: Laura Perler, Universität St. Gallen (Doktorandin Sozial- und Kulturgeographie)
The research project investigates transnational oocyte donation arrangements between Switzerland and Spain. This multilocal ethnography follows the reproductive biographies of egg donors and recipients to understand how transnational forms of reproduction are experienced in a global bio-economy. The aim of the dissertation project is to make the lived experiences of egg donors and egg recipients tangible as specific biographies and thus to make the anthropological dimensions of the transnational market visible. On a theoretical level, various approaches to precarity research will be brought together with feminist debates on new reproductive technologies.
A Comparative Analysis of Firm Dynamics in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in the United States
Projektleitung: Heike Mayer (Wirtschaftsgeographie)
Regional entrepreneurial ecosystems provide a supportive environment for the creation of new firms, startups and spinoffs. These systems consist of entrepreneurial actors, a supportive culture, institutions and support organizations among others that help firm founders when establishing their companies. We examine the entrepreneurial ecosystems in US Rustbelt and Sunbelt regions and visualize them using an entrepreneurial genealogy approach. The regions that we examine are Burlington (VT), Austin (Texas), Albuquerque (NM), and Omaha (NE). This work is funded by the Kaufmann Foundation in the United States and we work with Prof. Elizabeth Mack, Michigan State University.
The Mountain Exile Hypothesis: Teilprojekt Glazialchronologie des Bale Plateaus; 2016 – 2019; SNF-DACH
Projektleitung: Heinz Veit, Naki Akçar (Paläo-Geoökologie, Geologie)
Seven research groups are involved in this project, investigating the Bale Mountains as a major Upper Pleistocene refuge for lowland savanna populations. It is assumed that during the very dry period at about 40'000 – 25'000 years ago, people settled the more humid Sanetti Plateau (4000 m a.s.l.). Our subproject deals with the glacial chronology and paleoclimate of the Bale Mountains at those times. The reconstruction of the glaciated area will help to delineate the possible settlements of the ice age inhabitants and allow the calculation of paleoclimatic conditions and water availability. Link zur Projektseite
Development of vulnerability and damage assessment tools and its implication for flood risk in Nigeria
Projektleitung: Mark Malgwi (Geomorphologie)
Flood related hazards and losses have been on increase in Africa for the past decades. Despite these losses, no standard damage and vulnerability assessment tools are available for predominant regional building types. Using empirical data from the case study region, this research is focused on developing vulnerability assessment tools for buildings using the indicator framework. It aims to identify major damage drivers for regional building types so as to help develop effective strategies for risk reduction.
Entwicklung des tropischen Bodens (Kamerun)
Projektleitung: Heinz Veit, Tobias Sprafke (Paläo-Geoökologie)
Tropical soils generally have a much longer history (up to millions of years) compared to mid-latitude soils (thousands of years). Nevertheless, in the uppermost meters of a typical tropical Ferralsol, processes like slopewash (hillwash, stone lines), eolian input, or bioturbation, lead to an overprinting with quaternary to modern processes. Based on fieldwork and OSL-dating we try to reconstruct the relative importance of these processes and the history of the soils.
Dispersed Dispossession: Disintegration and Agricultural Investment in Rural Russia
Projektleitung: Alexander Vorbrugg (Geographie und Nachhaltige Entwicklung)
On the basis of extensive fieldwork conducted in rural Russia, this project challenges some established assumptions on rural dispossession, in particular a narrow focus on farmland and spectacular «land grabs». The concept of dispersed dispossession offers an alternative that better captures the piecemeal loss of infrastructures and institutional supports in rural Russia and beyond.
Location: Russia, Western part (Lipetsk, Rostov, Voronezh, Perm)
Becoming a virgin: intimate geographies of global body politics
Projektleitung: Elisabeth Militz (Postdoc Sozial- und Kulturgeographie)
Hypothesizing that hymen repair emerges as a transcultural phenomenon of the global intimate that reproduces female virginity as a global commodity, this research project explores how technologies and experiences of hymenorrhaphy produce corporeal geographies, putting sexualized and racialized organs and bodies into circulation as commodities in the global reproductive economy. Specifically, the project is interested in unraveling the different emotional and affectual mechanisms substantiating powerful narratives around virginity, femininity, female sexuality and pleasure.
As part of an emerging transnational study, reproductive and sexual health organizations, gynecologists, obstetricians, plastic surgeons, patients and women’s rights groups will be contacted for narrative interviews and focus groups in Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland and Germany in addition to an online research in social media outlets such as Instagram.
Babies made in Mexico: Reproductive geographies in the global intimate
Projektleitung: Carolin Schurr (Sozial- und Kulturgeographie)
The project asks how the innovation and spread of assisted reproductive technologies has created a transnational market of reproductive materials (ova, sperm, embryos) and reproductive services such as artificial insemination, in-vitro-fertilization and surrogacy. To understand how these markets are made, maintained and extended within the Global South, the project follows the transnational circulation and traveling of bodies, reproductive materials, technologies, knowledge, and socio-technical devices that constitute and transnationalize this market. On the conceptual side, the project integrates feminist and postcolonial Science and Technology Studies into geographies of marketization, making latter more attentive to the way bodies, gender and technology intersect in markets in the Global South. On the empirical side, it develops a better understanding how ART markets are made and expand in the Global South and how this spread affects the bodies of women and men in the Global South. The empirical results of the project inform (inter-)national debates on the regulations of these transnational markets.
Managing telecoupled landscapes: 2015 – 2020, Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d programme)
Projektleitung: Peter Messerli (Nachhaltige Ressourcennutzung, Landsysteme)
This project focuses on land systems in the humid tropics, where global demands for agricultural expansion and intensification, biodiversity conservation, etc. now outweigh local determinants of land use change. Conceptualized under the term "telecoupling", this comprises combined socio-economic and environmental interactions between two or more distant socio-ecological systems. The goal of our project is to devise and test innovative strategies and institutional arrangements for securing ecosystem service flows and human well-being within and between telecoupled landscapes at study sites in Laos, Myanmar, and Madagascar. Link zur Projektseite
Link zur CDE-Projektseite
Antimony mobilization in rice paddy fields
Projektleitung: Adrien Mestrot (Bodenkunde)
Doktorandin: Jaime Caplette (Bodenkunde)
Mitarbeiter: Xinbin Feng, Hua Zhang (State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
The Xikuangshan mining area in Lengshuijiang, Hunan, China, is one of the largest antimony deposits in the world. Our project is a collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and focuses on understanding antimony mobilization in rice paddy fields. This includes antimony mobilization in paddy soils, rice plant uptake, biomethylation and biovolatilization of antimony. We deployed the first ever set-up to measure volatile antimony production in rice paddy fields and discovered that volatile antimony is indeed produced from rice paddy fields to the atmosphere.
Microplastics in the mountains – detection and distribution on meadows
Projektleitung: Moritz Bigalke (Bodenkunde); Clemens Geitner (Universität Innsbruck)
Gaststudentin (MSc): Lina Horn
Microplastics have been identified in the oceans, sediments and deep-sea sediments, estuaries, lakes and the arctic ice, occasionally in significant concentrations. For urban and suburban soils, the phenomenon of atmospheric precipitation could represent a significant source of microplastic particles. Scientists suspect that microplastics can be transported over longer distances and thus reach soils far away from agglomerations. It is still unknown to what extent microplastics are already present in the mountains, in which concentrations they occur and how they spread across the mountains. This master thesis tries to answer these questions by sampling meadow soils for the investigations.
Forms and fluxes of phosphorus in Amazonian Dark Earth (terra preta)
Projektleitung: Klaus Jarosch (Bodenkunde)
Many soils in the tropics are characterized by low soil fertility because intensive weathering has led to the depletion of soil nutrients. Amazonian Dark Earth (also known as terra preta) is an exception to this rule. This soil is characterized by high fertility and is a result from soil management practices by indigenous communities for several centuries that affect soil fertility still today. In this project we aim to improve our understanding of processes enhancing soil nutrient availability, with a focus on phosphorus. For that we characterize the mineralogy of these soils and determine fluxes of P using isotopic pool dilution methods.
Effect of elevated CO2 on soil nutrient availability
Projektleitung: Klaus Jarosch (Bodenkunde)
Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations drive global climate change. Plants may respond positively to elevated CO2 by increased growth and thereby binding more CO2 in their biomass. However, the growth of many forests is limited by low soil nutrient availability. Processes that govern the overall nutrient availability in soil may also change under elevated CO2, yet it is unclear to which extent. In collaboration with colleagues from the Western Sydney University (Australia) and the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), we are analyzing the effect of elevated CO2 on soil phosphorus and nitrogen fluxes on a nutrient poor eucalyptus forest.
Biomethylation of mercury in rice paddy fields
Projektleitung: Adrien Mestrot (Bodenkunde)
Doktorand: Lorenz Gfeller (Bodenkunde)
Mitarbeiter: Xinbin Feng, Hua Zhang (State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
The biomethylation of mercury to methylmercury is a process that drastically increases the toxicity of this trace element. Methylmercury formation happens mainly under the water surface in oxygen poor and organic carbon rich environments. We study the influence of flooding and agricultural practices (e.g. manure amendment) in regularly submerged rice paddy soils in mercury polluted mining areas, in Wanshan (China).
Progress in research on Zn isotopes in soil and plants
Projektleitung: Ni Shijun, Hang Yi (Department of Earth Science, Chengdu University of Technology, China)
Doktorand: Liu Xiaowen (Department of Earth Science, Chengdu University of Technology / Bodenkunde GIUB)
Mitarbeiter: Moritz Bigalke (Bodenkunde)
This study is based on the TangJia Pb-Zn deposit in Hanyuan County, Sichuan Province, China. It mainly studies the fractionation mechanism and migration and transformation of zinc isotope in soil and plants (Sedge), and the heavy metals in soil and plants. The element content was tested by ICP-MS, and the Zn isotope was tested by MC-ICP-MS.
Exploring the Knowledge Dynamics Associated with Forest Management for Climate Change Adaptation in South Africa
Mitarbeitende: Chidiebere Ofoegbu, Chinwe Ifejika Speranza (Nachhaltige Ressourcennutzung)
Finanzierung: ‹Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute› und ‹Swiss-African Research Cooperation›
Forests are critical for climate policy agenda with respect to actions for climate change adaptation and mitigation. We conceptualised a climate knowledge system and use it to to undertake a network analysis of the organizations working in the intersection of climate change and forest management. The aim is to understand how climate information flows among these stakeholders, and tease out the barriers and enablers of climate forecasts translation and tailoring to enhance the usability of climate information in forest management with respect to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Link zur Projektseite
Human-Environment Relationships in pre-Columbian Amazonia (HERCA); 2019 – 2022: Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK)
Projektleitung: Frank Mayle (University of Reading, UK)
Co-Projektleitung: Heinz Veit (Paläo-Geoökologie)
Mitarbeiter: Umberto Lombardo
Pre-Columbian (pre-1492) Amazonia provides a case study of a long-standing debate into human-environment interactions. The processes by which the complex (stratified) societies in Amazonia emerged and declined, and their relationships with the environment, ramin unsolved. Therefore, the project assembles an international, multi-disciplinary research team to integrate archaeological and environmental approaches and data.