Climate Change in the steppe of Kazakhstan – MidTerm Meeting
UGT GmbH visited the MidTerm Conference of the German-Kazakh-Russian Research Cooperation Project Rekks with the research focus “Innovative solutions for a sustainable agricultural land use in the dry steppes of Kazakhstan and southwestern Siberia” on the 26 and 27 July 2019. First results from the joint research projects of the program “CLIENT II – International Partnerships for Sustainable Innovation” of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) were presented at the S.SEIFULLIN KAZAKH AGROTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY in Nur-Sultan and at the A.I. BARAYEV RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION CENTRE OF GRAIN FARMING in Shortandy.
Nur-Sultan, Seifullin University and Barayev Institute. Photo credit: Seifullin University, Barayev Institute and UGT GmbH
The UGT GmbH was represented by Kerstin Thomsen she gave a talk with results of the development and installation of a weighable lysimeter station that operates during the whole year. And she showed details of the constructed wind tunnel and the wind erosion trap to simulate and evaluate the effect of land-use and agriculture management on wind erosion.
Wind tunnel and snow lysimeter. Photo credit: UGT GmbH
In the afternoon there was a “Round Table” with scientists and farmers on the research needs of farmers and ways of implementation.
Round table moderated by Mr. Kanat Akshalov – head of department, Baraev Institut, Shortandy, Kasachstan. Photo credit: UGT GmbH
On 27.7. all participants could visit the lysimeter station on the experimental field.
MidTerm participants and Lysimeter station. Photo credit: UGT GmbH
SOILINSIGHT® developed by the LSE laboratory of the Université de Lorraine and distributed by UGT proposes a new approach based on non-destructive observation of the soil. Watteau et al. 2019 create videos of the structural dynamics of the soil (https://vimeo.com/131855415).
For more information please refer to following publication:
The SOILINSIGHT® repeatedly records pictures of a soil chamber. The comparison between the pictures provides information about structural changes of the soil. Thus, the SOILINSIGHT® allows a non destructive observation of the soil, its structure and its flora and fauna.
Views of the constructed Technosol. 1: Soilinsight® image of the glazed face at 5 months; 2 and 3: magnified Soilinsight®- images showing roots at different growth stages and earthworms, respectively; 4: thin section of constructed Technosol. e: earthworm; d: earthworm dejection; g: gravel; m: mineral; n: node; om: organic matter; or: older root; p: pore; r: root; yr: young root. Photo credit: Watteau et al. 2019
What is the SOILINSIGHT® used for?
Observations of structural changes provide information about the causes and the dimensions of these changes. When observing root systems, information about the mass increase, growth rates, root distribution, root characteristics (e.g. number of fine roots) or about the structure of macro pores can be obtained. Furthermore, the effects of different cultivation methods or other environmental factors on root growth can be investigated. Those research questions are especially of high importance for climate change or agricultural system studies. Wormholes, development stages or size of soil organism as well as the distribution and dimension of fungi and parasites can be observed. When studying the soil flora and fauna, the distribution, state and influence on the soil structure and on root growth can be observed and evaluated.
The back of the soil chamber is transparent and thus allows the observation of the soil chamber. The back of the soil chamber is attached to the scanner, which takes a picture on a regular interval or by manual operation. The pictures a stored on a connected computer, which is also used to control the experiment via a windows based computer software. The pictures can be graphically evaluated using windows based evaluation software. The soil chamber is open at the top that the soil surface can be planted and irrigated. A tube at the bottom enables the outflow of seepage water.
UGT GmbH visited the status conference on the 9 and 10 April 2019 with the research focus “Plastics in the Environment – Sources, Sinks and Solutions of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). First results from the joint research projects of the research program were presented at the Kalkscheune in Berlin. Representatives of the projects presented their findings and challenges as well as work on cross-cutting topics.
Poster “Current status and next steps in the optimization process of sedimentation boxes” photo credit: UGT GmbH
The UGT GmbH was represented by Leonard Zechmeister (Project Engineer Research and Development). As part of the working package: Development of sampling methods, he presented a poster with first optimizations results of the sedimentation boxes regarding: longevity, ease of use, efficient manufacturing, recovery rates of microplastics (MP) and low selectivity for different MP types.
Finished stainless steel sedimentation box for field use. Finished plexiglas sedimentation box for laboratory tests photo credit: UGT GmbH
Besides the scientific understanding of microplastic entry sources, causes and paths, market-ready procedures for efficient microplastic sampling should be developed by the UGT GmbH.
“Plastic
can be found everywhere in today’s world – in the arctic, on the ocean floor,
and on uninhabited islands. Tiny plastic particles have even been found to be
present in the cells of animals and plants. Our knowledge of the extent of
plastic contamination, however, is surprisingly low: exactly how much plastic
is swimming in the oceans, where it comes from, how it behaves in rivers and
seas, and what effects it might have on animal and humans, remains largely
unknown.” (bmbf-plastik.de)
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 2019 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. Measure the whole range!
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
The groundwater lysimeter station of UGT was built in 2009 in a grassland site in Spreewald (Brandenburg, Germany) with shallow water table. It was part of the BMBF-funded cooperative research project INKA BB – Innovation Network Climate Adaptation Berlin-Brandenburg, in particular the subproject: Instruments and Strategies for Sustainable Water Management in Large Wetlands, located at the Leibniz centre for agriculture landscape research (ZALF).
wetland site in Spreewald photo credit: UGT GmbHprinciple sketch of the installation of a weighable groundwater lysimeter at an investigation site close to the groundwater level photo credit: UGT GmbH
The groundwater lysimeter station consisted of four soil monoliths, each with a surface area of 1 m² and 2 m thick. The installation included a weather station and a soil measuring station for the measurement of meteorological and soil hydraulic reference values.
The weighable groundwater lysimeters together with field measurements in the Spreewald form the basis for the experimental evidence in the project INKA BB. Berlin and Brandenburg are considered to be particularly vulnerable to future climate change. Low annual precipitation and sandy soils with a low water storage capacity also make the region vulnerable in the future to dry periods and heavy precipitation. Given the challenges of climate change and climate adaptation a successful water management is crucially important.
weighable lysimeter station photo credit: UGT GmbH
For this purpose, groundwater lysimeters were placed directly in an investigation area. This allows all relevant water balance parameters to be measured with sufficient accuracy. A reference lysimeter reflects the water balance of the investigated area, further lysimeters are used for the simulation of different adaptation options.
UGT GmbH is a part of an international working team that consists of scientists from Kostanay State Pedagogical Institute, Altai State University, “AMAZONE” Kasachstan, Leibniz University Hannover, University of Halle and UFZ Halle, in the project ReKKS.
lysimeter station in winter
operation in Первомайка . Photo
credit: UGT GmbH
One of UGT’s research tasks in this project is to develop a lysimeter that can measure continuously throughout the year. In the first step, the challenges of running the lysimeter under ice and snow conditions will be addressed. In a second step, new approaches of a snow cutter will be tested under winter conditions. Since we had neither snow nor ice in Brandenburg this year, our developers decided to move their workstation to the Snowtropolis ski hall in Senftenberg.
We would like to thank Anja Stoll and her team for the support during the installation and measurements of the lysimeter station. We hope for further good cooperation.
“Innovations for
Sustainable Use of Agricultural Resources and Climate-adaption in the Arid
Steppes of Kazakhstan and Southwestern Siberia (ReKKS)”
February 7th the first part of the international lysimeter workshop was a great success.
Christina Siebe introduced the program and the institute at UNAM. Peter Cepuder from the Institute of Hydraulics and Rural Water Management (IHLW), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria presented his own research results at the lysimeter plant at the agrometeorological station in Groß-Enzersdorf which was founded in 1983.
Focus was the work on wind effects on the quality of the measurement results and the actual focus on isotopic measurements. Further on he introduced the lysimeter research group in Europe and the possibility to join this group from all over the world. Peter Cepuder is the actual president of the network.
Our managing director Sascha Reth presented the latest developments on lysimeter technique and compared different soil drilling and sampling methods. Here the question “what are soil samples used for?” important for the right solution.
In the following the new lysimeter instrumentation was discussed and presented to the auditorium. The participants were able to follow the construction progress after a visit of the installation area. It is visible already that the time for the key over of the first Mexican lysimeter station is short.
The second day at February 8th was mainly focused on the research aspects in the upcoming lysimeter experiments and the former work on it. Christina Siebe started with a presentation about the research on the critical zone observatory Valle del Mezquital. We learned that 90.000 ha will be irrigated with 52 m³/s wastewater of Mexico City.
The aquifer in this area will be filled by 6 m³/s. Soil properties, crop quality and microbial biomass were in the focus of the observations. Soils of the Valle del Mezquital will be excavated at transported to the new lysimeter station at UNAM. Blanca Prado Pano introduced the fate of atrazine in wastewater irrigated agroecosystems in this area.
A big task will be the research on the degradation of the herbicides under field conditions under the help of lysimeters.
Rocio Jetzabel Alcántara Hernández gave a presentation of her work with the title Microbial insights into the attenuation of pollutants in the Mezquital Valley. In column experiments several different applications of waste water – with and without atrazine – were performed in traditionally and intensively managed soils.
Additional experiments from column and field experiments in the Mezquital Valley were presented by Kathia Lüneberg.
Hereby the water flow paths were identified as the hotspots for the dissemination for antibiotic resistance in soil. In the further presentation she pointed out the big advantage of the new lysimeters for the complete research on all this discussed topics.
Jan Siemens of the Department of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, University of Gießen, Germany, gave a remote presentation about the drainage and leaching losses of nitrogen after introducing into a continuous paddy-rice crop rotation in a lysimeter experiment.
One of the conclusions of his lysimeter experiment was that maize as a crop intermediate could help to save the net amount of the irrigation water in this paddy fields. Straw mulching could not be used for the reduction of the water loss, but it helps to reduce NO3- concentrations
This workshop was a great success for all participants and highlighted the big effort to work with different working groups and disciplines on lysimeters.
Thanks to all participants and for the perfect organization!
Measure the whole range – UGT is known as a leading manufacturer of environmental monitoring equipment. Solid expertise, coupled with extensive experimental experience in field and laboratory is highly estimated by our customers in Germany, Europe and overseas. Soil, atmosphere, water and plants this is the range of our activity and the basis for developing and producing environmental instruments in UGT. Apart from our own inhouse developed products and technology we highly estimate the work with our international partners. One of the most important partners and our key supplier for our product range in the field of water qualitay, water level and flow management is In-situ a highly innovative company being situated in Fort Collins in the USA. The high quality and easy to usable products convince more and more also our German partners.
We are very happy that John Pawlikowski, CEO of In-situ and Alberto Bonamin the Sales Manager for Europe visited UGT on Thursday the 24th of January in our branch office South in Freising.
In-Situ Inc. designs, manufactures, and rents water quantity and quality instruments. In-Situ provides also a full-solution by giving quality data via easy integration with telemetry and data services.
Your eyes in the field – this ist he credo of
In-Situ – measure the whole range – this is the credo of UGT – a very promising
combination – So this gives our customers room to effectively work in their
projects – because it is us – that keep eyes opened in the field and have data
monitored. So they can draw their conclusions out of the measured data.
UGT is for more than 25 years a international highly recognised supplier and research partner for universities, scientific institutions and governmental authorities. In-Situ provides with the highl quality products for nearly 40 years solutions and gives accurate results and reliable operation in harsh monitoring conditions.
Applications include aquifer characterization, mining, oil/gas, remediation, aquaculture, and more. „2018 was a very successful year of our cooperation“, this was pointed out by John Pawlikowski. Dr. Sascha Reth, Kerstin Thomsen and Markus Reissig represented the UGT team in the very effective and strategy orientated brainstorming. Alberto Bonamin, the In-Situ European Sales Manager pointed out, that in 2019 both companies will carry our even more joint activities in order to better supply the German customers not only with products but also in the field od service. Dr. Sascha Reth introduced new strategies for the cooperation between our companies. Kerstin Thomsen and Markus Reissig contributed in the active discussion with concrete ideas how to get our plans implemented. Joint activitities like workshops and exhibitions, joint visits to key customers will be part of our work in 2019.
Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere transports are the key drivers for all processes in the environment. The aim is to show methods and solutions to enable environmental monitoring with the latest developments. The workshop includes scientific presentations and practical demonstrations. Lysimeters are a proven tool for ecosystem studies. They are the reference system for matter and energy fluxes in rather undisturbed systems. Big enough to provide a root space for representative plant stands, they measure precise and detailed enough to describe fluxes at high resolution. Pesticide leaching, and greenhouse gas emissions can be quantified for the well-defined lysimeter volume. Advanced measurement tools allow to separate processes in water and gas transfer, while the lysimeter forms the integral frame. Isotopic compositions help to distinct sources of greenhouse gas emissions. We all are facing the impacts of climate change. We must manage the risks and therefore monitoring and measuring is most important! Sap flow and plant water potential measurements allow to separate through plants from soil surface fluxes. Parallel measurements, pF determination of the soil and particle size distribution enable a complete knowledge of the specific environment. The workshop will give insight on the latest research on lysimeters with a specific focus on process separation with modern analysis tools.
Be part of the lysimeter story and learn more about the latest tools for lysimeter research. Get in contact with other researchers on lysimeter research.
If you are interested to participate please send an email to sascha.reth@ugt-online.de
Program
February, 7th
09:00
REGISTRATION
10:00
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION; Christina Siebe, UNAM, Mexico
10:30
THE LYSIMETER RESEARCH GROUP – AN INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR LYSIMETER RESEARCH, Peter Cepuder, BOKU Vienna, Austria
11:15
LYSIMETER TECHNIQUE, OVERVIEW AND CASE STUDIES, Sascha Reth, UGT Germany
12:00
Lunch
13:00
LYSIMETER – UNDISTURBED EXCAVATION OF MONOLITHS – DIFFERENT TOOLS, Sascha Reth, UGT, Germany
14:00
VISIT OF THE NEW LYSIMETER STATION UNAM
16:00
THE NEW LYSIMETER STATION UNAM – TECHNICAL SOLUTION
19:00
Mexican evening
February, 8th
09:00
CRITICAL ZONE OBSERVATORY VALLE DEL MEZQUITAL, Christina Siebe, UNAM, Mexico
09:45
FATE OF ATRAZINE IN WASTEWATER IRRIGATED AGROECOSYSTEMS, Blanca Prado Pano, UNAM, Mexico
10:30
coffee break
11:00
RESISTANCE DISSEMINATION IN SEWAGE IRRIGATED SYSTEMS, Kathia Lueneberg, UNAM, Mexico
11:45
POLLUTANTS – ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE – PATHOGEN INTERACTIONS IN A CHANGING WASTEWATER IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN MEXICO, Christina Siebe
February, 9th
9:00 – 18:00
Excursion to the VALLE DEL MEZQUITAL AND HISTORICALPLACES NEARBY
Cooperation Hotels
1. Hotel Paraíso Radisson
Cúspide No. 53, Parque del Pedregal, 14020, México,
D.F. (Perisur)
Tel. (55) 56 06 42 11
Tarifa 2019 – $1,368.50 por noche y por habitaciòn
2. Hotel Camino Real
Pedregal
Periférico Sur No. 3647, Col. Héroes de Padierna, México
D.F. 10700
The new lysimeter station is part of the project ” Pollutants – antibiotic resistance – pathogen interactions in a changing wastewater irrigation system in Mexico”.
Be part of the lysimeter story and learn more about the latest tools for lysimeter research. Get in contact with other researchers on lysimeter research.
for registration please send an email to sascha.reth@ugt-online.de
