TY - GEN A1 - Kay, Sonja A1 - Rega, Carlo A1 - Moreno, Gerardo A1 - Herder, Michael den A1 - Palma, João H. N. A1 - Borek, Robert A1 - Crous-Duran, Josep A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Giannitsopoulos, Michail A1 - Graves, Anil A1 - Jäger, Mareike A1 - Lamersdorf, Norbert A1 - Memedemin, Daniyar A1 - Mosquera-Losada, R. A1 - Pantera, Anastasia A1 - Paracchini, Maria Luisa A1 - Paris, Pierluigi A1 - Roces-Díaz, José V. A1 - Rolo, Victor A1 - Rosati, Adolfo A1 - Sandor, Mignon A1 - Smith, Jo A1 - Szerencsits, Erich A1 - Varga, Anna A1 - Viaud, Valérie A1 - Wawer, Rafal A1 - Burgess, Paul J. A1 - Herzog, Felix T1 - Agroforestry creates carbon sinks whilst enhancing the environment in agricultural landscapes in Europe T2 - Land Use Policy N2 - Agroforestry, relative to conventional agriculture, contributes significantly to carbon sequestration, increases a range of regulating ecosystem services, and enhances biodiversity. Using a transdisciplinary approach, we combined scientific and technical knowledge to evaluate nine environmental pressures in terms of ecosystem services in European farmland and assessed the carbon storage potential of suitable agroforestry systems, proposed by regional experts. First, regions with potential environmental pressures were identified with respect to soil health (soil erosion by water and wind, low soil organic carbon), water quality (water pollution by nitrates, salinization by irrigation), areas affected by climate change (rising temperature), and by underprovision in biodiversity (pollination and pest control pressures, loss of soil biodiversity). The maps were overlaid to identify areas where several pressures accumulate. In total, 94.4% of farmlands suffer from at least one environmental pressure, pastures being less affected than arable lands. Regional hotspots were located in north-western France, Denmark, Central Spain, north and south-western Italy, Greece, and eastern Romania. The 10% of the area with the highest number of accumulated pressures were defined as Priority Areas, where the implementation of agroforestry could be particularly effective. In a second step, European agroforestry experts were asked to propose agroforestry practices suitable for the Priority Areas they were familiar with, and identified 64 different systems covering a wide range of practices. These ranged from hedgerows on field boundaries to fast growing coppices or scattered single tree systems. Third, for each proposed system, the carbon storage potential was assessed based on data from the literature and the results were scaled-up to the Priority Areas. As expected, given the wide range of agroforestry practices identified, the carbon sequestration potentials ranged between 0.09 and 7.29 t C ha −1 a −1 . Implementing agroforestry on the Priority Areas could lead to a sequestration of 2.1 to 63.9 million t C a −1 (7.78 and 234.85 million t CO 2eq a −1 ) depending on the type of agroforestry. This corresponds to between 1.4 and 43.4% of European agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Moreover, promoting agroforestry in the Priority Areas would contribute to mitigate the environmental pressures identified there. We conclude that the strategic and spatially targeted establishment of agroforestry systems could provide an effective means of meeting EU policy objectives on GHG emissions whilst providing a range of other important benefits. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.02.025 SN - 0264-8377 VL - 83 SP - 581 EP - 593 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Adesipo, Adegbite Adeleke A1 - Akinbiola, Sehinde A1 - Awotoye, Olusegun O. A1 - Salami, Ayobami T. A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - Impact of mining on the floristic association of gold mined sites in Southwest Nigeria T2 - BMC Ecology N2 - Background: Occurrences in land use, human activities and climate change have both direct and indirect influences on the environment. Of interest for this study is mining; a common activity in developing countries such as Nigeria which is endowed with over 34 solid minerals. The gold mining sites in the Southwest region of the country is predominantly by Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM). Though the benefits are known, its induced consequences are enormous. To understand its extent of floristic diversity, identification of functional plants and plant species surviving on the mined sites (despite its characterized mining and alteration level); this study compared the floristic composition of an abandoned mining site (Site 1), an active mining site (Site 2) and an undisturbed vegetation sites (Control) of similar vegetation zone. Results: A total of 54, 28 and 37 species belonging to 31, 20 and 23 families were found on Site 1, Site 2 and the control site, respectively. It shows that the floristic composition of all the sites has been altered due to its past intense agricultural colonization and human activities, but severe on Site 1 and 2 due to mining. Lots of the identified species are functional species and stand as ecological indicators. Species such as Acanthus montanus and Icacina richantha found on the Control sites are native and significance but species such as Capsicum frutescens and Crassocephalum crepidioides on Site 2 are due to human inference while most species on Site 1 shows both original and altered floristic composition (e.g. Adenia venenata and Grewia flavescens). Conclusions: Apart from the on-going farming activities, ASM activities such as pollution, deforestation and exposure of the forest soils to direct sunlight has greatly stressed and disturbed the floristic composition, species richness, life form patterns, of the mined sites as well as introduction of non-native plant species. It is therefore necessary to develop effective approaches and policies to curb these illegal ASM activities, empower the community (especially youths), stabilize the economy and establish sustainable development strategies with adequate reclamation measures. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-020-00276-9 SN - 1472-6785 VL - 20 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ahmed, Ashour A. A1 - Gypser, Stella A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Leinweber, Peter A1 - Kühn, Oliver T1 - Molecular level picture of the interplay between pH and phosphate binding at the goethite-water interface T2 - Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics N2 - The soil pH plays a substantial role in controlling phosphorus (P) adsorption and mobilization. These processes are strongly affected by the phosphate interaction strength with P-fixing soil minerals such as goethite. The target of the current contribution is to draw a molecular level picture of the interplay between pH and phosphate binding at the goethite–water interface via a joint experimental–theoretical approach. Periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to provide a molecular level understanding of the pH dependence of P adsorption. To validate the modeling approach, adsorption experiments of phosphate at goethite were performed in the pH range of 4–12. There was agreement between experiments and simulations in the description of the adsorption behavior by two pH-dependent successive stages. The adsorption increases along the pH change from 4 to 8. A further increase of pH leads to a decrease of adsorption. By comparing with literature data it is concluded that the first stage will be observed only if there is no significant change of the surface charge at low pH. Moreover, the molecular modeling results point to the abundance of the monodentate (M) binding motif at both extremely low and high pH ranges. Otherwise, the bidentate (B) one is predominant along the intermediate pH range. These observations could resolve the existing debate about the assignment of phosphate–goethite binding motifs. Furthermore, the results point to a decrease of pH upon phosphate sorption due to an induced acidification of soil solution. The present joint experimental–theoretical approach provides a better understanding and description of the existing phosphate sorption experiments and highlights new findings at the atomistic/molecular scale. KW - Phosphate KW - Goethite KW - Periodic density functional theory KW - Adsorption KW - pH Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cp04698a SN - 1463-9084 VL - 22 IS - 45 SP - 26509 EP - 26524 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kanzler, Michael A1 - Böhm, Christian A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - The development of soil organic carbon under young black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) trees at a post-mining landscape in eastern Germany T2 - New Forests N2 - The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of short rotation alley cropping systems (SRACS) to improve the soil fertility of marginal post-mining sites in Brandenburg, Germany. Therefore, we annually investigated the crop alleys (AC) and black locust hedgerows (ABL) of a SRACS field trail under initial soil conditions to identify the short-term effects of tree planting on the storage of soil organic carbon (SOC) and its degree of stabilization by density fractionation. We detected a significant increase in SOC and hot-water-extractable organic C (HWEOC) at ABL, which was mainly restricted to the uppermost soil layer (0–10 cm). After 6 years, the SOC and HWEOC accumulation rates at ABL were 0.6 Mg and 46 kg ha−1 year−1, which were higher than those in the AC. In addition, comparatively high stocks of approximately 4.6 Mg OC and 182 kg HWEOC ha−1 were stored in the ABL litter layer. Density fractionation of the 0–3 cm soil layer at ABL revealed that the majority of the total SOC (47%) was stored in the free particulate organic matter fraction, which was more than twice that of the AC. At the same time, a higher and steadily increasing amount of SOC was stored in the occluded particulate organic matter fraction at ABL, which indicated a high efficiency for SOC stabilization. Overall, our findings support the suitability of black locust trees for increasing the soil fertility of the reclaimed mining substrate and, consequently, the high potential for SRACS to serve as an effective recultivation measure at marginal sites. KW - Marginal sites KW - SOC sequestration KW - Agroforestry KW - Density fractionation Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-020-09779-1 SN - 1573-5095 SN - 0169-4286 VL - 52 (2021) IS - 1 SP - 68 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gypser, Stella A1 - Schütze, Elisabeth A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - Single and binary Fe- and Al-hydroxides affect potential phosphorus mobilization and transfer from pools of different availability T2 - Soil Systems N2 - Phosphorus (P) fixation is a global problem for soil fertility and negatively impacts agricultural productivity. This study characterizes P desorption of already fixed P by using KCl, KNO3, histidine, and malic acid as inorganic and organic compounds, which are quite common in soil. Goethite, gibbsite, and ferrihydrite, as well as hydroxide mixtures with varying Fe- and Al-ratio were selected as model substances of crystalline and amorphous Fe- and Al-hydroxides. Especially twoand multi-component hydroxide systems are common in soils, but they have barely been included in desorption studies. Goethite showed the highest desorption in the range from 70.4 to 81.0%, followed by gibbsite with values in the range from 50.7 to 42.6%. Ferrihydrite had distinctive lower desorption in the range from 11.8 to 1.9%. Within the group of the amorphous Fe-Al-hydroxide mixtures, P desorption was lowest at the balanced mixture ratio for 1 Fe: 1 Al, increased either with increasing Fe or Al amount. Precipitation and steric effects were concluded to be important influencing factors. More P was released by crystalline Fe-hydroxides, and Al-hydroxides of varying crystallinity, but desorption using histidine and malic acid did not substantially influence P desorption compared to inorganic constituents. KW - phosphorus kinetics KW - desorption KW - Fe-Al-hydroxide mixtures KW - histidine KW - malic acid Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems5020033 VL - 5 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 21 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schütze, Elisabeth A1 - Gypser, Stella A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - Kinetics of phosphorus release from vivianite, hydroxyapatite, and bone char influenced by organic and inorganic compounds T2 - Soil Systems N2 - The availability of P is often insuffcient and limited by accumulation in soils. This led to the necessity of solutions for the recovery as well as recycling of secondary P resources. Batch experiments were conducted with CaCl2 and citric acid to characterize P release kinetics from vivianite, hydroxyapatite, and bone char. While the P release during the CaCl2 treatment was so low that only vivianite and hydroxyapatite showed a slightly higher release with increasing CaCl2 concentration, the increase of dissolved P was more pronounced for citric acid. The application of citric acid resulted in a 32,190-fold higher P release for bone char. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic data suggested higher instability of hydroxyapatite than for bone char. The kinetic data showed that bone char, especially at a lower particle size, had a higher long-term P release than hydroxyapatite or vivianite. The suitability of hydroxyapatite and bone char as a poorly soluble, but sustainable P source is better than that of vivianite. However, the efficiency as a P fertilizer is also dependent on present soil P mobilization processes. The results underline the importance of the accessibility of fertilized or naturally bound P for plant roots to benefit from the excretion of organic acids. KW - bone char KW - hydroxyapatite KW - vivianite KW - phosphorus release KW - citric acid Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems4010015 SN - 2571-8789 VL - 4 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 20 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Dimitrova, Tsvetelina A1 - Repmann, Frank A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - Degradation of ferrocyanide by natural isolated bacteria T2 - International Journal of Phytoremediation N2 - This study aims at investigating the iron cyanide (CN) degradation potential of two natural bacterial isolates with the purpose of their application in iron CN phytoremediation. The strains were isolated from contaminated soil and incubated over 4 months with 50 mg L-1 CN (as ferrocyanide) as the sole iron and nitrogen source. Unlike previous reports, the study provides control for bacterial growth, biotic and abiotic CN losses. Bacterial growth, CN, ammonium, and nitrate concentrations were monitored regularly. Both strains grew less rapid with iron CN compared with the positive control. However, the growth was diauxic. The CN concentration in the media decreased with 20% and 25% respectively, while that in the sterile controls remained stable. Ammonium was detected in the media of both strains implying that a fraction of the initially applied ferrocyanide has been converted. The nitrogen lost from the system evened out with that in the cells at the end of the experiments. These results showed that the investigated strains were undoubtedly able to grow on iron CN as an alternative nitrogen source, but contrary to some previous findings, the iron CN utilization is much slower and takes place only after complete exhaustion of the cellular nitrogen reserves. KW - iron cyanide KW - detoxification KW - microorganisms Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/doi:10.1080/15226514.2019.1633996 SN - 1522-6514 VL - Vol. 22 IS - 1 SP - 20 EP - 28 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gerwin, Werner A1 - Repmann, Frank A1 - Galatsidas, Spyridon A1 - Vlachaki, Despoina A1 - Gounaris, Nikos A1 - Baumgarten, Wibke A1 - Volkmann, Christiane A1 - Keramitzis, Dimitrios A1 - Kiourtsis, Fotios A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - Assessment and quantification of marginal lands for biomass production in Europe using soil-quality indicators T2 - SOIL N2 - The cultivation of bioenergy plants in fertile, arable lands increasingly results in new land use conflicts with food production and cannot be considered as sustainable. Marginal lands have been frequently considered as potential alternatives for producing bioenergy from biomass. However, clear definitions and assessment methods for selecting marginal lands and for calculating potentials are still widely missing. The project “SEEMLA” aims at triggering the exploitation of currently underused marginal lands for biomass production for energy purposes. Study sites have been selected in different European countries: Germany, Greece, and Ukraine. The selected sites represent a wide variety of different types of marginal lands. Based on a soil assessment set given by the Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating (SQR) system potentially “marginal” sites have been investigated. The SQR system allows for clearly distinguishing between soils of higher and lower quality. Soils with SQR scores below 40 are regarded as “marginal”. They can be classified into different groups with regard to the importance of soil hazard indicators as evaluated by the SQR approach. The calculated SQR scores correlate significantly with biomass yields of bioenergy plants. Further, the SQR method was adapted for use in a GIS study on marginal-land potentials in Europe. Thus, 46% of the investigated European area could be classified as “marginal” with SQR scores below 40. From that area 22.6% can be considered as potentially suitable for producing renewable resources after eliminating protected sites or other places not suitable for any kind of land use. Taking the ecological demands of selected bioenergy plants into account it is possible to give first preliminary recommendations for regional crop cultivation. It can be concluded that Europe offers a large potential for renewable resources from marginal sites. However, the implementation into practice is often impeded by missing or varying policies and regulations. A proper implementation needs clear regulations and also incentives for farmers at the European level. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-4-267-2018 SN - 2199-398X SN - 2199-3971 VL - 4 IS - 4 SP - 267 EP - 290 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ahmed, Ashour A. A1 - Gypser, Stella A1 - Leinweber, Peter A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Kühn, Oliver T1 - Infrared Spectroscopic Characterization of Phosphate Binding at the Goethite-Water Interface T2 - Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics N2 - The interaction between phosphates and soil mineral surfaces, such as Fe- and Al-(oxyhydr)oxides, plays a crucial role in the P immobilization and thus its availability for plants. The reactions of phosphates with Fe-hydroxides and especially goethite have been studied extensively. But a molecular-level picture about the phosphate binding mechanism at the goethite-water interface is still lacking. Therefore, in the current contribution we have explored the molecular binding mechanism for the adsorbed phosphate at the goethite–water interface by performing sorption kinetics experiments for orthophosphate and characterizing the adsorbed species by FT-IR spectroscopy. In parallel, periodic DFT calculations have been performed to explore the interaction mechanism as well as to calculate the IR spectra for monodentate (M) and bidentate (B) orthophosphate complexes at two different goethite surface planes (010 and 100) in the presence of water. In general, our interaction energy results give evidence that the mono-protonated B phosphate complex is more favored to be formed at the goethite–water interface although the M motif could exist as a minor fraction. Moreover, it was found that water plays an important role in controlling the phosphate adsorption process at the goethite surfaces. The interfacial water molecules form H-bonds (HBs) with the phosphate as well as with the goethite surface atoms. Further, some water molecules form covalent bonds with goethite Fe atoms while others dissociate at the surface to protons and hydroxyl groups. The present theoretical assignment of IR spectra introduces a benchmark for characterizing experimental IR data for the adsorbed KH2PO4 species at the goethite–water interface. In particular, IR spectra of the mono-protonated (2O+1Fe) B complex at the 010 goethite surface plane and the M complex at the 100 goethite surface plane were found to be consistent with the experimental data. In order to explore the role of different abundancies of surface planes and binding motifs, IR spectra obtained from weighted averages have been analyzed. Results confirmed the above conclusions drawn from interaction energy calculations. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C8CP07168C SN - 1463-9084 SN - 1463-9076 VL - 21 SP - 4421 EP - 4434 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Dimitrova, Tsvetelina A1 - Repmann, Frank A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - Detoxification of ferrocyanide in a soil-plant system T2 - Journal of Environmental Sciences N2 - The detoxification of iron cyanide in a soil–plant system was investigated to assess the total cyanide extracted fromcontaminated soil and allocated in the leaf tissue ofwillowtrees (Salix caprea). They were grown in soil containing up to 1000 mg/kg dry weight (dw) of cyanide (CN), added as 15N-labeled potassium ferrocyanide and prepared with a new method for synthesis of labeled iron cyanides. CN content and 15N enrichment were monitored weekly over the exposure in leaf tissue of different age. The 15N enrichment in the young and old leaf tissue reached up to 15.197‰and 9063‰, respectively; it increased significantly over the exposure and with increasing exposure concentrations (p < 0.05). Although the CN accumulation in the old leaf tissue was higher, compared to the young leaf tissue (p < 0.05), the 15N enrichment in the two tissue types did not differ statistically. This indicates a non-uniform CN accumulation but a uniform 15N allocation throughout the leaf mass. Significant differences were detected between the measured CN content and the C15N content, calculated fromthe 15N enrichment (p < 0.05), revealing a significant CN fraction within the leaf tissue, which could not be detected as ionic CN. The application of labeled iron CN clearly shows that CN is detoxified during uptake by the willows. However, these results do not exclude other detoxification pathways, not related to the trees. Still, they are strongly indicative of the central role the trees played in CN removal and detoxification under the experimental conditions. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2018.06.005 SN - 1001-0742 VL - 77 SP - 54 EP - 64 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kayatz, Benjamin A1 - Baroni, Gabriele A1 - Hillier, Jon A1 - Lüdtke, Stefan A1 - Heathcote, Richard A1 - Malin, Daniella A1 - Tonder, Carl van A1 - Kuster, Benjamin A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. A1 - Wattenbach, Martin T1 - Cool Farm Tool Water: A global on-line tool to assess water use in crop production T2 - Journal of Cleaner Production N2 - The agricultural sector accounts for 70% of all water consumption and poses great pressure on ground water resources. Therefore, evaluating agricultural water consumption is highly important as it allows supply chain actors to identify practices which are associated with unsustainable water use, which risk depleting current water resources and impacting future production. However, these assessments are often not feasible for crop producers as data, models and experiments are required in order to conduct them. This work introduces a new on-line agricultural water use assessment tool that provides the water footprint and irrigation requirements at field scale based on an enhanced FAO56 approach combined with a global climate, crop and soil databases. This has been included in the Cool Farm Tool e an online tool which already provides metrics for greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity impacts and therefore allows for a more holistic assessment of environmental sustainability in farming and agricultural supply chains. The model is tested against field scale and state level water footprint data providing good results. The tool provides a practical, reliable way to assess agricultural water use, and offers a means to engage growers and stakeholders in identifying efficient water management practices. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.09.160 SN - 0959-6526 VL - 207 SP - 1163 EP - 1179 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Seserman, Diana-Maria A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Swieter, Anita A1 - Langhof, Maren A1 - Veste, Maik T1 - Trade-Off between Energy Wood and Grain Production in Temperate Alley-Cropping Systems: An Empirical and Simulation-Based Derivation of Land Equivalent Ratio T2 - Agriculture N2 - The alley-cropping systems (ACSs), which integrate parallel tree strips at varying distances on an agricultural field can result, complementarity of resource use, in an increased land-use efficiency. Practitioners’ concerns have been directed towards the productivity of such systems given a reduced area covered by agricultural crops. The land equivalent ratio (LER) serves as a valuable productivity indicator of yield performance and land-use efficiency in ACSs, as it compares the yields achieved in monocultures to those from ACSs. Consequently, the objective of this combined experimental and simulation study was to assess the tree- and crop-yields and to derive the LER and gross energy yield for two temperate ACSs in Germany under different design scenarios, i.e., tree arrangements (lee- or wind-ward) and ratios of tree area to crop area. Both LER and gross energy yields resulted in a convex curve where the maximum values were achieved when either the tree or crop component was dominant (>75% of the land area) and minimum when these components shared similar proportions of land area. The implications of several design scenarios have been discussed in order to improve the decision-making, optimization, and adaptation of the design of ACSs with respect to site-specific characteristics Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture9070147 SN - 2077-0472 VL - 9 IS - 7 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Medinski, Tetiana A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Reitz, Thomas T1 - Changes in soil phosphorus balance and phosphorus-use efficiency under long-term fertilization conducted on agriculturally used Chernozem in Germany T2 - Canadian Journal of Soil Science N2 - This study investigates changes in soil phosphorus (P) in different fertilization treatments applied since 1902 on Chernozem soil at a “Static Fertilization Experiment” in Germany. Total and plant-available soil P, and soil P balances were assessed at 0–30, 30–60, and 60–90 cm depth layers in unfertilized “Zero”, mineral “NK” and “NPK”, and combined mineral and organic “FYM + NK” (farmyard manure + NK) and “FYM + NPK” fertilization treatments. P-use efficiencies were determined for each crop in rotation (sugar beet, spring barley, potato, and winter wheat). The 110 yr of P fertilization at rates between 22 and 55 t ha−1 yr−1 resulted in a significant increase of available P contents. P stocks increased up to 60 cm depth. Total P accumulation comprised 1.4 t ha−1 for NPK, 1.3 t ha−1 for FYM + NK, and 3.1 t ha−1 for FYM + NPK. Crops cultivation without P fertilization in Zero and NK treatments resulted in negative P balances and reduction of available P below recommended levels. Reduction of mineral P application rates after 1981, along with crop variety-dependent yield increases, resulted in an improved P-use efficiency. An organic fertilization combined with mineral N and K fertilizers (FYM + NK) was found to be the most P-efficient treatment for Chernozem soils. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1139/cjss-2018-0061 SN - 1918-1841 SN - 0008-4271 VL - 98 IS - 4 SP - 650 EP - 662 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Seserman, Diana-Maria A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - Handling Data Gaps in Reported Field Measurements of Short Rotation Forestry T2 - Data N2 - Filling missing data in forest research is paramount for the analysis of primary data, forest statistics, land use strategies, as well as for the calibration/validation of forest growth models. Consequently, our main objective was to investigate several methods of filling missing data under a reduced sample size. From a complete dataset containing yearly first-rotation tree growth measurements over a period of eight years, we gradually retrieved two and then four years of measurements, hence operating on 72% and 43% of the original data. Secondly, 15 statistical models, five forest growth functions, and one biophysical, process-oriented, tree growth model were employed for filling these data gap representations accounting for 72% and 43% of the available data. Several models belonging to (i) regression analysis, (ii) statistical imputation, (iii) forest growth functions, and (iv) tree growth models were applied in order to retrieve information about the trees from existing yearly measurements. Subsequently, the findings of this study could lead to finding a handy tool for both researchers and practitioners dealing with incomplete datasets. Moreover, we underline the paramount demand for far-sighted, long-term research projects for the expansion and maintenance of a short rotation forestry (SRF) repository. KW - Yield-SAFE KW - Missing Data KW - Regression KW - Imputation Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/data4040132 SN - 2306-5729 VL - 4 IS - 4 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Seserman, Diana-Maria A1 - Pohle, Ina A1 - Veste, Maik A1 - Freese, Dirk T1 - Simulating Climate Change Impacts on Hybrid-Poplar and Black Locust Short Rotation Coppices T2 - Forestry N2 - In Brandenburg, north-eastern Germany, climate change is associated with increasing annual temperatures and decreasing summer precipitation. Appraising short rotation coppices (SRCs), given their long-time planning horizon demands for systematic assessments of woody biomass production under a considerable spectrum of climate change prospects. This paper investigates the prospective growth sensitivity of poplar and black locust SRCs, established in Brandenburg to a variety of weather conditions and long-term climate change, from 2015 to 2054, by a combined experimental and simulation study. The analysis employed (i) a biophysical, process-based model to simulate the daily tree growth and (ii) 100 realisations of the statistical regional climate model STAR 2K. In the last growing period, the simulations showed that the assumed climate change could lead to a decrease in the woody biomass of about 5 Mg ha -1 (18%) for poplar and a decrease of about 1.7 Mg ha -1 (11%) for black locust trees with respect to the median observed in the reference period. The findings corroborate the potential tree growth vulnerability to prospective climatic changes, particularly to changes in water availability and underline the importance of coping management strategies in SRCs for forthcoming risk assessments and adaptation scenarios. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/f9070419 SN - 1464-3626 VL - 9 IS - 7 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Quinkenstein, Ansgar A1 - Wöllecke, Jens A1 - Böhm, Christian A1 - Grünewald, Holger A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Schneider, Bernd Uwe A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. T1 - Ecological benefits of the alley cropping agroforestry system in sensitive regions of Europe T2 - Environmental Science & Policy Y1 - 2009 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2009.08.008 SN - 1462-9011 VL - 12 IS - 8 SP - 1112 EP - 1121 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Nii-Annang, Seth A1 - Grünewald, Holger A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. A1 - Dilly, Oliver T1 - Microbial activity, organic C accumulation and 13C abundance in soils under alley cropping systems after 9 years of recultivation of quaternary deposits T2 - Biology and Fertility of Soils Y1 - 2009 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-009-0360-4 SN - 1432-0789 VL - 45 IS - 5 SP - 531 EP - 538 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Matos, Eduardo da Silva A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Slazak, Anna A1 - Bachmann, Ute A1 - Veste, Maik A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. T1 - Organic-carbon and nitrogen stocks and organic-carbon fractions in soils under mixed pine and oak forest stands of different ages in NE Germany T2 - Journal of plant nutrition and soil science Y1 - 2010 SN - 1522-2624 VL - 173 IS - 5 SP - 654 EP - 661 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Slazak, Anna A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Matos, Eduardo da Silva A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. T1 - Soil organic phosphorus fraction in pine-oak forest stands in Northeastern Germany T2 - Geoderma Y1 - 2010 SN - 0016-7061 VL - 158 IS - 3-4 SP - 156 EP - 162 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Matos, Eduardo da Silva A1 - Freese, Dirk A1 - Mendonça, Eduardo S. A1 - Slazak, Anna A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. T1 - Carbon, nitrogen and organic C fractions in topsoil affected by conversion from silviopastoral to different land use systems T2 - Agroforestry Systems Y1 - 2011 SN - 1572-9680 VL - 81 IS - 3 SP - 203 EP - 211 ER -