News
- IAPN supports research in "DaLeA – Permanent living mulch in agriculture" project
Junior Professor Dr. Merle Tränkner explains to the DaLeA project team how to conduct measurements in the living mulch system with IAPN’s mobile canopy chamber. (Photo: Mittermeier)
IAPN supports research on the assessment of water balance and nutrient dynamics in the project "DaLeA – Permanent living mulch in agriculture". The project aims to establish a cultivation system with permanent living mulch in arable farming across various crop rotations with winter and summer crops.
The permanent living mulch is a white clover variety that grows on the soil independently of the crop rotation and is thus cultivated together with the main crop. This innovative type of crop cultivation is aimed at consistently saving resources such as water and fuel, reducing plant protection, especially in the area of herbicides, and using biological nitrogen fixation.
The permanent living mulch establishes a lasting soil cover. This reduces water loss through evaporation. However, permanent living mulch can alter transpiration rates in the ecosystem, as the leaf area over which transpiration occurs is increased in the stand. In order to capture these dynamics and interactions in evapotranspiration, measurements of evapotranspiration, but also of the CO2 gas exchange of the ecosystem are carried out using canopy chambers during the growing season of the main crop. The work is being scientifically supervised by Junior Professor Dr. Merle Tränkner. In this, she is working closely with two Master's students who are writing their theses on the subject, and the project coordinator Dipl. Ing. Agrar. Christine Mittermeier.
