Miriam Athmann

• Professor
• Head of Department at University of Kassel

Depth and architecture of root systems play a prominent role in crop productivity under conditions of low water and nutrient availability. The subsoil contains high amounts of nutrients that may potentially serve for nutrient uptake by crops including finite resources such as phosphorus that have to be used in moderation to delay their exhaustion....

With the increase of organic agriculture throughout Europe, there is also an increasing share of stockless organic farms. On mixed farms, growth of deep rooting perennial forage legumes or legume-grass mixtures as well as farmyard manure are important contributors to soil fertility and play a key role for nutrient management. On stockless farms, gr...

Earthworm abundance and species composition were quantified in a long-term field experiment in two different stockless organic farm systems and a typical organic mixed farm system after the first crop rotation of six years. Earthworm abundance was highest in the two-year clover-grass of the mixed farm system using slurry and composted manure as fer...

The potential of soils to maintain biological productivity, defined as soil health, is strongly influenced by human activity, such as agriculture. Therefore, soil management has always been a concern for sustainable agriculture and new methods that account for both soil health and crop yield must be found. Biofertilization using microbial inoculant...

Agricultural production in Central Europe increasingly suffers from extreme drought events. Improving root access to nutrient and water resources in the subsoil below the plow layer is a potential option to maintain productivity during dry summers. Here, we tested a strip-wise subsoil amelioration method that combines subsoil loosening with organic...

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...

There is an urgent need for sustainable intensification and adaptation strategies for European agriculture to face future challenges of food supplies in the face of increased incidences of heat waves and drought conditions. In addition to the cultivation of plants better adapted to drought conditions, one possible strategy could be to use available...

In 2017 the university of Kassel established a long term field experiment on the experimental farm of Kassel University (Hesse/ Germany). In this field experiment three different stockless organic farm systems are under research and compared to a typical organic mixed farm system, which keeps livestock. These systems differ on the crop rotations, e...

Plant root traits play a crucial role in resource acquisition and crop performance when soil nutrient availability is low. However, the respective trait responses are complex, particularly at the field scale, and poorly understood due to difficulties in root phenotyping monitoring, inaccurate sampling, and environmental conditions. Here, we conduct...

Abstract Background When a dihydrate cupric chloride solution is crystallized in a petri dish in the presence of extracts of food products, dendritic crystal patterns emerge. The degree of growth, ripening and decomposition of the product is reflected in these patterns as salient unities (gestalts) of phenomenological features. In the present study...

Soil biopore genesis is a dynamic and context-dependent process. Yet integrative investigations of biopore genesis under varying soil type, tillage and vegetation history are rare. Recent advances in Machine Learning (ML) made faster and more accurate image analysis possible. We validated a model trained on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) using...

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are a powerful tool for plant image analysis, but challenges remain in making them more accessible to researchers without a machine‐learning background. We present RootPainter, an open‐source graphical user interface based software tool for the rapid training of deep neural networks for use in biological image a...

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....

Accurate prediction of root growth and related resource uptake is crucial to accurately simulate crop growth especially under unfavorable environmental conditions. We coupled a 1D field-scale crop-soil model running in the SIMPLACE modeling framework with the 3D architectural root model CRootbox on a daily time step and implemented a stress functio...

Different methods have been proposed for in situ root-length density (RLD) measurement. One widely employed is the time-consuming sampling of soil cores or monoliths (MO). The profile wall (PW) method is a less precise, but faster and less laborious alternative. However, depth-differentiated functions to convert PW RLD estimates to MO RLD measureme...

Background and aims The image-forming methods copper chloride crystallization, capillary dynamolysis and circular chromatography are presented as an instrument for assessing wine quality. Wine quality of samples from a long-term field trial comparing integrated, organic and biodynamic management were investigated by using image-forming methods and...

A column experiment with five different pore densities (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 pores column⁻¹) and two varying moisture regimes (comparatively dry and comparatively moist regime) in the subsoil part of the columns was established. In each pore, Lumbricus terrestris was introduced for 28 days before sowing wheat plants. After 40 days of plant growth, wat...

In the image forming methods, copper chloride crystallization (CCCryst), capillary dynamolysis (CapDyn), and circular chromatography (CChrom), characteristic patterns emerge in response to different food extracts. These patterns reflect the resistance to decomposition as an aspect of resilience and are therefore used in product quality assessment c...

Purpose Precrops exhibit vigorous deep root growth, especially when grown perennially. However, their contribution to accumulate essential nutrients derived from deeper soil layers in the topsoil has not been quantified. We determined the vertical distribution of phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) affected by contrasting root systems of 3 precrops a...

The scale of root quantification in research is often limited by the time required for sampling, measurement and processing samples. Recent developments in Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have made faster and more accurate plant image analysis possible which may significantly reduce the time required for root measurement, but challenges remain...

There is an increasing interest in a systemic approach to food quality. From this perspective, the copper chloride crystallization method is an interesting asset as it enables an estimation of a sample’s ‘resilience’ in response to controlled degradation. In previous studies, we showed that an ISO-standardized visual evaluation panel could correctl...

In low input agriculture, a thorough understanding of the plant-nutrient interactions plays a central role. This study aims to investigate the effects of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) and liming omission on shoot growth as well as on topsoil root biomass, growth and morphology (tuber and fibrous roots) of sugar beet grown under fi...

Biopores provide nutrients from root debris and earthworm casts. Inside large biopores, root function is limited due to the lack of root–soil contact. However, the immediate surroundings of biopores may hold a key function as “hotspots” for root growth in the subsoil. To date, sufficient quantitative information on the distribution of roots and nut...

Deeper root growth can be induced by increased biopore density. In this study, we aimed to compare deep root traits of two winter crops in field conditions in response to altered biopore density as affected by crop sequence. Two fodder crop species-chicory and tall fescue-were grown for two consecutive years as preceding crops (pre-crops). Root tra...

The scale of root quantification in research is often limited by the time required for sampling, measurement and processing samples. Recent developments in Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have made faster and more accurate plant image analysis possible which may significantly reduce the time required for root measurement, but challenges remain...

Many benefits of cover crops such as prevention of nitrate leaching, erosion reduction, soil organic carbon enhancement and improvement of soil structure are associated with roots. However, including root characteristics as a criterion for cover crop selection requires more knowledge on their root growth dynamics. Seven cover crop species (crimson...

Many benefits of cover crops such as prevention of nitrate leaching, erosion reduction, soil organic carbon enhancement and improvement of soil structure are associated with roots. However, including root characteristics as a criterion for cover crop selection requires more knowledge on their root growth dynamics. Seven cover crop species (crimson...

In recent years, the interest in subsoil has increased, since it can hold immense reservoirs of nutrients, organic matter and water. The subsoil can therefore provide important ecosystem services for the agricultural production system and beyond. This paper assesses the sustainability of two subsoil management measures with regard to the delivery o...

Aim: The image forming methods biocrystallisation, capillary dynamolysis and circular chromatography are introduced as a complementary tool for grape quality assessment. These methods were used to investigate grape juice samples from a long-term field trial comparing integrated, organic and biodynamic viticultural practices. Methods and results: Ch...

We present RootPainter, a GUI-based software tool for the rapid training of deep neural networks for use in biological image analysis. RootPainter facilitates both fully-automatic and semi-automatic image segmentation. We investigate the effectiveness of RootPainter using three plant image datasets, evaluating its potential for root length extracti...

Soil-borne plant diseases are a major source of crop losses. Biologically active soils have the ability to suppress pathogenic infections of plants, but little is known how this essential soil function might be affected by abiotic stresses. Using a model system with pea and its fungal pathogen Pythium ultimum we studied how the sup-pressiveness of...

Aim: The effects of integrated, organic and biodynamic management on soil quality and the growth and morphological development of Riesling grapevines were assessed during the first 4 years of a long-term field trial in Geisenheim, Germany. The overall aim was to understand the effects of these different viticultural practices on soil quality and pl...

Water and nutrients in the subsoil are valuable resources in crop production but the availability varies with weather conditions and management, in particular the crop rotation. Moreover, constraints such as mechanical resistance or water stress may impede root growth into deeper soil layers. This study presents a simulation-based stochastic approa...

Large-sized biopores in the subsoil can provide rapid access to deeper soil layers and potentially enhance nutrient acquisition. Besides site conditions, the extent of these effects depends on crop root architecture. The aim of this study was to compare barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) and...

This study examined the effect of stripwise subsoiling and subsoiling combined with the incorporation of organic material on crop development in a two-year field trial with typical weather in the first year and hot, dry weather in the second. Subsoiling and its combination with incorporated organic materials had strong effects on plant development...

Core Ideas A 3D soil–root model was used to investigate root–biopore interactions. Known effects of biopores on root growth, i.e., increased root length and depth were reproduced. Despite reducing root–soil contact, biopores led to increased water uptake in dry periods. Biopores had a larger impact on water uptake for more compact and less conducti...

Biocrystallization images are formed in reaction with foods; in the course of the evaporation of the water from food extracts in presence of copper chloride, crystalline structures are formed. The structures are known to reflect food quality, such as degree of decomposition. Individual expert evaluators have suggested that crystallization images of...

In arable fields, biopores are primarily formed by taproots, but may also be bored by earthworms. Irrespective of the pore origin, repeated use by anecic earthworms yields a wall coating that is rich in carbon, nutrients and microorganisms. However, this effect is halted by routine tillage, and it remains unclear how quickly earthworms are able to...

Root exudates shape microbial communities at the plant soil interface. Here we compared bacterial communities that utilise plant-derived carbon in the rhizosphere of wheat in different soil depths, including topsoil, as well as two subsoil layers up to 1 m depth. The experiment was performed in a green house using soil monoliths with intact soil st...

In this study, the effects on grape juice quality resulting from the conversion of vineyard plots from integrated to organic and biodynamic management vs. integrated management were assessed using image forming methods. In addition, grape yield, Botrytis infection and the chemical composition of wood prunings and grapes were assessed. The images of...

The spatial heterogeneity of nutrient turnover in subsoils has been rarely studied in the past, although drilosphere and rhizosphere are found to be important microbial hotspots in this oligotrophic environment. In this study, we measured different potential enzyme activities in different soil compartments of subsoil and topsoil. It could be shown...

The biocrystallization method is based on the phenomenon that additive-specific, dendritic crystallization patterns emerge when an aqueous dihydrate cupric chloride solution with additives is crystallized on a glass plate. The patterns reflect physiological processes like ripening and decomposition and are applied in differentiating food samples ac...

Using the profile wall method, we determined the root-length density (RLD) of barley roots growing in large-sized biopores (diameter >2 mm) and in the bulk soil of a Haplic Luvisol down to 200 cm of soil depth. The maximum bulk density in the soil profile (1.52 g cm−3) was recorded in the Bt horizon (41–115 cm of soil depth). The proportion of RLD...

Background and aims The significance of biopores for nutrient acquisition from the subsoil depends on root-soil contact, which in turn is influenced by root architecture. The aim of this study was to detect differences regarding the architecture and root-soil contact of homorhizous barley roots (Hordeum vulgare L.) and allorhizous oilseed rape root...

Large sized biopores (diameter >2 mm) in the subsoil can be created by tap roots, which leave voids after their decay, or by the burrowing activity of anecic earthworms which may benefit from the temporary lack in tillage in perennial cropping systems. However, the interactions between root growth and earthworm activity in the process of biopore fo...

Using image forming methods, products from organic and conventional origin have been discriminated with high accuracy, but the meaning of these differences in terms of product quality is so far poorly understood. The aim of the presented study is therefore to gain further insights into the suitability of image forming methods for food quality evalu...

Effects of nitrogen supply (high / low), fertilizer type (biodynamic / organic / mineral) and application of the biodynamic horn silica p reparation on nitrate, ascorbic acid and gluco-sinolate contents of rocket (Eruca sativa L.) were studied under conditions of full sunlight increased in response to shading and under conditions of full sunlight a...

Ten encoded grape samples from 2006 were taken from a long-term field trial on the comparison of different organic and conventional production systems at Geisenheim, Germany. The samples were examined with the picture forming methods biocrystallization according to Pfeiffer, capillary dynamolysis according to Wala and circular chromatography accord...

By combined application of the three picture forming methods biocrystallization ac-cording to Pfeiffer, capillary dynamolisis according to Wala and circular chromatogra-phy according to Pfeiffer encoded food samples from different production systems have been repeatedly differentiated and identified by Dr. Ursula Graf. In the present study we teste...

1 und U. Köpke 1 Abstract: By combined application of the three picture forming methods biocrystallization ac- cording to Pfeiffer, capillary dynamolisis according to Wala and circular chromatogra- phy according to Pfeiffer encoded food samples from different production systems have been repeatedly differentiated and identified by Dr. Ursula Graf....

Ziel des Projekts war die Analyse von Umweltwirkungen und Wirtschaftlichkeit unterschiedlicher Typen von ökologisch wirtschaftenden Milchviehbetrieben in Deutschland. Im Vordergrund standen dabei die Auswirkungen unterschiedlicher Fütterungsintensität. Es wurden sechs modellhafte Betriebstypen formuliert, um die Bandbreite der Produktionssysteme in...