Germany´s landscapes and climate change

Helmholtz scientists and researchers are running a major project called TERENO (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories) to study how climate change and land use change affect regional terrestrial systems in Germany. The Helmholtz Association is establishing four observatories in selected landscapes, extending from the Alps and alpine foothills through to the north-eastern German lowlands to spend 15 years observing and recording changes, e.g. in the water and soil quality, precipitation patterns, vegetation and biological diversity. Prof. Dr. Harry Vereecken from the Forschungszentrum Jülich is coordinating the project to which the Helmholtz Centres DLR, GFZ, HMGU, KIT and UFZ are contributing.

Researchers from Jülich working on the “SoilCan” component are just installing some 120 lysimeters in the ground beneath the observatories in order to study the material and water flows there. “Only little is known so far of what happens in the lower layers of the soil,” says Vereecken. However, the soils themselves also influence the climate, because they store a large proportion of the carbon and then, over time, gradually release it into the atmosphere again as CO₂. “We want to find out, for example, how rising temperatures or changes in the hydrological regime influence these processes,” says Vereecken. After they have been used for measurements in one place, the lysimeters will be moved from more humid to drier areas and from cooler to warmer regions. “This will enable us to observe what happens when soils are exposed to greater aridity, for example, as has already been predicted for eastern Germany.”

With TERENO, the Helmholtz Association aims to create a knowledge base that makes it possible to give concrete recommendations on how agriculture and forestry as well as local authorities can adapt the country’s cultivation management to the changing conditions.