Bruno Glaser

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg | MLU · Soil Biogeochemistry @ Institute of Agronomy and Nutritional Sciences

Organic matter in sedimentary archives is abundantly used to reconstruct paleoenvironmental and climate histories. Thereby, distinguishing between the terrestrial and aquatic origin of sedimentary organic matter is often a prerequisite for robust interpretations. In this case study, we use published data for modern plants and topsoils to identify t...

Peatlands are receiving increasing attention in palaeoenvironmental research and represent very useful terrestrial archives for reconstructing vegetation, climate and human history. Previous palaeoenvironmental studies in the Fotsch Valley, Stubai Alps, Austria, focused on geoarchaeological investigations on the Ullafelsen representing a very impor...

Maize cropping systems, the world's most important cropping systems in terms of production volume, are responsible for many environmental problems, such as soil degradation and erosion. This calls for sustainable practises that enable environment-friendly production while generating sufficient output, as farmers and consumers worldwide depend on ad...

Biochar is the product of thermochemical conversion of biomass under reduced oxygen supply. Ancient people of Amazonia created fertile and soil organic matter-rich Anthro-sols such as the famous Terra Preta by incorporating charring residues together with nutrient-rich kitchen midden and excrements in a region, which is dominated by highly weathere...

In the Bale Mountains, the ericaceous belt ranges between 3200 and 3800 m asl. Studies indicate an expansion on the San-etti Plateau at the end of the Late Glacial and during the early Holocene. Currently, only patches of Erica growing between boulders are found on the Plateau, while most of the landscape above 3800 m asl is covered by afro-alpine...

Abstract Opencast coal mining results in high loss of soil organic carbon (SOC), which may be restored via recultivation. Common strategies include liming, topsoil application, and phytoremediation. It remains unclear, however, which parameters determine the effectiveness of these varying recultivation strategies especially regarding SOC sequestrat...

These data contain supplementary data [input parameters for hydrological modeling, drilling core descriptions, analytical data, paleoecological data, unbiased trench photos, photos of thin sections and paeoecological finds, figure of regional tectonic pattern] of the article Suchodoletz et al. (2022): Human-environmental interactions and seismic ac...

Long-term human-environmental interactions in naturally fragile drylands are a focus of geomorphological and geoarchaeological research. Furthermore, many dryland societies were also affected by seismic activity. The semi-arid Shiraki Plain in the tectonically active southeastern Caucasus is currently covered by steppe and largely devoid of settlem...

Opencast coal mining results in high loss of soil organic carbon (SOC), which may be restored via recultivation. Common methods include liming, topsoil application, and phytoremediation. It remains unclear, however, which parameters determine the effectiveness of varying recultivation strategies especially regarding SOC sequestration. We, therefore...

The Late Quaternary climate history of South Africa and, in particular, potential changes in atmospheric circulation have been subject to considerable debate. To some extent, this is due to a scarcity of natural archives, and on the other hand the available indirect hydrological proxies are not suited to distinguishing between precipitation origina...

The analysis of the stable oxygen isotopes 18O and 16O has revolutionized paleoclimate research since the middle of the last century. Particularly, δ18O of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica is used as a paleotemperature proxy, and δ18O of deep-sea sediments is used as a proxy for global ice volume. Important terrestrial archives to which δ18O...

The Ullafelsen at 1869 m above sea level (a.s.l.) in the Tyrolean Stubai Alps next to Innsbruck is an important (geo)archeological reference site for the Mesolithic period. Buried fireplaces on the Ullafelsen plateau were dated at 10.9 to 9.5 ka cal BP and demonstrate together with thousands of flint stone artifacts the presence of hunter-gatherers...

The repeated expansion of East Asian steppe cultures was a key driver of Eurasian history, forging new social, economic, and biological links across the continent. Climate has been suggested as important driver of these poorly understood cultural expansions, but paleoclimate records from the Mongolian Plateau often suffer from poor age control or a...

Low-altitude lakes in eastern Africa have long been investigated and have provided valuable information about the Late Quaternary paleohydrological evolution, such as the African Humid Period. However, records often suffer from poor age control, resolution, and/or ambiguous proxy interpretation, and only little focus has been put on high-altitude r...

Biochar application to soil has the potential to sequester carbon in the long term because of its high stability and large-scale production potential. However, biochar technologies are still relatively new, and the global factors affecting the long-term fate of biochar in the environment are still poorly understood. To fill this important research...

South Africa is a key region to reconstruct past changes in atmospheric circulation patterns; i.e. interactions between the temperate westerlies and tropical easterlies. However, due to an overall scarcity of natural archives and the analyses of rather indirect hydrological proxies, South Africa’s climatic evolution during the Holocene remains high...

Biochar is a promising carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology for climate change mitigation. Current procedures for its determination are lengthy, labor-intensive, and difficult to conduct. Benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCA) are the most promising molecular markers for identification and quantification of biochar and its quality as they specifica...

The repeated expansion of East Asian steppe cultures was a key driver of Eurasian history, forging new social, economic, and biological links across the continent. Climate has been suggested as important driver of these poorly understood cultural expansions, but paleo-climate records from the Mongolian Plateau often suffer from poor age control or...

The hydrogen isotope composition of leaf-wax-derived biomarkers, e.g., long-chain n-alkanes (δ2Hn-alkane), is widely applied in paleoclimate. However, a direct reconstruction of the isotope composition of source water based on δ2Hn-alkane alone is challenging due to the enrichment of heavy isotopes during evaporation. The coupling of δ2Hn-alkane wi...

Biochar has been shown to improve soil quality and crop yields. Furthermore, thanks to its high carbon content (C) and stable chemical structure, biochar can sequester C in the soil for a long time, mitigating climate change. However, the variability in published biochar stability in the soil makes verifying this trait under different environmental...

South Africa is a key region to reconstruct past changes in atmospheric circulation patterns; i.e. interactions between the temperate westerlies and tropical easterlies. However, due to an overall scarcity of natural archives and the analyses of rather indirect hydrological proxies, South Africa's climatic evolution during the Holocene remains deba...

The Ullafelsen at 1869 m a.s.l. in the Tyrolean Stubai Alps next to Innsbruck is an important (geo-)archaeological reference site for the Mesolithic period. Buried fireplaces on the Ullafelsen plateau were dated at 10.9–9.5 cal. kyrs BP and demonstrate together with thousands of flint stone artifacts the presence of hunter-gatherers during the Earl...

Archaeological research in high mountain regions has gotten a lot more attention since the discovery of the copper age mummy called “Ötzi” in the Ötztaler Alps in 1991. In the Tyrolean Stubai Alps, the Mesolithic site Ullafelsen at 1869 m a.s.l. (above sea level) close to the recent upper timberline in the Fotsch Valley represents, on the one hand,...

In eastern Africa, there are few long, high-quality records of environmental change at high altitudes, inhibiting a broader understanding of regional climate change. We investigated a Holocene lacustrine sediment archive from Lake Garba Guracha, Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, (3,950 m asl), and reconstructed high-altitude lake evaporation history using...

Being critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, strengthening understanding of the properties and processes of soil at national and regional scales is imperative. The necessity to realize SDGs by 2030 also inspires a greater sense of responsibility and care for soils. Sustainable management of soil health is...

The hydrogen isotopic composition of leaf wax–derived n -alkane (δ ² H n -alkane ) and oxygen isotopic composition of hemicellulose–derived sugar (δ ¹⁸ O sugar ) biomarkers are valuable proxies for paleoclimate reconstructions. Here, we present a calibration study along the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia to evaluate how accurately and precisely the iso...

Manure application to agricultural soils is widely considered as a source of nutrients and a method of maintaining levels of soil organic carbon (SOC) to mitigate climate change. At present, it is still unclear which factors are responsible for the SOC stock dynamics. Therefore, we analyzed the relationship between SOC stock changes and site charac...

The lithology, ostracods, palynomorphs and black carbon of a sediment core from a saline wetland in the southern Tibetan highlands (29°14′33.40″N/87°13′09.10″E, 4480 m a.s.l., A.R. Xizang, China) is analyzed and climate modelling applied with respect to core questions in Quaternary research: (1) Do meso-climatic effects of regional landscape struct...

First described over 120 years ago in Brazil, Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are expanses of dark soil that are exceptionally fertile and contain large quantities of archaeological artefacts. The elevated fertility of the dark and often deep A horizon of ADEs is widely regarded as an outcome of pre-Columbian human influence. Controversially, in their...

The hydrogen isotopic composition of leaf wax-derived biomarkers, e.g. long chain n-alkanes (δ2Hn-alkane), is widely applied in paleoclimatology research. However, a direct reconstruction of the isotopic composition of source water based on δ2Hn-alkane alone can be challenging due to the alteration of the soil water isotopic signal by leaf-water he...

Previous paleolimnological studies demonstrated that the sediments of Garba Guracha, situated at 3950 m asl in the afro-alpine zone of the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia, provide a complete Late Glacial and Holocene paleoclimate and environmental archive. We revisited Garba Guracha in order to retrieve new sediment cores and to apply new environmental...

Compound-specific hydrogen and oxygen isotope analyzes on leaf wax-derived n-alkanes (δ2Hn alkane) and the hemicellulose-derived sugar arabinose (δ18Oara) are valuable, innovative tools for paleohydrological reconstructions. Previous calibration studies have revealed that δ2Hn alkane and δ18Oara reflect the isotopic composition of precipitation, bu...

In forests, where the supply of bioavailable phosphorus (P) from easily weatherable primary minerals is small, plants are thought to recycle P efficiently by uptake of P released from decomposing forest floor material. Yet a share of the P is leached into the subsoil, where it is strongly adsorbed onto the reactive surfaces of pedogenic Fe and Al o...

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global food supply chain and exacerbated the problem of food and nutritional insecurity. Here we outline soil strategies to strengthen local food production systems, enhance their resilience, and create a circular economy focused on soil restoration through carbon sequestration, on-farm cycling of nutrients,...

Background: Cover cropping appears as a useful land management practice with numerous benefits for ecosystem functions. Aim: The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of different winter cover crops on soil microbial biomass, activity, and community composition in intensively managed agriculture systems as function of cover crop di...

Aggregation affects soil properties crucial for sustainable soil management and productivity. However, longer-term studies (> five years) of treatments to enhance soil aggregation, such as addition of biochar with labile carbon to derive microbial binding agents, are limited, especially in temperate climates. To fill this gap, we established a fiel...

Hydrogen isotope analyses of leaf wax n-alkanes (δ2Hn-alkane) are widely applied to reconstruct paleoclimate changes. To date, it has proved difficult to disentangle past changes in the isotopic signal of precipitation (δ2Hp) and other fractionation factors, e.g. evapo-transpirative enrichment. Oxygen isotopes from hemicellulose sugars (δ18Osugar)...

Biochar is known for its effects on carbon sequestration and soil fertility. However, there is a lack of information about its effects on soil physical and hydraulic properties for tropical soils. We assessed the effects of biochar (BC) plus sugar cane filter cake (FC) rate, and time of interaction on soil physical and hydraulic properties under hu...

Molecular fossils, like bacterial branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs), and the stable isotopic composition of biomarkers, such as δ2H of leaf wax-derived n-alkanes (δ2Hn-alkane) or δ18O of hemicellulose-derived sugars (δ18Osugar), are increasingly used for the reconstruction of past climate and environmental conditions. Plant-d...

East Africa is an underrepresented region in respect of monitoring the stable isotopic composition of precipitation (δ¹⁸Oprec and δ²Hprec). In 2017, we collected precipitation samples from ten weather stations located along an altitudinal transect ranging from 1304 to 4375 m a.s.l. The δ¹⁸Oprec and δ²Hprec values varied from –8.7 to +3.7 ‰ and –38...

DNA methylation is involved in many different biological processes in the development and well-being of crop plants such as transposon activation, heterosis, environment-dependent transcriptome plasticity, aging, and many diseases. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing is an excellent technology for detecting and quantifying DNA methylation patterns in...

The hydrogen isotopic composition of leaf wax-derived n-alkanes (δ2Hn-alkanes) is a widely applied proxy for (paleo)climatic changes. It has been suggested that the coupling with the oxygen isotopic composition of hemicellulose-derived sugars (δ18Osugar) - an approach dubbed 'paleohygrometer' - might allow more robust and quantitative (paleo)hydrol...

The hydrogen isotopic composition of leaf wax-derived biomarkers, e.g. long chain n-alkanes (δ2Hn-alkane), is widely applied in paleoclimatology research. However, a direct reconstruction of the isotopic composition of paleoprecipitation based on δ2Hn-alkane alone can be challenging due to the overprint of the source water isotopic signal by leaf-w...

Erica is a dominant vegetation type in many sub-afroalpine ecosystems, such as the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia. However, the past extent of Erica is not well known and climate versus anthropogenic influence on altitudinal shifts are difficult to assign unambiguously, especially during the Holocene. The main objective of the present study is to chemo...

Today, on the Sanetti Plateau in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia, only fragmented patches of Erica species can be found at high altitudes (between 3900 and 4200 m a.s.l.). However, it is hypothesized that during the later part of the last glacial period and the early Holocene the plateau was extensively covered by Erica shrubs. Furthermore, it is as...

Studies of early human settlement in alpine environments provide insights into human physiological, genetic, and cultural adaptation potentials. Although Late and even Middle Pleistocene human presence has been recently documented on the Tibetan Plateau, little is known regarding the nature and context of early persistent human settlement in high e...

Fire is the most frequent disturbance in the Ericaceous Belt (ca. 3000-4300 m asl), one of the most important plant communities of tropical African mountains. Through resprouting after fire, Erica establishes a positive fire feedback under certain burning regimes. However, present-day human activity in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia includes fire a...

Substitution of mineral fertilizers with organic soil amendments is postulated to improve productivity‐relevant soil properties such as aggregation and organic matter (OM) content. However, there is a lack of studies analyzing the effects of biochar and biogas digestate versus mineral fertilizer on soil aggregation and OM dynamics under temperate f...

: Despite the fact that the vegetation pattern and history of the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia were reconstructed using pollen, little is known about the former extent of Erica species. The main objective of the present study is to identify unambiguous chemical proxies from plant-derived phenolic compounds to characterize Erica and other keystone spe...

Little is known on the effects of biochar on N uptake and amino acid variability in crops such as winter rye and narrow-leafed lupine despite the fact that amino acids are important indicators, for food quality and plant stress. N uptake of both crops showed contrasting results when treated with different biochar fertilizers. Total amino acid conte...

Inspired by a previous ‘Sauna, sweat and science’ study [Zech et al. Isot Environ Health Stud. 2015;51(3):439–447] and out of curiosity and enthusiasm for stable isotope and sauna research we aimed at answering the question ‘do we sweat (isotopically) what we drink’? We, therefore, pulse-labelled five test persons in a sauna experiment with beverag...

Phosphorus (P) is a limiting nutrient for plants and an essential element for all life on Earth. As the resources of phosphate rock are depleting, new management tools for environmentally friendly P fertilizers are needed. In order to achieve this, recent studies have proposed to use biochar, a carbon-rich solid product of thermochemical conversion...

Molecular fossils, like bacterial branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs), and the stable isotopic composition of biomarkers, such as δ²H of leaf wax-derived n-alkanes (δ²Hn-alkane) or δ¹⁸O of hemicellulose-derived sugars (δ¹⁸Osugar) are increasingly used for the reconstruction of past climate and environmental conditions. Plant-de...

Various organic amendments are scrutinized as potential agricultural management strategies to ensure soil productivity while mitigating climate change due to the accumulation of soil organic matter (OM). The objectives of this experiment were to study the effects of biochar and biogas digestate versus mineral fertilizer on crop aboveground biomass...

Causes of the Late Glacial to Early Holocene transition phase and particularly the Younger Dryas period, i.e. the major last cold spell in central Europe during the Late Glacial, are considered to be keys for understanding rapid natural climate change in the past. The sediments from maar lakes in the Eifel, Germany, have turned out to be valuable a...

The application of biochar is promising for improving the physical, chemical and hydrological properties of soil. However, there are few studies regarding the influence of biochar particle size. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of biochar size on the physical, chemical and hydrological properties in sandy and loamy tropical soils. Fo...