
Catharina MeinenUniversity of Göttingen | GAUG · Division of Agronomy
Catharina Meinen
Dr.
About
23
Publications
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2011 - present
Publications
Publications (23)
Purpose
The current knowledge of belowground interactions in intercropping systems is limited due to methodological constraints. The current study aimed to investigate cereal-brassica and cereal-legume-brassica cover crop mixtures regarding mixture effects on root and shoot biomass as well as root traits, vertical root niche differentiation, and co...
Conservation tillage is often discussed as an effective tool to improve the soil quality in agriculture. Four sites across Europe (in Germany, Romania, Spain, and Sweden) were investigated as case studies for country-specific reductions in tillage intensity. Conventional tillage (CT) by mouldboard ploughing was compared with shallow and deep non-in...
Purpose
Mixtures of cover crops are gaining importance in farming systems. While complementarity between species is a potentially important mechanism underlying mixture benefits, there is little quantitative evidence about complementarity of root growth. Therefore, we aimed to gain detailed knowledge about mixture effects of specific root traits....
The limited availability of phosphorus (P) in soils causes a major constraint in the productivity of potatoes, which requires increased knowledge of plant adaptation responses in this condition. In this study, six potato cultivars, namely, Agria, Lady Claire, Milva, Lilly, Sieglinde, and Verdi, were assessed for their responses on plant growth, lea...
Grassland mixtures hold the potential for increasing biomass and productivity. In a field experiment, monocultures and mixtures of eight white clover (Trifolium repens L.) genotypes and perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) were analyzed over three years (2015, 2016, and 2018) for their species-specific aboveground and belowground biomass. Roots w...
The spatial root distribution of plant species is generally altered by intra- and interspecific competition. The assessment of species specific root distribution in intercrops was limited so far because of the difficulties to identify roots on a species level. We investigated horizontal and vertical root distribution of eight winter faba bean genot...
Background and aims
Legume-cereal mixtures are often characterized by higher biomass and grain yields compared to their sole crop equivalents due to complementary resource use. Little is known about the contribution of the root system to this overyielding potential and the related cultivar differences. This study investigated pure stands and mixtur...
The differentiation of roots of agricultural species is desired for a deeper understanding of the belowground root interaction which helps to understand the complex interaction in intercropping and crop-weed systems. The roots can be reliably differentiated via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR). In...
Weißklee-Weidelgras Gemenge zeichnen sich häufig durch stabilere und höhere Erträge aus als ihre jeweiligen Reinsaaten. Dies könnte auf eine Nischendifferenzierung beider Arten im ober- und unterirdischen Bereich hindeuten. In einem Feldversuch (4-fach wiederholt, Spaltanlage, Aussaat 2014) in der Nähe von Göttingen wurden 8 Weißklee-Genotypen (GT...
Intercrops often demonstrate higher yields compared to their sole
crops due to complementary resource use e.g. in light or
nutrients. Another reason for this effect could be a differing
rooting system of both intercropping partners and therefore a
shift in rooting patterns resulting in root mass overyielding. To
study these species-specific rooting...
Root discrimination of species is a pre-condition for studying belowground competition processes between crop and weed species. In this experiment, we tested Fourier transform mid-infrared (FT MIR)-attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectroscopy to discriminate roots of closely related crop and weed species grown in the greenhouse: maize/barnyard gr...
In order to understand plant functioning, plant community composition, and terrestrial biogeochemistry, it is decisive to study standing root biomass, (fine) root dynamics, and interactions belowground. While most plant taxa can be identified by visual criteria aboveground, roots show less distinctive features. Furthermore, root systems of neighbor...
Crop and weed species often compete for the same resources. To analyse below-ground competitive processes, crop and weed roots have to be distinguished from one another. Up to now, a reliable and easy method for plant root discrimination does not exist. In a recent study, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with an attenuated total refle...
Background
Studying root biomass, root system distribution and belowground interactions is essential for understanding the composition of plant communities, the impact of global change, and terrestrial biogeochemistry. Most soil samples and minirhizotron pictures hold roots of more than one species or plant individual. The identification of taxa b...
In contrast to studies on aboveground processes, the effect of species diversity on belowground productivity and fine-root
regrowth after disturbance is still poorly studied in forests. In 12 old-growth broad-leaved forest stands, we tested the
hypotheses that (i) the productivity and recovery rate (regrowth per standing biomass) of the fine-root s...
Differences in spatial rooting patterns among coexisting species have been recognized as an important mechanism for generating biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning. However, it is not yet clear whether complementarity in root space exploration is a universal characteristic of multi-species woody communities. In a temperate broad-leaved for...
Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning in forests have only recently attracted increasing attention. The vast majority of studies in forests have focused on above-ground responses to differences in tree species diversity, while systematic analyses of the effects of biodiversity on root systems are virtually non-existent. By investigating the...
We investigated the link between aboveground and belowground diversity in forest ecosystems. Therefore, we determined the effect of tree composition on amount and composition of the soil microbial community using phospholipid fatty acid profiles in the Hainich National Park in Thuringia, a deciduous mixed forest on loess over limestone in Central G...