TRR 32:  Patterns in Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Systems: Monitoring, Modelling and Data Assimilation

• Subject Area: Geosciences ; Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine ; Chemistry ; Mathematics
• Term: from 2007 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 15232683

The cycling of energy, water and carbon through soil, vegetation and atmosphere influences the distribution and quality of life on Earth. With the rapid growth of the world population and its needs, the sustainable and efficient management of our natural resources becomes more important than ever. The TR32 focuses on a better understanding of the processes and interdependencies within and between soil, vegetation and the atmosphere, which will lead to more reliable weather and climate models and more accurate predictions for water and CO2 transport to support an improved management of natural resources. Spatial and temporal patterns in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum are postulated to play a key role. For example, agricultural land-use - wheat next to beet, or potatoes and corn - influences the exchange of water, CO2 and heat between soil and atmosphere. All processes are inseparably intertwined, resulting in complex feedbacks and system responses on different spatial and temporal scales.The overall goal of the TR32 is to clarify the origins of and the interrelations between spatial and temporal patterns of each single component within the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system using innovative monitoring and modelling approaches. Spatial and temporal structures of physical parameters (e.g., soil hydraulic conductivity) state variables (such as soil moisture or air temperature) and processes (for example fluxes of CO2, water and heat) can be observed on all scales. The detection of these patterns and the understanding of the interactions involved are required to represent the different spatial and temporal scales in numerical models.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios

Completed projects

• A03 - Inverse modelling of soil hydraulic property patterns from non-invasive electrical measurements (Project Heads Huisman, Johan ;  Kemna, Andreas )
• A04 - Multiphase flow simulations coupled to NMR and SIP signatures in reconstructed natural porous media using Lattice Boltzmann methods (Project Heads Ahrenholz, Benjamin ;  Krafczyk, Manfred )
• B01 - B1 - Field-scale net ecosystem exchange and feedback of subsurface heterogeneous structures with the atmosphere (Project Heads Herbst, Michael ;  Shao, Yaping ;  Vereecken, Harry )
• B03 - Spatio-temporal patterns of Q(10) values for improved modelling of heterotrophic soil respiration (Project Heads Amelung, Wulf ;  Welp, Gerhard )
• B04 - 3D integrative modelling and upscaling of root water uptake (Project Heads Javaux, Ph.D., Mathieu ;  Schnepf, Andrea ;  Vanderborght, Jan )
• B05 - Upscaling spatio-temporal patterns of crop processes (Project Heads Ewert, Frank ;  Langensiepen, Matthias ;  Van Wijk, Mark ;  Waske, Björn )
• B06 - Geophysical characterization of patterns in functional and structural soil properties and processes (Project Heads Huisman, Johan ;  Kemna, Andreas ;  van der Kruk, Jan ;  Vereecken, Harry )
• B07 - Soil structure and mass transfer with NMR: From pore-scale patterns to meter-scale hydraulics (Project Heads Blümich, Bernhard ;  Paciok, Eva ;  Pohlmeier, Andreas )
• B08 - Characterizing water transport properties of partially saturated soils by joint inversion of NMR and IP measurements (Project Heads Clauser, Christoph ;  Klitzsch, Norbert )
• B09 - Identification and Simulation of Subsurface Soil Patterns from Geophysical Measurements and Remote Sensing Data (Project Heads van der Kruk, Jan ;  Wellmann, Ph.D., Florian )
• C01 - Investigation of eco-hydrological processes and feedbacks in the soil-plant continuum at different spatio-temporal scales (Project Heads Bogena, Heye ;  Diekkrüger, Bernd ;  Lücke, Andreas )
• C03 - Surface soil moisture pattern analysis using SAR data und modelling (Project Heads Fiener, Peter ;  Korres, Wolfgang ;  Schneider, Karl )
• C04 - Scale-consistent coupling of land surface and atmospheric models (Project Heads Bott, Andreas ;  Neggers, Roel ;  Simmer, Clemens )
• C06 - Identification of systematic model errors by data assimilation (Project Heads Bogena, Heye ;  Hendricks-Franssen, Harrie-Jan ;  Kollet, Stefan J. ;  Vereecken, Harry )
• C07 - Sparse pattern representation with application to pattern parameterization in atmosphere and land surface coupled systems (Project Heads Kunoth, Angela ;  Shao, Yaping )
• D01 - Modelling of time-space patterns of energy and mass fluxes over heterogeneous land surfaces with special consideration of CO2 and H2O (Project Head Kerschgens, Michael J. )
• D02 - Measuring, modelling and understanding the spatio-temporal structures in atmosphere- land surface exchange (Project Heads Crewell, Susanne ;  Rascher, Uwe ;  Wahner, Andreas )
• D03 - CO2 and water flux estimation by four-dimensional variational assimilation of in situ and remote sensing data (Project Head Elbern, Ph.D., Hendrik )
• D05 - Quantitative precipitation estimation and uncertainty quantification (Project Heads Friederichs, Petra ;  Griebel, Michael ;  Hendricks-Franssen, Harrie-Jan ;  Schlather, Martin ;  Simmer, Clemens ;  Trömel, Ph.D., Silke )
• D06 - Multi-scale pattern simulation and parameterization of convection over heterogeneous land surfaces (Project Heads Kollet, Stefan J. ;  Shao, Yaping )
• D07 - Catchment Tomography (Project Heads Diekkrüger, Bernd ;  Hendricks-Franssen, Harrie-Jan ;  Herbst, Michael ;  Kollet, Stefan J. ;  Trömel, Ph.D., Silke )
• D08 - Parallel simulation of variably saturated flow with adaptive mesh refinement (Project Heads Burstedde, Carsten ;  Kollet, Stefan J. )
• INFZ01 - Project database and data management (Project Heads Bareth, Georg ;  Lang, Ulrich )
• MGKZ05 - Integrated Research Training Group (Project Head Crewell, Susanne )
• T01 - MRI pulse sequences with ultra-short detection for imaging of transport in soils (Project Heads Gross, Dieter ;  Haber-Pohlmeier, Sabina ;  Pohlmeier, Andreas )
• Z02 - Central tasks and coordination of the Transregional Collaborative Research Center (Project Head Simmer, Clemens )
• Z03 - Measurement support and data processing (Project Heads Bogena, Heye ;  Crewell, Susanne ;  Diekkrüger, Bernd ;  Graf, Alexander ;  Weihermüller, Lutz )
• Z04 - Model development and maintenance services (Project Heads Hendricks-Franssen, Harrie-Jan ;  Kollet, Stefan J. ;  Shao, Yaping ;  Simmer, Clemens )

• Applicant Institution: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
• Co-Applicant Institution: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen; Universität zu Köln
• Participating Institution: Forschungszentrum Jülich
• Participating University: Universität Mannheim
• Business and Industry: Bruker BioSpin GmbH; Erftverband
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Clemens Simmer