@misc{KundelBodenhausenBrachtJorgensenetal., author = {Kundel, Dominika and Bodenhausen, Natacha and Bracht J{\o}rgensen, Helene and Truu, Jaak and Birkhofer, Klaus and Hedlund, Katarina and M{\"a}der, Paul and Fliessbach, Andreas}, title = {Effects of simulated drought on biological soil quality, microbial diversity and yields under long-term conventional and organic agriculture}, series = {FEMS Microbiology Ecology}, volume = {96}, journal = {FEMS Microbiology Ecology}, number = {12}, issn = {1574-6941}, doi = {doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiaa205}, pages = {12}, abstract = {Drought and agricultural management influence soil microorganisms with unknown consequences for the functioning ofagroecosystems. We simulated drought periods in organic (biodynamic) and conventional wheat fields and monitoredeffects on soil water content, microorganisms and crops. Above the wilting point, water content and microbial respirationwere higher under biodynamic than conventional farming. Highest bacterial and fungal abundances were found inbiodynamically managed soils, and distinct microbial communities characterised the farming systems. Most biological soilquality parameters and crop yields were only marginally affected by the experimental drought, except for arbuscularmycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which increased in abundance under the experimental drought in both farming systems. AMFwere further strongly promoted by biodynamic farming resulting in almost three times higher AMF abundance underexperimental drought in the biodynamic compared with the conventional farming system. Our data suggest an improvedwater storage capacity under biodynamic farming and confirms positive effects of biodynamic farming on biological soilquality. The interactive effects of the farming system and drought may further be investigated under more substantialdroughts. Given the importance of AMF for the plant's water supply, more in-depth studies on AMF may help to clarify theirrole for yields under conditions predicted by future climate scenarios.}, language = {en} } @misc{KundelMeyerBirkhoferetal., author = {Kundel, Dominika and Meyer, Svenja and Birkhofer, Herbert and Fliessbach, Andreas and M{\"a}der, Paul and Scheu, Stefan and Kleunen, Mark van and Birkhofer, Klaus}, title = {Design and Manual to Construct Rainout-Shelters for Climate Change Experiments in Agroecosystems}, series = {Frontiers in Environmental Science}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Environmental Science}, issn = {2296-665X}, doi = {10.3389/fenvs.2018.00014}, pages = {9}, abstract = {Climate change models predict reduced summer precipitations for most European countries, including more frequent and extreme summer droughts. Rainout-shelters which intercept part of the natural precipitation provide an effective tool to investigate effects of different precipitation levels on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In this study, we evaluate and describe in detail a fixed-location rainout-shelter (2.5 × 2.5 m) with partial interception of natural rainfall. We provide a complete parts list, a construction manual and detailed CAD drawings allowing to rebuild and use these shelters for rainfall manipulation studies. In addition, we describe a rainout-shelter control treatment giving the possibility to quantify and account for potential shelter artifacts. To test the rainout-shelters, we established the following three treatments each in eight winter wheat plots of the agricultural long-term farming system comparison trial DOK in Therwil (Switzerland): (1) A rainout-shelter with 65\% interception of rainfall, (2) a rainout-shelter control without interception of rainfall, and (3) an ambient control. The rainout-shelter effectively excluded 64.9\% of the ambient rainfall, which is very close to the a priori calculated exclusion of 65.1\%. In comparison to the ambient control plots, gravimetric soil moisture decreased under the rainout-shelter by a maximum of 11.1 percentage points. Air temperature under the rainout-shelter differed little from the ambient control (-0.55°C in 1.2 m height and +0.19°C in 0.1 m height), whereas soil temperatures were slightly higher in periods of high ambient temperature (+1.02°C), but remained basically unaffected in periods of low ambient temperature (+0.14°C). A maximum edge effect of 0.75 m defined a sampling area of 1 × 1 m under the rainout-shelter. The rainout-shelters presented here, proved to sustain under heavy weather and they were well-suited to be used in agricultural fields where management operations require the removal of the rainout-shelters for management operations. Overall, the results confirmed the good performance of the presented rainout-shelters regarding rainout-shelter artifacts, predictable rain exclusion, and feasibility for experimental studies in agricultural fields.}, language = {en} }