UGT is a well known exhibitor at the EGU. We understand ourselves as a medium sized company being the middleman between Science – Technology and practical application. It is us who give with our highly sophisticated monitoring equipment new approach to the scientists from all over the world to resolve challenges and register data in order to be able to meet the demands of the future. EGU General Assembly 2018 will bring also in this year together geoscientists from all over the world. We are proud to be part of this world wide network.  Our own new developments and new products together with products from our partners that we represent like Picarro – USA, ICT- Australia Eosense – Canada, Eijkelkamp – Netherlands, In-Situ – USA, UGT is a strong partner  to cover the demands of our science-partners. The EGU is a forum that enables conference, discussion, brainstorming among the different scientific branches. The world of Geoscience meets in Vienna – please make use of the opportunity to come and see UGT – the specialized producer from Germany located in Müncheberg in the heart of Brandenburg, just a stone’s throw away from Berlin the capital of Germany.  UGT can be also be your strong partner  – make use of our invitation!

How easily do plant roots extract water from the soil? When does the soil becoming a limiting factor for root water uptake? What root and rhizosphere traits favour water uptake? A key variable to answer these questions and understand soil-plant water relations is the leaf water potential. But, non-destructive measurements of leaf water potential are challenging.
The Plant-Pressure-Ecotron (PPE) allows accurate measurements of leaf water potential and transpiration of intact plants exposed to varying evaporative demand and soil drying. PPE measures the balancing pressure that is needed to bring the leaf xylem to atmospheric pressure, which is equivalent to the leaf xylem suction prior to pressurization. PPE allows to measure the hydraulic conductance of the soil-plant system and its components, making the PPE an optimal method to study
plant tolerance to drought conditions.

The UGT-founder Dr. Manfred Seyfarth has been working with his team for the past 25 years to diagnose environmental problems. That happens with innovative diagnostic technology. Müncheberg where UGT is located is a traditional place for the research in the field of environment. On Friday the 10^th of November 2017 Manfred Seyfarth was honored with the special   award as distinguished entrepreneur – which is one of the awards of the Future Award for Brandenburg 2017.
6 companies and Dr. Manfred Seyfarth received this outstanding reward in the castle „Schloss Neuhardenberg“– the Future Award of Brandenburg.
These are the price winners:

• The special price goes to Dr. Manfred Seyfarth (Umwelt-Geräte-Technik GmbH)

The six other winners of the Future Award Brandenburg are the following companies:

• Boryszew Oberflächentechnik Deutschland GmbH aus Prenzlau
• IceGuerilla.de GmbH & Co. KG aus Beeskow
• Kniesche Orthopädietechnik GmbH aus Potsdam
• Körber & Körber GmbH Präzisionsmechanik aus Birkenwerder
• Schlieper – Firmengruppe Sonnewalde aus Sonnewalde
• ZEDAS GmbH aus Senftenberg

The products developed by UGT can be used predominantly for the analysis of the soil quality and water balance. The combination of economy and science was a recipe of success in the past 25 years. The export in more than 30 countries and more than 20 international patents show the high performance of this medium sized company.
Manfred Seyfarth is not only an example for his team members. He also influences the other companies in East Brandenburg in his function as head of the Foreign Trade committee of East Brandenburg.
UGT feels inspired by this price and Dr. Seyfarth will further remain curious to resolve new challenges, we see this price as a motor for new findings to further improve the diagnostic work to preserve our environment and take part in interesting global projects!
Congratulation dear Manfred – we the UGT Team are proud to work with you!

The UGT branch office in Freising near Munich was once again a meeting point of scientists, customers, UGT-agents and partners to meet up and conduct a 3-days workshop from 17^th to 19^th October 2017.  Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere transports are the key drivers for all processes in the environment. Under this key topic we had lively discussions and great presentations over the whole period of time. We discussed solutions to enable environmental monitoring with the latest developments. The wonderful weather conditions in Freising we had nearly 3 summer days enabled presentations of new solutions which show the capacity of science and production in a medium sized plant.

The 17th of October predominantly showed lysimeters as a proven tool for ecosystem studies.
Dr. Sascha Reth, UGT, Germany and Prof. Dr. Peter Cepuder, BOKU Vienna, Austria, gave valuable scientific bases for a lively discussion. A highlight and source of further brainstorming among the 48 participants from 15 countries of the workshop was the presentation of the GREEN ROOF LYSIMETERS AT HS WEIHENSTEPHAN-TRIESDORF by Prof. Dr. Christian Huber and the presentation of the scientific approach of Prof. Dr. Andrea Carminati concerning his research results.

We all are facing the impacts of climate change. We must manage the risks and therefore monitoring and measuring is most important! It is therefore that the 18^th of October was dedicated to Sap flow and plant water potential measurements through plants from soil surface fluxes.

Dr. Beng Umali, ICT International, Australia, impressed the participants by giving not only a scientific presentation but also practical experience to use Sap-flow sensors, STEM PSYCHROMETERS AND WIRELESS NETWORKS, DATABANK SYSTEMS in different scenarios.

A pilot project was the MOORuse presented by Prof. Drösler – pioneer research work, a step towards future. Martina Zacios, LWF Freising, Germany demonstrated her research work.
Dr. Oscar Pérez Priego gave a highly estimated presentation concerning the COMBINED USE OF LYSIMETER AND SAPFLOW TO EVALUATE THE COMPONENTFLUXES IN A MEDITERRANEAN TREE-GRASS ECOSYSTEM.

Dr. Armin Raabe, Uni Leipzig, Germany, gave a DEMONSTRATION concerning MICROMETEOROLOGY AT SCALE OF A LYSIMETER, scientists and customers had the opportunity to get a good insight into this topic

Brainstorming and new ideas this was a core topic of the workshop, interesting new ideas were discussed and networks were made.
October, 19^th was another highlight of the workshop.09:00 INTRODUCTION OF PLANT WATER STATUS CONSOLE AND PRESSURE EXTRACTOR
Dr. Ali Farsad, Soilmoisture Inc., USA gave a PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION OF PLANT WATER STATUS CONSOLE AND PRESSURE EXTRACTOR. UGT represents these products in Germany and so it was a forum to get new ideas concerning the works with these tools.

Dr. Christian Heerdt from UGT presented MEASUREMENTS WITH THE SOILINSIGHT and gave a demonstration of the work with the rhizotrones.
Gordon McArthur, Eosense, Canada gave theoretical basis and practical demonstration concerning the chamber systems like eosFDCO2. 

In combination with other scientific tools like gas analyzers a very sophisticated tools that UGT represents in Germany
The atmosphere of the workshop was full of the spirit to work together and to initiate new projects and to change experience.
One of the highlight was the great Bavarian evening!

We thank the scientists for their presentations, the UGT –team was proud to organize the workshop and to host the participants, we look forward to seeing you all again!