‘Model Applications in Field Research’ Christian Kersebaum appointed as Vice Leader for American Society of Agronomy research group

Press Release

Kurt Christian Kersebaum, agricultural scientist at the Research Platform “Models & Simulation” at ZALF, has been appointed as vice leader of the “Model Applications in Field Research“(MAFR) community of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA). Kersebaum is an expert for agro-ecosystem modelling with focus on water and matter dynamics, crop growth and climate change. In 2019 he will take the community chair for one year.

The MAFR community is part of the ASA-Section: “Climatology and Modelling“ and has more than 600 members worldwide. They meet at least once a year at the annual assembly of ASA; SSSA (Soil Science Society of America) and CSSA (Crop Science Society of America). In this context the MAFR members convene their own topical sessions and symposia in order to review agricultural process models in terms of applicability based on experimental field data. For the coming two years; Kurt Christian Kersebaum will organize these symposia.

Kersebaum himself has been doing research on the modelling of crop systems for many years and is aware of how crucial the quality of field data is. His aim is therefore to strengthen the cooperation between modellers and experimental researchers. The MAFR community is working towards improving the quality of field data regarding their usability for modelling and therefore data transferability to different conditions.

„The best way to make sure that all boundary conditions fundamental to modelling are considered would be to involve modelling experts into the development of the experimental design from the beginning”, Kersebaum says. For ZALF researchers this means access to international field data and therefore the opportunity to run their models on different site information, e.g. potential climate conditions to come.

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