SustES|CzechGlobe - SustES - Adaptation strategies for sustainable ecosystem services and food security under adverse environmental conditions

Experiments

Domanínek

Research:

Study of the influence of increased CO2 concentration on controlled ecosystems in combination with the effects of drought stress, UV radiation and nutrition
Research into the effects of CO2 on physiological (photosynthesis, water regime) and biochemical processes in plants
Research on the relationship between water balance and nutrition on substance fluxes in crops and fast-growing tree species
Development and application of ecosystem models, remote sensing methods and other agroclimatological tools and applications

Location: Bohemian-Moravian Highlands
Altitude: 590 m above sea level
Average annual temperature (1981-2010): 7.2 ° C
Average annual rainfall (1981-2010): 609 mm

Video (Experimental station Domaninek, Czech Republic)

Polkovice

Research:

Field experiment for testing of adaptation and mitigation measures and for the validation of biophysical models. The no-till sowing and biochar application are tested. The five important field crops are cultivated within the crop rotation. The soil properties, crop growth and development, yields, emissions etc. are evaluated using various methods including in situ measurements and remote sensing.

Location: Middle Moravia
Altitude: 200 m above sea level
Average annual temperature (1981-2010): 9.2 °C
Average annual rainfall (1981-2010): 556 mm

Březová nad Svitavou

Research:

Study of the influence of different amounts of nitrogen fertilization in combination with carbon application in the form as biochar or compost and with the effects of drought stress on physiological (photosynthesis, water regime), biochemical processes in crops, and leaching of mineral nitrogen from the agricultural ecosystem.
Research on the effect of no till management with intermediate crop in comparison with traditional way of management.
Development and application of ecosystem models, remote sensing methods and other agroclimatological tools and applications

Location: Bohemian-Moravian Highlands
Altitude: 460-475 m above sea level
Average annual temperature (2000-2012): 7.6 ° C
Average annual rainfall (2000-2012): 629 mm

Bílý kříž

Research:
Long-term monitoring of energy and substance fluxes
Researching physiological processes (photosynthesis, respiration and transpiration)
Understanding the functioning of the spruce ecosystem as a whole and predicting its future behavior in changing climate conditions
Proposals for measures to maintain, or more precisely to increase the ability of the spruce ecosystem to capture CO2 from the atmosphere

Video (Experimental station Bílý Kříž, Czech Republic)

Location: Moravian–Silesian Beskids
Altitude: 850 – 908 m above sea level
Average annual temperature (1998 – 2011): 6.7 °C
Average annual rainfall (1998 – 2011): 1239 mm
Ecosystem: Spruce forest (35 years old)

Remote sensing

3D modelling of forest structure from airborne and terrestrial laser scanning data towards better understanding of forest radiation budget and sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence signal.
Estimation of forest structure and inventory parameters (e.g. individual tree detection, species composition, tree height, crown width and productivity (e.g. aboveground biomass, leaf area) at different scales using airborne and satellite remote sensing data.
Studying thermal heat fluxes in urban systems to support effective town planning and improve human well-being in towns.

Main research activities:
Up-scaling of leaf-level spectral and biochemical properties to canopies and landscapes through 3D radiative transfer modelling.
Quantitative estimation of vegetation traits (including leaf pigments, water content, leaf area index) for various types of crops and forests using different types of remote sensing data

Chamber experiments

Phenotyping platform is a facility equipped with automatically moving belt where pots are evenly placed on and are shifted among measuring points (VNIR/RGB imaging, weighing of pots to control irrigation according to prior determined irrigation schedule).

Physiological and final yields responses of main agricultural crops to heat and drought stress at key plant developmental stages are tested by series of pot experiments using fully controlled environmental conditions of growth chambers. Growth chamber enables set up of daily schedule of air temperature, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and relative humidity courses.

Video (Phenotyping platform in a greenhouse)

Physiological and final yields responses of main agricultural crops to heat and/or drought stress at key plant developmental stages are tested by series of pot experiments using either fully controlled environmental conditions of growth chambers or phenotyping platform.

Growth chamber enables set up of daily schedule of air temperature, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and relative humidity courses.

Project team

Work packages

The research program is divided into four work packages (WP) which carry out four research activities. Each activity is carried out by distinguished research team.

Work package 1 (WP1)

WP leader: PROF. ULF BÜNTGEN, PHD

Team WP1 is responsible for the development of the new concept for estimating climate change envelope (CliChE). Its task is to develop and apply new or innovative methods that will allow not only to determine overall long-term impact of climate change but also determine the impact of changes in the extreme events frequency and/orintensity and especially to allow estimation of the efficacy of the various adaptation measures. For the latter the CliChE methodology has to allow not only to determine the range of expected change of climate parameters, but also assign probability to such changes. The expected climatic change envelope will be directly used by WP2 and WP3 in their efforts to assess impacts and identify adaptation measures but also the most likely range of climate change will be considered in designing of their experiments.

Work package 2 (WP2)

WP leader: DOC. MGR. OTMAR URBAN, PHD

WP2 team will focus on understanding acclimation processes from the molecular to the ecosystem level, evaluation of the impact of the expected long-term climate change and short-term extreme events, understanding the interactions and temporal dynamics and interactions of multiple factors, and strive to parameterize a number of key biophysical models. The outputs of this team will allow not only to estimate with much greater accuracy the climate change impact on key ecosystem services, but also allows you to define priority areas for the development of adaptation measures.

Work package 3 (WP3)

WP leader: ING. KAREL KLEM, PHD

The team WP3 is responsible for the development of adaptation measures that are grouped into three pillars: i) agriculture technology in particular tillage and cultivation technologies, ii) phenotyping of plants for the selection of new genotypes and methods for evaluating the interaction of genotype x environment iii) decision and prediction systems incorporating also methods of remote sensing and precision agriculture. Defining adaptation measures will be an iterative process which will evaluate efficiency of adaptation measures and identify overall impact of climate change on the ecosystem services. The effect of anticipated impacts and adaptation measures on emissions greenhouse gases emissions will be also considered. Overall analysis of impacts, adaptation measures and green house gases mitigation potential will be a key outcome of the project. WP3 will employ the costs-benefits analysis in order to estimate and compare efficiency individual adaptation measures.

Work package 4 (WP4)

WP leader: PROF. MGR. ING. MIROSLAV TRNKA, PH.D.

WP4 team focuses on developing tools and especially on drafting holistic adaptation strategy (-ies). These will link all considered adaptation measures in the landscape into one functional and mutually supporting strategy that will allow to respond flexibly to changes in climate and socio-economical parameters. Holistically conceived adaptation strategies should prevent situations when adaptation measures focused at maintaining / enhancing one ecosystem services (e.g. food production) put in jeopardy other key service (e.g. water availability, etc.). This comprehensive task will require seamless combination of methods which will enable to capture dynamics of global drivers resulting from climate change as well as regional specifics.