DiARNIKA

In addition to rising temperatures, the problematic consequences of climate change for arable farming include the increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as dry and hot spells. Sustainable adaptation of plant production to the consequences of climate change can be achieved by minimising risks through targeted diversification of the cultivation system. The aim of the DIARNIKA project is to evaluate and optimise approaches to diversification with regard to climate adaptation.

The focus is on analysing two approaches: The first approach - crop diversity - involves the cultivation of several crop species on a farm that respond to weather extremes in a complementary way in order to minimise cultivation risks with regard to unpredictable extreme events. The second approach is spatial diversification within fields through mixed cropping systems, in particular mixed cropping in strips with the possibility of staggered cultivation. This strip cropping offers outstanding potential to further develop the already well-established advantages of mixed crops, to solve technical problems in crop management and to make them more usable in practice in the context of climate change adaptation. DIARNIKA aims to quantify the potential for adaptation to climate change in order to optimise suitable climate change adaptation measures for conventional and organic practice. The aim is to promote implementation in practice as well as a deeper understanding of the processes. The overarching objectives are (a) high (yield) stability and low cultivation risk in the face of highly fluctuating and changing weather conditions; and (b) agronomic feasibility of the measures.

Details and images see also https://www.aol.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung/diarnika

Project coordinators: Prof. Dr. Thomas Döring, Dr. Roman Kemper (AOL, Uni Bonn)

Dr. Moritz Reckling (ZALF) 

Dr. Peer Urbatzka (LfL)