31.05.2024
Soils are at the basis of agricultural value chains and are therefore essential for human being. At the same time, soils fulfil other important ecosystem services: as the largest terrestrial carbon sink, they actively contribute to climate protection, they serve as water retention and flood protection, and they provide clean drinking water. Soils are a habitat for biodiversity and soil organisms that transform organic compounds into plant available nutrients. But how can we achieve high yields on agricultural soils in the long term while maintaining vital ecosystem services?
The BonaRes research programme - Soil as a sustainable resource for the bioeconomy - has been developing the scientific basis for sustainable solutions since 2015. BonaRes is funded by the BMBF and comprises 10 collaborative projects and an integrating, virtual BonaRes Centre.
Shortly before the end of the nine-year research programme, the most important results have now been presented at a final conference at the Environmental Research Centre (UFZ) in Leipzig. They include biological solutions for better utilisation of the soil microbiome, technical solutions for improving the water and nutrient balance in soils, and sustainability assessments of innovations with regards to future conditions. In the BonaRes Centre, ZALF has developed a repository of research data that meets the latest international standards and that also contains a web-based overview map for long-term field experiments, which is invaluable for soil and agricultural sciences, in particular in view of temporal dynamics related to climate change. The achievements are complemented by a platform for the future-oriented sustainability assessment of soil functions. ZALF has made these products permanently available for research even after the BonaRes programme has ended.
Further information:
