ENAC Seminar Series by Dr S. Schlüter
Event details
| Date | 03.11.2020 |
| Hour | 10:00 › 10:45 |
| Speaker | Dr Steffen Schlüter |
| Location |
Zoom
Online
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
10:00 – 10:45 – Dr Steffen Schlüter
Senior researcher and group leader at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Germany
Exploring the relationship between soil structure and soil functions via pore-scale imaging
Biogeochemical and structural heterogeneities at the pore-scale govern processes in soil in many ways. They are therefore of key importance for understanding soil functioning. Prominent examples are the stabilization of soil organic matter due to reduced bioavailability in aggregated soil structure, preferential transport of nutrients and contaminants along macropores, highly localized greenhouse gas emission around a few hotspots of microbial activity like particulate organic matter and the formation of the rhizosphere as a complex system composed of plant roots, soil and associated microorganisms.
All of these processes have in common that the underlying relevant mechanisms are fairly well understood in artificial systems with reduced degrees of heterogeneity, like soil suspensions, glass beads, micromodels with known structure and so on. However, the far more complex pore architecture of undisturbed soils leads to emergent system behavior which needs to be addressed when studying these structure-mediated processes. Non-invasive imaging techniques can be harnessed to explore how biogeochemical and structural heterogeneities are shaping soil functions. Such imaging techniques and subsequent image analyses are now widely used to study intact soils. While previously many properties were defined only by averaged bulk parameters, pore-scale imaging reveals details at smaller scales and provides spatial information, in two, three or even more dimensions including time or multispectral data.
In this lecture I will give a short introduction into different mechanisms of carbon sequestration occurring in natural soil, before I show current methodological advances in mapping long-term stabilized carbon in soil. In the second part of the talk I will present experimental findings on the relevance of soil structure and the spatial distribution of microbial hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions.
Short bio:
Steffen Schlüter is a senior researcher at Department of Soil System Sciences at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Halle, Germany. Graduating with a master degree in physical geography at the TU Dresden in 2009, he did his PhD in soil hydrology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in 2012 while working at the UFZ under the supervision of Prof. Hans-Jörg Vogel. As a Postdoc he has joined different labs in the US (Oregon State University), Australia (Australian National University) and Germany (UFZ & German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases – DZNE) and turned into an expert in pore scale imaging of porous media. Since 2018 he leads the group on “Soil Structure and Soil functions” at the UFZ. In 2019 he received his habilitation in soil science at the MLU. He has organized several summer schools and had teaching appointments at different universities across Europe. Currently his main research interest is the relationship between soil heterogeneity and ecosystem services of soil such as plant production, matter cycling, carbon sequestration as well as water filter and storage.
Senior researcher and group leader at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Germany
Exploring the relationship between soil structure and soil functions via pore-scale imaging
Biogeochemical and structural heterogeneities at the pore-scale govern processes in soil in many ways. They are therefore of key importance for understanding soil functioning. Prominent examples are the stabilization of soil organic matter due to reduced bioavailability in aggregated soil structure, preferential transport of nutrients and contaminants along macropores, highly localized greenhouse gas emission around a few hotspots of microbial activity like particulate organic matter and the formation of the rhizosphere as a complex system composed of plant roots, soil and associated microorganisms.
All of these processes have in common that the underlying relevant mechanisms are fairly well understood in artificial systems with reduced degrees of heterogeneity, like soil suspensions, glass beads, micromodels with known structure and so on. However, the far more complex pore architecture of undisturbed soils leads to emergent system behavior which needs to be addressed when studying these structure-mediated processes. Non-invasive imaging techniques can be harnessed to explore how biogeochemical and structural heterogeneities are shaping soil functions. Such imaging techniques and subsequent image analyses are now widely used to study intact soils. While previously many properties were defined only by averaged bulk parameters, pore-scale imaging reveals details at smaller scales and provides spatial information, in two, three or even more dimensions including time or multispectral data.
In this lecture I will give a short introduction into different mechanisms of carbon sequestration occurring in natural soil, before I show current methodological advances in mapping long-term stabilized carbon in soil. In the second part of the talk I will present experimental findings on the relevance of soil structure and the spatial distribution of microbial hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions.
Short bio:
Steffen Schlüter is a senior researcher at Department of Soil System Sciences at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Halle, Germany. Graduating with a master degree in physical geography at the TU Dresden in 2009, he did his PhD in soil hydrology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in 2012 while working at the UFZ under the supervision of Prof. Hans-Jörg Vogel. As a Postdoc he has joined different labs in the US (Oregon State University), Australia (Australian National University) and Germany (UFZ & German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases – DZNE) and turned into an expert in pore scale imaging of porous media. Since 2018 he leads the group on “Soil Structure and Soil functions” at the UFZ. In 2019 he received his habilitation in soil science at the MLU. He has organized several summer schools and had teaching appointments at different universities across Europe. Currently his main research interest is the relationship between soil heterogeneity and ecosystem services of soil such as plant production, matter cycling, carbon sequestration as well as water filter and storage.
Practical information
- General public
- Invitation required
- This event is internal
Organizer
- ENAC
Contact
- Cristina Perez