The population growth in the next decades will lead to an increased demand for food, feed and energy requiring an intensification of agricultural production and land use changes that may negatively impact our natural resources such as soil and water. The competition for land resources between food production and biomass production for energy and other raw materials will aggravate the situation in the next years and decades. The requirement for an increased production of resources combined with land use changes affects our ecosystems and it plays a key role in the ongoing climate change. The increased use of fertilizers and pesticides as well as the predicted changes in rainfall and temperature patterns will impact hydrological and biogeochemical fluxes in terrestrial systems. Research which addresses the impact of these changes and the adaptation of terrestrial systems is the key for a sustainable use and protection of our natural resources.
Research at Agrosphere Institute aims at improving our understanding of hydrological and biogeochemical processes in terrestrial systems with a specific focus on agricultural and soil-groundwater systems.