Durch die Zunahme der Biogasproduktion in den letzten Jahren hat sich auch die Menge von Gärprodukten, die verbleibenden Rückstände, entsprechend erhöht. In Deutschland fallen jährlich mehr als 50 Millionen Tonnen Gärprodukte an, die als Dünger verwendet werden. Damit werden Nährstoffe in den Kreislauf landwirtschaftlicher Ökosysteme zurück-geführt. Allerdings sind die agroökologischen Wirkungen noch nicht hinreichend erforscht. Aus diesem Grund wurden die folgenden Parameter untersucht: Einfluss von trockenen und flüssigen Gärprodukten auf dem Ertrag von drei ausgewählten Fruchtarten im Vergleich zu oder in Kombination mit Mineraldünger in On-Farm Versuchen; Wachstum, Entwicklung und Ertrag von zwei ausgewählten Fruchtarten im Vergleich zu Mineraldünger, Gülle und Stallmist in einer vollständig randomisierten Blockanlage; Einfluss auf ausgewählte Bodenlebewesen im Vergleich zu Mineraldünger, Gülle und Stallmist in einer vollständig randomisierten Blockanlage. Zusätzlich wurde die Mineralisierung von flüssigen und festen Gärprodukten im Vergleich zu Gülle und Stallmist untersucht, um Effekte der verschiedenen Düngestoffe auf die Humusbildung unter kontrollierten Bedingungen zu bestimmen. / With the increase of biogas production in recent years, the amount of digestates or the remaining residues increased accordingly. Every year in Germany more than 50 million tons of digestates are produced, which are used as fertilizer. Thus nutrients return into the circulation of agricultural ecosystems. However, the agro-ecological effects have not been deeply researched until now. For this reason, the following parameters were quantified: the influence of dry and liquid fermentation products on the yield of three selected crops in comparison to or in combination with mineral-N-fertilizers in on-farm experiments; the growth, development and yield of two selected crops in comparison to mineral-N-fertilizer, liquid manure and farmyard manure in a randomized complete block design; selected soil organisms as compared to mineral-N-fertilizer, liquid manure and farmyard manure in a randomized complete block design. In addition, the mineralization of dry and wet digestates in comparison with liquid manure and farmyard manure was investigated in order to evaluate the effects of different fertilizers on the humus formation under controlled conditions.

The development of rural areas concerning food security, sustainability and social-economic stability is key issue to the globalized community. Regarding the current state of climatic change, especially semi-arid regions in uenced by monsoon or El Niño are prone to extreme weather events. Droughts, ooding, erosion, degradation of soils and water quality and deserti cation are some of the common impacts. State of the art in hydrologic environmental modeling is generally operating under a reductionist paradigm (Sivapalan 2005). Even an enormous quantity of process-oriented models exists, we fail in due reproduction of complexly interacting processes in their effective scale in the space-time-continuum, as they are described through deterministic small-scale process theories (e.g. Beven 2002). Yet large amounts of parameters - with partly doubtful physical expression - and input data are needed. In contradiction to that most soft information about patterns and organizing principles cannot be employed (Seibert and McDonnell 2002). For an analysis of possible strategies on the one hand towards integrated hydrologic modeling as decision support and on the other hand for sustainable land use development the 512 km2 large catchment of the Mod river in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, India has been chosen. It is characterized by a setting of common problems of peripheral rural semi-arid human-eco-systems with intensive agriculture, deforestation, droughts and general hardship for the people. Scarce data and missing gauges are adding to the requirements of data acquisition and process description. The study at hand presents a methodical framework to combine eld scale data analysis and remote sensing for the setup of a database focusing plausibility over strict data accuracy. The catena-based hydrologic model WASA (Güntner 2002) employes this database. It is expanded by a routine for crop development simulation after the de Wit approach (e.g. in Bouman et al. 1996). For its application as decision support system an agentbased land use algorithm is developed which decides on base of site speci cations and certain constraints (like maximum pro t or best local adaptation) about the cropping. The new model is employed to analyze (some) land use strategies. Not anticipated and a priori de ned scenarios will account for the realization of the model but the interactions within the system. This study points out possible approaches to enhance the situation in the catchment. It also approaches central questions of ways towards due integrated hydrological modeling on catchment scale for ungauged conditions and to overcome current paradigms. / Die Entwicklung ländlicher Regionen hinsichtlich von Ernährungssicherheit, Nachhaltigkeit und sozio-ökonomischer Stabilität ist eine der wichtigsten Aufgaben unserer globalisierten Gemeinschaft. In Hinblick auf den Klimawandel sind insbesondere semi-aride Gebiete im Einfluss von Monsun oder El Niño von extremen Wetterereignissen betroffen. Tockenheiten, Überschwemmungen, Erosion, Bodendegradation, Verschlechterung der Wasserqualität und Versteppung sind nur einige, oft beobachtete Folgen. Der Stand der Forschung in Sachen hydrologischer Umweltmodellierung ist insbesondere einem reduktionistischen Paradigma verhaftet (Sivapalan 2005). Obwohl eine enorme Menge verschiedenster Prozessmodelle existiert können auf Grundlage kleinskaliger Prozessapproximationen die komplex interagierenden Prozesse in ihren wirkenden Skalen im Raum-Zeit-Kontinuum nur begrenzt beschreiben werden (z.B. Beven 2002). Während die verwendeten Modelle große Mengen an Parametern und Daten benötigen, können wichtige Informationen über Muster und Organisationsprinzipien nicht in die Simulationen einfließen. Für eine Analyse möglicher Wege und Restriktionen der integrierten hydrologischen Modellierung als Mittel in der Entscheidungsunterstützung wurde das 512 km² große Einzugsgebiet des Mod Flusses in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, Indien ausgewählt. Es ist gekennzeichnet von charakteristischen Problemen der Neuen Peripherie (z.B. Scholz 2004) (im human-geographischen Kontext) und intensiv anthropogen beeinflusster Agrar-Öko-Systeme der semi-ariden Tropen. Die dünne Datengrundlage des nicht-bepegelten Einzugsgebiets stellt dabei eine besondere Anforderung an die Datenakquise. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein methodischer Ansatz vorgestellt, der Feld- und Fernerkundungstechniken zur Landschaftsanalyse verbindet. Mit dem Fokus auf Plausibilität statt strenger "Datengenauigkeit" wird eine Datenbank zur hydrologischen Modellierung des Gebiets entwickelt. Das Catena-basierte hydrologische Prozessmodell WASA (Güntner 2002) wird um eine Routine zur Simulation der Entwicklung von Nutzpflanzen nach de Wit (z.B. in Bouman et al. 1996) erweitert. Zur Anwendung des Modells als Entscheidungsunterstützungssystem ist ein agentenbasierter Landnutzungsalgorithmus entwickelt worden, welcher auf Grundlage von Standorteigenschaften und politischen Vorgaben wie Profitmaximierung oder Standortanpassung über die Landnutzung entscheidet. Das neue Modellsystem wird zur Untersuchung von einigen Landnutzungstrategien so verwendet, dass nicht antizipierte Szenarien sondern die Wechselwirkung des Systems selbst die Realisation des Modells bestimmen. Die Umsetzung zeigt einerseits mögliche Ansätze zur Verbesserung der Situation im Untersuchungsgebiet auf. Anderseits gibt sie konkrete Vorschläge zu zentralen Fragen hydrologischer Umweltmodellierung und zur Überwindung bestehender Paradigmen.

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Despite the negative effects of fossil fuels on the environment, these remain as the primary contributors to the energy sector. In order to mitigate global warming risks, many countries aim at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Bioenergy crops are being used as a substitute for fossil fuels and short rotation forestry is a prime example. In order to examine the sustainability of energy crops for fuel, typical European short rotation forestry (SRF) biomass, willow (Salix spp.) and poplar (Populus spp.) are examined and compared to rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) in respect to various aspects of soil respiration and combustion heat obtained from the extracted products per hectare. Various approaches are used to look at an As-contaminated site not only in the field but also in a soil-column experiment that examines the fate of trace elements in SRF soils, and in an analysis using MICMAC to describe the driving factors for SRF crop production. Based on the cause-effect chain, the impacts of land-use change and occupation on ecosystem quality are assessed when land-use is changed from degraded land (grassland) to willow and poplar SRF. A manual opaque dynamic closed chamber system (SEMACH-FG) was utilized to measure CO2 emissions at a willow/poplar short rotation forest in Krummenhennersdorf, Germany during the years 2013 and 2014, and at a rapeseed site in 2014. Short rotation forest soils showed higher CO2 emission rates during the growing season than the dormant season – with a CO2 release of 5.62±1.81 m-2 s-1 for willows and 5.08±1.37 µmol CO2 m-2 s-1 for poplars in the growing season. However, during the dormant season the soil sites with willow emitted 2.54±0.81 µmol CO2 m-2 s-1 and with poplar 2.07±0.56 µmol CO2 m-2 s-1. The highest emission rates for the studied plantations were observed in July for both years 2013 and 2014, during which the highest air and soil temperatures were recorded. Correlations between soil emission of CO2 and some meteorological parameters and leaf characteristics were investigated for the years 2013 and 2014. For example, for the willow clone (Jorr) and poplar clone (Max 3), high correlations were found for each between their soil emission of CO2 and both soil temperature and moisture content. Fitted models can explain about 77 and 75% of the results for Jorr and Max 3 clones, respectively. Moreover, a model of leaf area (LA) can explain about 68.6% of soil CO2 emission for H275. Estimated models can be used as a gap-filling method, when field data is not available. The ratio between soil respiration and the combustion heat calculated from the extracted products per hectare was evaluated and compared for the study’s willow, poplar and rapeseed crops. The results show that poplar and willow SRF has a very low ratio of 183 kg CO2 GJ 1 compared to rapeseed, 738 kg CO2 GJ 1. The soil-column experiment showed that by continuing the SRF plantation at the As-contaminated site, remediation would need only about 3% of the time needed if the site was left as a fallow field. In order to understand the complex willow and poplar short rotation forestry production system, 50 key variables were identified and prioritized to describe the system as a step to enhance the success of such potentially sustainable projects. The MICMAC approach was used in order to find the direct and the indirect relationships between those parameters and to classify them into different clusters depending on their driving force and interdependency. From this, it can be summarized that in order to enhance the success of a SRF system, decision makers should be focussing on: ensuring a developed wood-fuel market, increasing farmers’ experience/training, improving subsidy regulations and recommending a proper harvesting year cycle. Finally, the impacts of land-use change and occupation on the ecosystem quality were assessed. Results show that establishing SRF plantations on degraded lands improved the ecosystem structural quality (ESQ) by about 43% and ecosystem functional quality (EFQ) by about 12%. Based on overall results, poplar and willow SRF biomass can be recommended as renewable and sustainable sources for bioenergy.

Despite the negative effects of fossil fuels on the environment, these remain as the primary contributors to the energy sector. In order to mitigate global warming risks, many countries aim at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Bioenergy crops are being used as a substitute for fossil fuels and short rotation forestry is a prime example. In order to examine the sustainability of energy crops for fuel, typical European short rotation forestry (SRF) biomass, willow (Salix spp.) and poplar (Populus spp.) are examined and compared to rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) in respect to various aspects of soil respiration and combustion heat obtained from the extracted products per hectare. Various approaches are used to look at an As-contaminated site not only in the field but also in a soil-column experiment that examines the fate of trace elements in SRF soils, and in an analysis using MICMAC to describe the driving factors for SRF crop production. Based on the cause-effect chain, the impacts of land-use change and occupation on ecosystem quality are assessed when land-use is changed from degraded land (grassland) to willow and poplar SRF. A manual opaque dynamic closed chamber system (SEMACH-FG) was utilized to measure CO2 emissions at a willow/poplar short rotation forest in Krummenhennersdorf, Germany during the years 2013 and 2014, and at a rapeseed site in 2014. Short rotation forest soils showed higher CO2 emission rates during the growing season than the dormant season – with a CO2 release of 5.62±1.81 m-2 s-1 for willows and 5.08±1.37 µmol CO2 m-2 s-1 for poplars in the growing season. However, during the dormant season the soil sites with willow emitted 2.54±0.81 µmol CO2 m-2 s-1 and with poplar 2.07±0.56 µmol CO2 m-2 s-1. The highest emission rates for the studied plantations were observed in July for both years 2013 and 2014, during which the highest air and soil temperatures were recorded. Correlations between soil emission of CO2 and some meteorological parameters and leaf characteristics were investigated for the years 2013 and 2014. For example, for the willow clone (Jorr) and poplar clone (Max 3), high correlations were found for each between their soil emission of CO2 and both soil temperature and moisture content. Fitted models can explain about 77 and 75% of the results for Jorr and Max 3 clones, respectively. Moreover, a model of leaf area (LA) can explain about 68.6% of soil CO2 emission for H275. Estimated models can be used as a gap-filling method, when field data is not available. The ratio between soil respiration and the combustion heat calculated from the extracted products per hectare was evaluated and compared for the study’s willow, poplar and rapeseed crops. The results show that poplar and willow SRF has a very low ratio of 183 kg CO2 GJ 1 compared to rapeseed, 738 kg CO2 GJ 1. The soil-column experiment showed that by continuing the SRF plantation at the As-contaminated site, remediation would need only about 3% of the time needed if the site was left as a fallow field. In order to understand the complex willow and poplar short rotation forestry production system, 50 key variables were identified and prioritized to describe the system as a step to enhance the success of such potentially sustainable projects. The MICMAC approach was used in order to find the direct and the indirect relationships between those parameters and to classify them into different clusters depending on their driving force and interdependency. From this, it can be summarized that in order to enhance the success of a SRF system, decision makers should be focussing on: ensuring a developed wood-fuel market, increasing farmers’ experience/training, improving subsidy regulations and recommending a proper harvesting year cycle. Finally, the impacts of land-use change and occupation on the ecosystem quality were assessed. Results show that establishing SRF plantations on degraded lands improved the ecosystem structural quality (ESQ) by about 43% and ecosystem functional quality (EFQ) by about 12%. Based on overall results, poplar and willow SRF biomass can be recommended as renewable and sustainable sources for bioenergy.:Table of Contents Acknowledgements VI Abstract VII List of Figures IX List of Tables XI List of Appendix Tables XII List of Abbreviations XIII List of Abbreviations ...continued XIV 1. Background 1 1.1. General introduction 1 1.2. Soil organic carbon (SOC) 2 1.3. Soil respiration 4 1.4. Energy and bioenergy crops 5 1.5. Willow and poplar short rotation forestry 8 1.6. Degraded lands 10 1.8. Challenges 17 1.9. Objectives of this study 18 2. Methodology 19 2.1. Site Description 19 2.2. Environmental variables 22 2.3. Measuring CO2 emissions 23 2.3.1. Soil emission of CO2 23 2.3.2. Sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature (Q10) 25 2.4. Willow and poplar leaf traits 26 2.4.1. Measuring leaf area 26 2.4.2. Leaf Area Index (LAI) 27 2.4.3. Leaf sensitivity to high and low temperatures 28 2.5. Soil characteristics 30 2.5.1. Soil sampling 30 2.5.2. Soil Moisture Content % (SMC) by gravimetric method 31 2.5.3. Soil pH 31 2.5.4. Soil Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) 31 2.5.5. Soil content of C, N, S, heavy metals and trace elements 31 2.5.6. Soil porosity 31 2.5.7. Soil pore water 32 2.5.8. Soil hydraulic conductivity (Kf) 32 2.6. Soil-column experiment 34 2.6.1. Experiment set-up 35 2.6.2. Distribution coefficients (Kd) 35 2.7. MICMAC approach 36 2.7.1. Selection of variables 36 2.7.2. Description of direct relationships 36 2.7.3. Classification of variables 37 2.8. Impacts of land-use change on the ecosystem quality 38 2.9. Computer software 40 3. Results and Discussion 41 3.1. Environmental conditions 41 3.1.1. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) 41 3.1.2. Soil temperature 42 3.1.3. Soil moisture content 43 3.2. Soil emission of CO2 46 3.2.1. CO2 emission from soil at the short rotation forestry site 46 3.2.2. Soil emission of CO2 during the day and the night 48 3.2.3. Cumulative emission of CO2 49 3.2.4. Comparison with other bioenergy crops 50 3.3. Q10 52 3.4. Willow and poplar Leaf Characteristics 54 3.4.1. Leaf Area Index (LAI) 54 3.4.2. Specific leaf area (SLA) 56 3.4.3. Leaf sensitivity to temperature 57 3.5. Correlations of soil CO2 emission with soil temperature and moisture content 59 3.6. Correlations of soil CO2 emission with plant parameters 65 3.7. Insights into soil respiration and combustion heat per area 67 3.7.1. Cumulative seasonal CO2 emission (CE) 68 3.7.2. Output energy 69 3.7.3. CO2(soil respiration) / Energy ratio 70 3.7.4. Global-warming potential (GWP) 72 3.8. Trace elements in soil 73 3.8.1. Solid-liquid partition coefficients (Kd) 74 3.8.2. Estimating time of remediation 78 3.9. Identification and Prioritization of Key Parameters for Willow and Poplar Short Rotation Forestry (SRF) Production System 82 3.9.1. Based on direct influence/dependence map: 85 3.9.2. Based on indirect influence/dependence map: 87 3.10. Impacts of Land-use Change on the Ecosystem Quality 93 4. Conclusions and Recommendations 101 5. References 102 Appendix 118