Due to increasing demand for resources and advancing climate change, natural landscapes are under intense pressure to change. In order to protect the essential ecosystem functions of our agricultural landscapes in the long term, we must strengthen their resilience, meaning their ability to withstand and adapt to extreme weather events such as droughts.

At the Göttingen Lysimeter Station, we are investigating precisely this adaptability. We examine the interactions between the atmosphere, plants and soil, focusing on the water and CO₂ cycles. Our research investigates how maize and silphie build up biomass under varying water availability, how much water they transpire, and how carbon and nutrients are stored or exchanged in the soil, with the aim of increasing the resilience of these landscape systems.

To explain these relationships clearly and provide an insight into the lysimeter research station, we are using a video production and organizing an ‘Open Day’. We are inviting the public to engage in dialogue and are particularly keen to reach young people at the start of their education.

Impressions

The experiment compares silphie (left) and maize (right). © Joshua Basu

The experimental equipment is located inside a deep shaft. © Joshua Basu

Anne Albrecht explains a soil profile. © Joshua Basu

The experimental plants grow on loess (left) or sand (right). © Joshua Basu