SPP 1315:  Biogeochemical Interfaces in Soil

• Subject Area: Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
• Term: from 2007 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 31907460

Soil is an enlivened, heterogeneous three-phase system made of solid, liquid and gaseous components. It serves as a dynamic interface between the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere and is thus the essential compartment of the "critical zone". Research within the Priority Programme aims at the systematic structural characterisation and functional exploration of biogeochemical interfaces in soil and at unravelling their role for fate and effect of organic chemicals. The overall connecting scientific goal is to gain a mechanistic understanding of the complex interplay and interdependencies of physical, chemical and biological processes operative at biogeochemical interfaces. Grand challenges are to identify the factors controlling the complex architecture of biogeochemical interfaces, to link the processes operative at the molecular and organism scale to phenomena active at the aggregate scale in a mechanistic way and to explain the medium- to long-term behaviour of organic chemicals in soil within a general mechanistic framework. The research is based on the following hypotheses:
(1) The essential features and functioning of biogeochemical interfaces in soil will only emerge when soil physical, biological and chemical approaches are integrated.
(2) Microorganisms are actively involved in the formation and restructuring of biogeochemical interfaces.
(3) The systematic exploration and characterisation of architecture and functioning of soil's biogeochemical interfaces is fundamental to understand the soil's role as a transformer, accumulator and regulator.
(4) Molecular descriptors of the organic chemicals in combination with molecular-scale biogeochemical information on the structure and the dynamics of the biogeochemical interfaces can serve as basis for a general understanding of the behaviour of organic chemicals in soil.
(5) The study of the fate and effect of organic chemicals is obscured by the complex biological and chemical composition of biogeochemical interfaces.
The mechanistic understanding of the relationship of biophysical and geochemical processes and mechanisms at the molecular scale will provide the basis for the integration of information into field-scale concepts and models on the fate and effect as well as on reactivity and bioavailability of organic chemicals in soil. Cutting edge technologies developed in other scientific fields will help substantially to answer the respective questions in soil science.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Austria

Projects

• Biogeochemical interface formation in soils as controlled by different components (Applicant Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid )
• Biotic and abiotic factors that dive the function of microbial communities at biogeochemical interfaces in different soils (BAMISO) (Applicants Harms, Hauke ;  Schloter, Michael )
• Coordination and administration of the priority programme SPP 1315 Biogeochemical Interfaces in Soil (Applicant Totsche, Kai Uwe )
• Dynamic (redox) interfaces in soil - Carbon turnover in microbial biomass and flux into soil organic matter (Applicant Miltner, Anja )
• Effects of soil organic matter molecular conformation and substrate additions on the formation and release of xenobiotics bound residues (Applicant Marschner, Bernd )
• Elucidating mechanisms of pesticide sorption and degradation by compound specific isotope analysis in conjunction with advanced mathematical transport modelling (Applicant Elsner, Martin )
• Environmental Determinants of Microbial Biopolymer Degraders in Agricultural Soil (Applicant Kolb, Steffen )
• Evaluation of effective parameters to describe wetting, adhesion and, sorption phenomena on biogeochemical interfaces (Applicant Bachmann, Jörg )
• Highly-resolved imaging in artificial and natural soils to yield dynamics and structure of interfaces from oxygen, pH and water content (Applicant Oswald, Sascha E. )
• Hydration affected soil:water sorption processes of xenobiotics - experiments and modeling approaches (Applicant Thiele-Bruhn, Sören )
• Imaging and image simulation of organic target compound migration between different biogeochemical interfaces of a soil horizon using positron emission tomography and the lattice Boltzmann equation approach (Applicants Kersten, Michael ;  Lippmann-Pipke, Johanna )
• Importance of soil organic carbon and mineral particle size fractions for the fate of soil supplied organic chemicals and their microbial transformations (Applicant Tebbe, Ph.D., Christoph )
• Influence of microbial and enzymatic activities on immobilisation of xenobiotics in soil organo-clay complexes (Applicants Schwarzbauer, Jan ;  Schäffer, Andreas )
• Influence of soil parameters on the fate and metabolism of metalaxyl and fenhexamid on the soil interface rhizosphere (Applicant Spiteller, Michael )
• Interactions of organic compounds with soil components - elucidating mechanisms on a molecular level (Applicants Gerzabek, Martin H. ;  Lischka, Hans )
• Interactions of soil microbial communities and persistent organic pollutants at different biogeochemical interfaces in soil (Applicant Smalla, Kornelia )
• Investigation of pore scale processes at biogeochemical interfaces using sensor micromodels and Raman microscopy (Applicant Baumann, Thomas )
• Investigation of the transformation and interaction of organic model compounds in agricultural soils employing isotopic techniques (Applicant Totsche, Kai Uwe )
• Linking micro-aggregation to the sequestration of organic pollutants in soils (Applicants Lang, Friederike ;  Siemens, Jan )
• Organisation and realisation of meetings (season schools) within the priority program SPP 1315 "Biogeochemical Interfaces in Soil" (Applicant Totsche, Kai Uwe )
• Physicochemical Aging Mechanisms in Soil Organic Matter (SOM- AGING): II. Hydration-dehydration mechanisms at Biogeochemical Interfaces (Applicant Schaumann, Gabriele )
• Quantification of active interfaces with respect to dissolved chemicals in unsaturated structured soil (Applicant Vogel, Hans-Jörg )
• Surface Mediated Transformation of Pesticides (Applicant Haderlein, Stefan )
• The detritusphere as the biogeochemical interface for bacterial and fungal degradation of MCPA (Applicants Kandeler, Ellen ;  Streck, Thilo )
• The Drilosphere as a Driver of Microbial Metabolism of Herbicides in Soil: Linking Processes with Populations (Applicant Horn, Marcus A. )
• The parent material as major factor for the properties of the biogeochemical interface: Integrative analysis (Applicants Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid ;  Totsche, Kai Uwe )
• The role of mobile organic matter and biocolloids for the properties of and interactions with biogeochemical interfaces in soil (Applicant Totsche, Kai Uwe )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Kai Uwe Totsche