Thomas Döring

Thomas Döring
University of Bonn | Uni Bonn · Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES)

PhD

About

239
Publications
68,227
Reads
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3,802
Citations
Citations since 2017
83 Research Items
2373 Citations
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Introduction
I studied Landscape Ecology at Münster University and received a PhD in organic agriculture from Kassel University. After postdocs in insect visual physiology and behaviour at Queen Mary University London and Imperial College London, I led the Crops Programme at the Organic Research Centre (UK). From 2013 to 2017 I was lecturer of agronomy at Humboldt University Berlin. I am now leading the Agroecology and Organic Farming group at University of Bonn.
Additional affiliations
October 2017 - present
University of Bonn
Position
  • Professor (Full)
April 2013 - May 2016
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Position
  • Lecturer
April 2009 - March 2013
Organic Research Centre
Position
  • Principal Investigator
Description
  • Leading the crops research team at ORC. My main research topics were (1) evolutionary plant breeding; (2) forage legumes; (3) reduced tillage in organic farming; and (4) health concepts in agriculture.
Education
April 2000 - December 2004
Universität Kassel
Field of study
  • Organic Agriculture
October 1996 - March 2000
University of Münster
Field of study
  • Landscape ecology

Publications

Publications (239)
Article
Full-text available
To promote and maintain health in agricultural and food systems, appropriate criteria are needed for the description and assessment of the health of soils, plants, animals, humans and ecosystems. Here we identify the concept of resilience as a universally applicable and fundamentally important criterion of health in all relevant areas of agricultur...
Article
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In the face of increasingly frequent droughts threatening crop performance, ecological theory suggests that higher species diversity may help buffering productivity by making systems more resistant through resource complementarity and more resilient through higher response diversity. However, empirical evidence for these diversity effects under dro...
Article
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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...
Article
Full-text available
High stability of crop yields is a key objective in crop production and breeding, especially under the conditions of a changing climate. Reliable indices are therefore needed for quantifying yield stability. Recently it was shown that some frequently used indices of yield stability, such as the coefficient of variation (CV) may be wrongly interpret...
Article
Full-text available
Inoculating crops with specifically designed microbial consortia (MC) is increasingly discussed as an instrument for sustainably promoting arable crop growth. While some promising results were achieved in laboratory, climate chamber, and greenhouse experiments, field applications of microbial inoculants under temperate climate conditions have been...
Article
Full-text available
Weed management in organic farming needs to integrate a wide range of preventive tools. Here we tested the stale seed bed technique in field experiments with organic lemon balm. In a two‐factorial trial, four intensities of stale seedbed after either autumn or spring ploughing were tested in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 on alluvial loams of the research...
Preprint
Full-text available
Aims. Intercropping cereals and grain legumes has the potential to increase grain yield in comparison to the respective sole crops, but little is known about mixture effects at the early crop developmental stage. In cereal legume mixtures, the cereal is usually the dominating partner. We aimed to find out when domination starts, which factors may e...
Presentation
Full-text available
This presentation gives an overview of some basic aspects to consider in planning and implementing field trials in agronomy.
Article
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Aphids are economically and ecologically important herbivorous insects. A critical step in their life cycle is the visually guided host finding behaviour. To elucidate the role of colour in host finding of aphid spring migrants we conducted large colour trap experiments in the field and analysed aphid catch data, using trap spectral reflectance dat...
Article
Full-text available
Ground beetles (carabids) constitute an important functional component of biodiversity in agroecosystems, mainly because of their role as predators of pests, but also as consumers of weed seeds and as prey to other organisms. Over the past few decades, there has been a marked and continuous decline of ground beetles in Europe, and many species of t...
Article
Full-text available
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....
Article
Full-text available
The use of microbial consortia (MC) with complementing features is considered to be a promising method of sustainable crop intensification, potentially trumping the limited performance of single-strain applications. We assessed the effect of two novel MC on early wheat growth and litterbag microbial activity in heated and unheated soil. Pot experim...
Article
Full-text available
Cropping system diversification through annual intercropping provides a pathway for agricultural production with reduced inputs of fertilizer and pesticides. While several studies have shown that intercrop performance depends on the genotypes used, the available evidence has not been synthesized in an overarching analysis. Here, we review the effec...
Article
Compensation can be defined as a process by which a system is able to regain its normal state in response to losing a part of its structure. From genes to individuals to communities, compensatory processes ensure functionality, stability and resilience. While there is a rich literature on compensation in natural and semi-natural communities, as wel...
Article
Full-text available
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...
Article
Full-text available
For several decades, farmers have been mixing rock powders with livestock slurry to reduce its NH3 emissions and increase its nutrient content. However, mixing rock powders with slurry is controversial, and there is currently no scientific evidence for its effects on NH3 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or on changes in its nutrient content due t...
Presentation
Full-text available
Exploring potential to use new technologies in agriculture for diversification
Article
Full-text available
Soil nutrient depletion threatens global food security and has been seriously underestimated for potassium (K) and several micronutrients. This is particularly the case for highly weathered soils in tropical countries, where classical soluble fertilizers are often not affordable or not accessible. One way to replenish macro- and micronutrients are...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In the face of a changing climate, yield stability is becoming increasingly important for farmers and breeders. Long-term field experiments (LTEs) generate data sets that allow the quantification of stability for different agronomic treatments. However, there are no commonly accepted guidelines for assessing yield stability in LTEs. The large diver...
Presentation
Full-text available
Societies’ calls for addressing the urgent problems of climate change, biodiversity loss and other environmental crises are becoming ever louder. Responding to this, and to the growing severity of global threats to agricultural and food systems, national and international research funders are increasingly demanding that funded projects achieve real...
Article
Full-text available
While intercropping is known to have positive effects on crop productivity, it is unclear whether the effects of mixing species start at the early plant stage, that is, during germination. We tested whether the germination of two legume species, alsike clover and black medic, characterized by a contrasting response to water availability and tempera...
Article
Full-text available
Current use of mineral nitrogen (N) fertilizers is unsustainable because of its high fossil energy requirements and a considerable enrichment of the biosphere with reactive N. Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) from leguminous crops is the most important renewable primary N source, especially in organic farming. However, it remains unclear to which...
Article
Full-text available
Poppy seed production is susceptible to abiotic and biotic stress and weed infestation, which introduces the risk of total crop failure. For the purpose of risk minimization, poppy was grown in additive intercropping systems with early and late sown white clover and spring barley sown at three different densities in a three year field trial to asse...
Article
Full-text available
In the face of a changing climate, yield stability is becoming increasingly important for farmers and breeders. Long-term field experiments (LTEs) generate data sets that allow the quantification of stability for different agronomic treatments. However, there are no commonly accepted guidelines for assessing yield stability in LTEs. The large diver...
Article
Full-text available
While intercropping is known to have positive effects on crop productivity, it is unclear whether the effects of mixing species start at the early plant stage, that is, during germination. We tested whether the germination of two legume species, alsike clover and black medic, characterized by a contrasting response to water availability and tempera...
Presentation
Full-text available
Ecological management of insect pests in agricultural crops through manipulation of host finding behaviour - Lecture at Federal University of Santa Catarina - Florianópolis-SC - Brazil
Article
Full-text available
Yield stability is important for food security and a sustainable crop production, especially under changing climatic conditions. It is well known that the variability of yields is linked to changes in meteorological conditions. However, little is known about the long-term effects of agronomic management strategies, such as the supply of important n...
Article
Full-text available
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...
Article
Full-text available
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...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Diversifying rotations with grain legumes could contribute to the resilience of agricultural systems for adapting to climate change. Yield stability is an important goal in agricultural production and is particularly relevant in Europe-grown grain legumes. Their yields tend to be more variable than yields of some other crops and there is some evide...
Article
Full-text available
Organic amendments can reportedly sustain and increase lowland rice productivity in smallholder systems. Few studies have assessed locally-available substrates in hydrologically variable floodplain environments. We investigated the effects of green and farmyard manures on rice yields, and total soil C and N in the Kilombero floodplain, Tanzania. At...
Article
Full-text available
To meet the growing rice demand in Africa, gaps between actual and attainable yields have to be reduced. In Tanzania, this particularly concerns smallholder rain-fed production systems in the floodplains. After quantifying the existing yield gaps, key contributing factors need to be analyzed to improve site-specific management. Field experiments we...
Research
Full-text available
Elsalahy et al., 2020_Supplementary materials_Crop Resilience to Drought With and Without Response Diversity
Article
Full-text available
Most of our crops are grown in monoculture with single genotypes grown over wide acreage. An alternative approach, where segregating populations are used as crops, is an exciting possibility, but outcomes of natural selection upon this type of crop are not well understood. We tracked allelic frequency changes in evolving composite cross populations...
Preprint
Full-text available
Weed suppression is a potential benefit of cover crop mixtures, as species diversity may allow for combining early and late-season competition with weeds. Here, we studied if this is possible for only-legume mixtures containing species with different growth rates, by testing two legumes, alsike clover (AC; Trifolium hybridum L.) and black medic (BM...
Article
Full-text available
Weed suppression is a potential benefit of cover crop mixtures, as species diversity may allow for combining early and late-season competition with weeds. Here, we studied if this is possible for only-legume mixtures containing species with different growth rates, by testing two legumes, alsike clover (AC; Trifolium hybridum L.) and black medic (BM...
Article
Full-text available
In East Africa, smallholder farmers produce rainfed lowland rice mainly in floodplains. Low nitrogen contents of the predominant Fluvisols and highly variable hydrological conditions result in low yields and large yield variations, and hence, result in high production risks for farmers. We investigated crop management strategies aimed at increasing...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Allelopathic root exudates affect natural and managed grasslands in various contexts such as weed control, reseeding, overseeding and crop rotation by causing autotoxicity and/or heterotoxicity. In this study, we investigated the allelopathic effect of two species of legumes, Alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum; AC) and Black medic (Medicago lupulina...
Presentation
Full-text available
Allelopathic root exudates affect natural and managed grasslands in various contexts such as weed control, reseeding, overseeding and crop rotation by causing autotoxicity and/or heterotoxicity. In this study, we investigated the allelopathic effect of two species of legumes, Alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum; AC) and Black medic (Medicago lupulina...
Preprint
Full-text available
Most of our crops are grown in monoculture with single genotypes grown over wide acreage. An alternative approach, where segregating populations are used as crops is an exciting possibility, but outcomes of natural selection upon this type of crop are not well understood. We tracked allelic frequency changes in evolving composite cross populations...
Article
Electromagnetic induction (EMI) data are often used to investigate spatial and temporal patterns of soil texture, soil water content, and soil salinity. We hypothesized that the EMI methodology might thus also offer potential to detect agricultural legacy effects originating from fertilizer application and irrigation of different fields. Therefore,...
Article
Full-text available
Organic farming is often subject of heated scientific and public debates. This raises the question: How can scientists working in organic farming research achieve being impartial while simultaneously sharing enthusiasm about organic farming and promoting it as a solution to many of the problems of agricultural and food systems? Science needs to be...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In the face of a changing climate and the need to improve global food security, temporal yield stability is gaining increasing attention, and is often considered as important as mean yield itself. Analysis of yield stability is particularly relevant in European-grown grain legumes which produce high quality protein for food and feed and provide a r...
Chapter
Plant breeding and genetics play an important role in organic agriculture. Well‐rehearsed examples include plant breeding for resistance against plant diseases and pests, genetic improvement in terms of nutrient use efficiency and the selection for a better ability of crops to compete with weeds. However, beyond this view of plant genetics as a way...
Article
Full-text available
Grain legumes produce high quality protein for food and feed, and potentially contribute to sustainable cropping systems, but they are grown on only 1.5% of European arable land. Low temporal yield stability is one of the reasons held responsible for the low proportion of grain legumes, without sufficient quantitative evidence. The objective of thi...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Flaxseed is the economically most important medicinal plant in Germany. It is cultivated on an area of over 2500 ha. Its pollen and/or nectar are a potential foodresource for insects in intensively used agricultural landscapes. To test this hypothesis insects on flowering flaxseed plants and the flowering environment were collected and the species...
Chapter
Organic potato cultivation requires a whole system perspective, with particular focus on rotation design. Producing organic potatoes relies strongly on indirect, preventive and long-term strategic measures for both plant nutrition and plant protection. This chapter examines all aspects of the process of cultivating organic potatoes, including rotat...
Data
Here we propose a method to adjust the standard CV to account for the systematic dependence of σ² from μ. This adjusted CV can be used as a stability index that is expressed in units that are equivalent to the standard CV, as a percentage of the mean, and can therefore be used in agronomic studies that aim to provide guidance for farmers and adviso...
Article
The size of the arable land is constantly decreasing all over the world due to severe anthropogenic disorders. Plant production therefore has to be adapted to changing environmental conditions along with the proper selection of crop varieties and the application of sustainable environmental technologies which also consider economic aspects. The inv...
Article
Full-text available
This year, organic farmers, advisors and researchers in the West of Germany celebrate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of an organic research and demonstration network. Established to support and improve organic farming systems, the network is funded by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and is organized around 30 participating pilot...
Article
Full-text available
Grain legumes produce high quality protein for food and feed, and provide ecosystem services contributing to sustainable cropping systems. Yet yield instability is perceived to be high, resulting in low adoption by farmers in Europe, where grain legumes were cultivated on only 1.5% of the arable land in 2014. The objective of this study was to asse...
Poster
Full-text available
Abstract Numerous studies have demonstrated that crop mixtures may be higher yielding than monocultures; in addition, mixtures may also have the potential to increase weed suppression. Legumes are considered as a key component in many mixtures because of their essential role in fixing nitrogen1. Optimizing mixtures of only-legume for a particular...
Book
Vorwort zur 1. Auflage: Die Ökologische Landwirtschaft hat sich zu einer stark wissensbasierten Wirtschaftsweise entwickelt. Für eine erfolgreiche Beschäftigung mit und in ihr braucht es neben dem Spezialwissen der Boden-, Pflanzenbau-, Nutztier-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften auch Kenntnisse über die Querbeziehungen zwischen diesen Gebiet...
Chapter
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Conference Paper
Full-text available
This article concerns the organic movement's aim to promote health across the entire farm system as outlined by the IFOAM Principle of Health (IFOAM 2005). It discusses the implementation of Health by organic farmers in Austria, Germany and the UK. Results from an international survey and a series of workshops on health promoting strategies and pri...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The project 'Developing best practice networks of health in organic agricultural systems' aimed to create an international network of farmers and scientists to jointly develop new and interdisciplinary approaches to health measurement and research in ecological agriculture. The project identified personal philosophies and statements of best practic...
Article
Full-text available
Rhizobia play important roles in agriculture owing to their ability to fix nitrogen through a symbiosis with legumes. The specificity of rhizobia-legume associations means that underused legume species may depend on seed inoculation with their rhizobial partners. For black medic (Medicago lupulina) and lucerne (Medicago sativa) little is known abou...
Conference Paper
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Conference Paper
Full-text available
Introduction In comparison to monocultures, mixtures of different plant species often exhibit a range of benefits, including increased biomass yield and efficient weed suppression (Storkey et al., 2015). Legume species are considered as a key component in many mixtures because of their role in fixing nitrogen (Döring et al., 2013). Optimizing mixtu...
Poster
Full-text available
In comparison to monocultures, species mixtures often exhibit a range of benefits, including increased biomass yield and efficient weed suppression (Döring et al., 2013). Legumes are considered as a key component in many mixtures because of their role in fixing nitrogen (Storkey et al., 2015). Optimizing mixtures of legume species depends on determ...