Thünen: Projects

ongoing projects

CO2 footprints in the food chain

Our current agri-food system holds responsible to a large extent for exceeding several planetary boundaries. A shift to more sustainable diets is therefore urgently needed. In the project, we investigate how product labelling should be methodically implemented in order to support this change.

Strengthening networking and cooperation in the RessortForschtKlima project alliance

"RessortForschtKlima" is a network of more than 20 projects that are carried out by the Federal Research Institutes under the auspice of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. They are intended to support the achievement of the 2030 climate protection targets in the areas of food, agriculture and forests - inter alia through new climate protection measures as well as solutions for climate reporting, impact assessments and socio-economic issues.

Roadmap for the rewetting of organic soils in Germany

How can the agreed German climate mitigation goals concerning peatland protection be achieved? Which options for using organic soils are economically viable for landowners and farmers in the long term? These are just two examples of the questions that are being addressed by four Thünen Institutes in the interdisciplinary project RoVer.

Crop yield and optimized N fertilization in a changing climate

Reducing nitrogen (N) surpluses offers substantial reduction potential for greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. How does climate change influence the potential for increasing N efficiency?

HotSpots Erosion

Soil erosion by water is the major threat to agricultural soils in Europe and in the long term threatens yields and food security. The risk of soil erosion varies widely within Germany and depends not only on natural factors but also on the farming practices. For better soil protection, we want to identify erosion Hot Spots in Germany by predicting the soil erosion risk using models.

HumusKlimaNetz

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, which is why agriculture also has a responsibility to become more climate-friendly. One option is to keep soil organic carbon stocks in the soil and increase them if possible. We are investigating the climate impact and economic efficiency of SOC measures on 150 conventional and ecological farms. The HumusKlimaNetz is set up by the German Farmers' Association (DBV) and the Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft (BÖLW).

Agricultural long-term policies for climate mitigation (AGRILOP)

Agriculture is considered as an essential part of climate change mitigation. The recent Green Deal and the Farm-to-Fork Strategy of the European Union additionally highlight the importance of market-based instruments to alleviate climate change. A quantitative assessment of different instruments is crucial for successful climate policies.

LAWAMAD – Agricultural Water Management in Germany

The recent dry summers brought water management in agriculture on the political agenda and to headlines in the media. The importance of agricultural water management will be further increasing in the context of rapidly advancig climate change.

International research collaboration on mitigating climate change in agriculture

The agriculture sector is a significant source of global greenhouse gases. International research collaboration on mitigating climate change in agriculture can help to timely identify best practices and support their large-scale implementation.

Reduction of peat use in Germany

How much peat is being used in Germany, and how could peat be replaced with other components? What would be the macroeconomical consequences of a peat reduction? An interdisciplinary project aims to answer these and further questions.

SOILAssist

BonaRes (A): SOILAssist - Sustainable protection and improvement of soil functions with intelligent land management strategies – a practical on the fly assistance system for farmers

AGRUM Germany

The objectives of the EU- Water Framework Directive have not yet been fully achieved in many regions of Germany. This is due in particular to diffuse nutrient inputs from agriculture. "AGRUM-DE", will therefore create a nationwide, consistent method to monitor nitrogen emissions to water bodies. Based on this, measures for better water quality are derived and their impacts will be assessed.

LULUCF Participation 2014

Consultation of the German government on the preparation of the German report on greenhouse gas mitigation measures in the land use sector (LULUCF).

completed projects

The impact of climate change on agricultural yields and cropland (KlimErtrag)

The dry years in the past have brought climate change induced impacts on agricultural yields into the focus of public attention. But, how does climate change effect yields and what follows for adaptation strategies?

BEWAMO - An evaluation tool for the protection status of peatlands

How worthy of protection are peatlands used for agriculture? Together with different partnering organisations, the Thünen Institute intends to develop a tool for authorities to assess the protection status of peatlands. The tool will also suggest agri-environmental protection measures for each category and methods for monitoring these measures.

FAIRWAY

Most people in Europe have access to good drinking water quality. However, due to nitrate and pesticides pollution which can be caused by agricultural production, drinking water treatment cost may increase. FAIRWAY develops indicators, measures and solutions to reduce drinking water pollution by agriculture.

National agricultural climate policies

In 2015, the parties to the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris agreed on the common goal of limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. This requires a comprehensive "decarbonisation" of all parts of society, and increasingly places agriculture in the focus of discussion.

Roadmap for Carbon Farming Schemes

In recent years, the focus of climate policy has shifted to the goal of "climate neutrality”. The aim is no longer solely to avoid emissions, but to compensate for the remaining emissions through so-called "carbon-removals". There is a high level of interest from both policymakers and private companies in leveraging agricultural land use to achieve their climate neutrality goals. However, many questions are still unanswered.

Potentials of biochar as negative emission technology

For the goal of greenhouse gas neutrality, unavoidable emissions must be compensated for by permanently incorporating carbon from the atmosphere, so-called negative emissions. We investigate what contribution biochar could make.

Efficient Nutrient Management

Waterbodies, biodiversity, air and climate are polluted by nitrogen emissions from agriculture - whether as nitrate, ammonia or nitrous oxide. Improving nutrient utilisation contributes to reducing environmentally hazardous nitrogen surpluses.

Nutri2Cycle - Nurturing the Circular Economy

The Nutri2Cycle project recognizes Europe’s need to tackle the current nutrient flow gaps in European agro-ecosystems in order to decrease environmental pollution, safeguard the quality of life and improve EU independence for energy and nutrients. Nutri2Cycle addresses these needs by benchmarking the current N, P and C flows as a starting point to re-design (using scenario-analysis) and test new business models in nutrient management (‘prototypes’) to mitigate emissions and close the nutrient flow gaps.

Stakeholder Analysis in climate mitigation processes

The project aims to analyze actors and stakeholder engagements in international climate mitigation processes in agriculture, especially in the work program of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA).

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