Microcosm facility

The microcosm facility allows the automated incubation of disturbed and natural soil cores (microcosms) under controlled environments. Results will help to to investigate processes causing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural ecosystems as influenced by crop management and environmental parameters. There are two systems available with 64 places each.

• Flushing microcosms (Fig. 1) with different gas mixtures: air, synthetic air, He/O₂/N₂-mixtures, aerobic und anaerobic, addition of trace gases.
• Automated measurement of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), methane (CH₄) using a Gaschromatograph Shimadzu GC 2014 (Fig. 2)
• Simulation of precipitation (Fig. 3)
• Variation of soil water content and gain of drainage water (Fig. 3)
• Measurement of nitrogen oxide species (NO_x) using a CLD 88 analyser
• Analysis of C-, N, and O- isotopic composition (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O) of greenhouse gases both natural abundance and after tracer experiments using IRMS or laser-based analysers

We contribute(d) to these projects:

• MOFANE,
• BESTLAND,
• MAGGEpH,
• DASIM,
• THGZwifru,
• NH3min,
• Pilzdenitrifikation,
• ...