Florian Wilken

• Dr. rer. nat.
• PostDoc Position at University of Augsburg

Soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in temperate regions are highly affected by lateral soil fluxes induced by soil erosion. SOC dynamics in eroding tropical cropland systems characterized by deeply weathered soils and heterogeneous small-scale subsistence farming structures, however, are not well understood yet. Along topographic gradients in the E...

The use of plastic films has been growing in agriculture, benefiting consumers and producers. However, concerns have been raised about the environmental impact of plastic film use, with mulching films posing a greater threat than greenhouse films. This calls for large-scale monitoring of different plastic film uses. We used cloud computing, freely...

Understanding microplastics' (MPs) transport from soils to aquatic ecosystems is challenging due to labor-intensive detection methods, especially in large-scale plot experiments analyzing surface runoff and soil erosion. To address this, we used fluorescent MPs as tracers and developed a cost-effective protocol to detect them in dry soils and erode...

Timely crop monitoring and yield prediction are essential in guiding management decision making. The aim of the study was to estimate the agronomic traits of paddy rice (Oryza sativa L.) using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)‐multispectral imaging. A randomized complete block design field experiment with a split–split plot arrangement was set up in th...

Arable soils may play an important role in climate mitigation actions as soil management directly affects carbon (C) sequestration and mineralisation. To evaluate the C sequestration potential in hilly terrain it is essential that not only changes in vertical C fluxes (more C input and/or reduced mineralisation), but also lateral soil organic carbo...

Soil is polluted with plastic waste from macro to submicron level. Our understanding of macroplastics (> 5 mm) occurrence and behavior has remained comparatively elusive, mainly due to a lack of a tracing mechanism. This study set up a methodology to trace macroplastic displacement, which combined magnetic iron oxide-tagged soil and macroplastic pi...

In the last decades, soils and their agricultural management have received great scientific and political attention due to their potential to act as a sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Agricultural management has strong potential to accelerate soil redistribution, and, therefore, it is questioned if soil redistribution processes affect this...

Soil is polluted with plastic waste from macro to submicron level, and research has intensified on the fate and transport of plastic with more focused particulate plastic, including fibers (<5mm). Yet, our understanding of macroplastic (>5mm) occurrence and behavior has remained comparatively elusive, mainly due to a lack of tracing mechanism. This...

In the last decades, soils and their agricultural management have received great scientific and political attention due to their associated potential to act as sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). It is questioned if soil redistribution processes affect this potential CO2 sink function, as agricultural management has a strong potential to acce...

Centre-pivot systems are widely used for irrigation in agriculture. However, excessive water application rates under low pressure centre-pivot systems can lead to soil erosion, which degrades soil structure and increases crop vulnerability to droughts. Although efforts have been deployed to measure soil erosion underneath individual centre pivots,...

Centre-pivot systems are widely used for irrigation in agriculture. However, excessive water application rates under low pressure centre-pivot systems can lead to soil erosion, which degrades soil structure and increases crop vulnerability to droughts. Although efforts have been deployed to measure soil erosion underneath individual centre-pivots,...

Tillage erosion is a widely underestimated process initiating soil degradation especially in case of large agricultural fields located in rolling topography. It is often assumed that, conservation, non-inversion tillage causes less tillage erosion than conventional inversion tillage. In this study, tillage erosion was determined on three paired plo...

The file “Oettl_et_al_data.csv” contains 21 variables describing the translocation of radiofrequency identification transponder (RFID) glass tags during tillage experiments with a chisel and a mouldboard plough. The last four variables contain properties of the three experimental sites differing in slope (gentle, moderate, and steep slope). More in...

Tillage erosion is known to be a major soil degradation process that is mainly associated with increasingly mechanised agriculture since the early 1950s. However, especially soil truncation on convex hilltops and slope shoulders can be already identified on historical aerial photos of our study region in Northeast Germany from the 1950s. The aim of...

Soil erosion on arable land is one of the major long-term degradation processes of soil resources in Central Europe. Climate change has driven an increase of rainfall erosivity due to a higher frequency and magnitude of heavy rainfall events. However, changes in rainfall properties also cause vegetation feedback to management changes. The climate c...

The African Tropics are hotspots of modern-day land use change and are, at the same time, of great relevance for the cycling of carbon (C) and nutrients between plants, soils, and the atmosphere. However, the consequences of land conversion on biogeochemical cycles are still largely unknown as they are not studied in a landscape context that define...

Due to the rapidly growing population in tropical Africa, a substantial rise in food demand is predicted in upcoming decades, which will result in higher pressure on soil resources. However, there is limited knowledge on soil redistribution dynamics following land conversion into arable land in tropical Africa that is partly caused by infrastructur...

The African Tropics are hotspots of modern-day land-use change and are, at the same time, of great relevance for the cycling of carbon (C) and nutrients between plants, soils and the atmosphere. However, the consequences of land conversion on biogeochemical cycles are still largely unknown as they are not studied in a landscape context that defines...

Tillage erosion causes substantial soil redistribution that can exceed water erosion especially in hummocky landscapes under highly mechanized large field agriculture. Consequently, truncated soil profiles can be found on hill shoulders and top slopes, whereas colluvial material is accumulated at footslopes, in depressions, and along downslope fiel...

Soil organic matter (SOM) is essential for preserving a healthy soil that provides good soil structure and high fertility and water -holding capacity [...]

Rising human activity in the Arctic, combined with a warming climate, increases the probability of introduction and establishment of alien plant species. While settlements are known hotspots for persistent populations, little is known about colonization of particularly susceptible natural habitats. Systematic monitoring is lacking and available sur...

Due to the rapidly growing population in tropical Africa, a substantial rise in food demand is predicted in upcoming decades, which will result in higher pressure on soil resources. However, there is limited knowledge on soil redistribution dynamics following land conversion to arable land in tropical Africa that is partly caused by challenging loc...

Soil redistribution on arable land is a major threat for a sustainable use of soil resources. The majority of soil redistribution studies focus on water erosion, while wind and tillage erosion also induce pronounced redistribution of soil materials. Tillage erosion especially is understudied, as it does not lead to visible off-site damages. The ana...

Connectivity has been embraced by the geosciences community as a useful concept to understand and describe hydrological functioning and sediment movement through catchments. Mathematical modelling has been used for decades to quantify and predict erosion and transport of sediments, e.g. in scenarios of land use change or conservation measures. Bein...

In the European Union, soil erosion is identified as one of the main environmental threats, addressed with a variety of rules and regulations for soil and water conservation. The by far most often officially used tool to determine soil erosion is the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and its regional adaptions. The aim of this study is to use thr...

Abstract. Soil redistribution on arable land is a major threat for a sustainable use of soil resources. The soil redistribution process most studies focus on is water erosion, while wind and tillage erosion also induce pronounced redistribution of soil materials. Especially, tillage erosion is understudied, as it does not lead to visible off-site d...

Tropical ecosystems and the soils therein have been reported as one of the most important and largest terrestrial carbon (C) pools and are considered important climate regulator. Carbon stabilization mechanisms in these ecosystems are often complex, as these mechanisms crucially rely on the interplay of geology, topography, climate, and biology. Fu...

Soil mineralogy plays an important role in stabilizing soil organic carbon (SOC) against decomposition by forming organo-mineral complexes with reactive mineral surfaces. However, few studies take the influence of parent material geochemistry on the development of C stabilization mechanisms into account. In addition, studies evaluating C stabilizat...

Images captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and processed by structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry are increasingly used in geomorphology to obtain high-resolution topography data. Conventional georeferencing using ground control points (GCPs) provides reliable positioning, but the geometrical accuracy critically depends on the number a...

Watershed studies are essential for erosion research because they embed real agricultural practices, heterogeneity along the flow path, and realistic field sizes and layouts. An extensive literature review covering publications from 1970 to 2018 identified a prominent lack of studies, which (i) observed watersheds that are small enough to address r...

The topographic data consists of two parts Part 1 – Topography (elevation, slope, aspect), corresponding field and watershed information at 5 m x 5 m resolution can be found in file 21_Topo5m.csv while the description is given in 21_Topo5m.pdf. Part 2 – Topography (elevation, slope, aspect), corresponding field and watershed information at 12.5 m...

The land use data consists of six parts: Part 1 – Land use before 1993: The file 41_LandUse1993.zip contains a polygon file (ArcGIS shape) of the field layout and land use before restructuring the farm to improve agricultural and ecological performance. The file can be displayed by Geographic Information Systems. The data description can be found...

The meteorological data consist of six parts: Part 1 – Locations of meteorological stations: Coordinates and elevation of the 13 meteorological stations at the Scheyern experimental farm can be found in file 31_MeteoStationLocations.csv while the description is given in 31_MeteoStationLocations.pdf. Part 2 – Hourly (partly two-hourly) meteorolog...

The runoff and sediment delivery data are split into five parts: Part 1 – Watershed data: The data set contains size and outlet coordinates as well as vector data for the location of the 14 watersheds. The data are stored in the files 51_WatershedData.csv and 51_WatershedData.zip; the meta data can be found in 51_WatershedData.pdf. Part 2 – Runo...

The rainfall simulation data are split into three parts: Part 1 – Plot property data: The data set contains 38 properties of 57 rainfall simulation plots. The data can be found in file 61_PlotData.csv while the description is given in 61_PlotData.pdf. Part 2 – Simulation conditions: The data set contains a total of 15 properties determined for 11...

The soil data is split into five parts Part 1 – Soil profile data: The data set contains 15 properties of entire soil profiles determined at 606 locations. The data is stored in file 11_SoilProfilData.csv while meta data can be found in 11_SoilProfilData.pdf. Part 2 – Soil horizon data: The data set contains a total of 46 soil properties determin...

Dear Colleagues, Soil organic carbon (SOC) in croplands is responsive to changes in management and/or land use. Over the last decades, a substantial inter-and intrafield variability has developed, impacting food security and with the potential for negative CO2 emissions. Visible and near-infrared (visNIR) spectroscopy is a high-throughput tool nece...

Hummocky landscapes under intensive arable use are substantially affected by erosion processes. Especially in areas of limited precipitation and highly mechanized large field farming, tillage erosion causes substantial soil erosion that can distinctively exceed water erosion. In consequence, truncated soil profiles can be found on hilltops and stee...

This session aims to encourage remote sensing researchers from the perspective of different disciplines (soil scientist, agronomist and agricultural engineer) to share and present their relevant research in sensing technologies applied to agriculture. SSS10.3 session emphasize remote sensing studies (e.g. soil diagnostics and crop monitoring) to...

Images captured by Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and processed by Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry are increasingly used in geomorphology to obtain high resolution topography data. Conventional georeferencing using ground control points (GCPs) provides reliable positioning but the geometrical accuracy critically depends on the number and...

The Northeast German Lowland Observatory (TERENO-NE) was established to investigate the regional impact of climate and land use change. TERENO-NE focuses on the Northeast German lowlands, for which a high vulnerability has been determined due to increasing temperatures and decreasing amounts of precipitation projected for the coming decades. To fac...

The Northeast German Lowland Observatory (TERENO-NE) was established to investigate the regional impact of global change. TERENO-NE focuses on the Northeast German lowlands, for which a high vulnerability has been determined due to increasing temperatures and decreasing amounts of precipitation projected for the coming decades. In order to facilita...

For bare soil conditions, the most important process driving and initiating splash and interrill erosion is the detachment of soil particles via raindrop impact. The kinetic energy of a rainfall event is controlled by the drop size and fall velocity distribution, which is often directly or indirectly implemented in erosion models. Therefore, numero...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the largest terrestrial carbon (C) pool and has been identified as a cornerstone for the global C cycle. Alterations in the soil-atmosphere flux have substantial implications for climate change and can be an atmospheric C sink or source. Over the past decades, global estimates on the role of soil erosion on SOC dynamics...

Tillage erosion on arable land is a very important process leading to a net downslope movement of soil and soil constitutes. Tillage erosion rates are commonly in the same order of magnitude as water erosion rates and can be even higher, especially under highly mechanized agricultural soil management. Despite its prevalence and magnitude, tillage e...

Recently, connectivity has emerged as a promising concept to understand the transfer of water and sediment in a catchment. Both structural connectivity – i.e. representing the connectivity of system properties such as the (micro)topography, and functional connectivity – i.e. representing connections that may change and evolve over time such as soil...

India's rapid population and economic growth leads to fast changing land use and management practices that have a major impact on the environment. Therefore, this study assesses spatio-temporal dynamics of land use and cropping frequencies using moderate resolution spaceborne data (Landsat 7 and LISS III). Based on a hierarchical knowledge-based cl...

Coupled modelling of soil erosion, carbon redistribution, and turnover has received great attention over the last decades due to large uncertainties regarding erosion-induced carbon fluxes. For a process-oriented representation of event dynamics, coupled soil–carbon erosion models have been developed. However, there are currently few models that re...

Over the last few decades, soil erosion and carbon redistribution modelling has received a lot of attention due to large uncertainties and conflicting results. For a physically based representation of event dynamics, coupled soil and carbon erosion models have been developed. However, there is a lack of research utilizing models which physically re...

Over the last few decades, modelling soil erosion and carbon redistribution has received great attention due to large uncertainties and conflicting results. For a process-oriented representation of event dynamics, coupled soil-carbon erosion models have been developed. However, there are currently few models that represent tillage erosion, preferen...

The ratio of leaf area to ground area (leaf area index, LAI) is an important state variable in ecosystem studies since it influences fluxes of matter and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere. As a basis for generating temporally continuous and spatially distributed datasets of LAI, the current study contributes an analysis of its spat...

Floating macrophytes, including water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), are dominant invasive organisms in tropical aquatic systems, and they may play an important role in modifying the gas exchange between water and the atmosphere. However, these systems are underrepresented in global datasets of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study investiga...

For detection and quantification of changes in erosion and related matter fluxes a novel monitoring approach at different spatial scales is applied. Two lysimeter hexagons, as part of the TERENO-SoilCan project, quantify the pedon water and matter dynamics at non-eroded, eroded and colluvial sites. These data allow for upscaling processes and fluxe...

The discrepancy between the time scales at which soil redistribution processes and SOC turnover occur is an unresolved issue in erosion related carbon turnover modeling. The use of a static average erosion rate (e.g. revised universal soil loss equation; RUSLE) ignores event dynamic processes of (i) SOC enrichment during erosion, transport and depo...

Accurate rainfall data are of prime importance for many environmental applications. To provide spatially distributed rainfall data, point measurements are interpolated. However, in low density measurement networks, the use of different interpolation methods may result in large differences and hence in deviations from the actual spatial distribution...