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Sustainability

Bodenverdichtung

How does compacted soil recover?

It takes mere seconds to compact a soil, but years or even decades for it to recover. Biological activities by plant roots and soil organisms (earthworms) as well as physical effects like drying out and rewetting phases, and freezing-thawing cycles are vital for natural regeneration. Exactly how recovery happens is being investigated in a long-term field trial. For this, an observational infrastructure with hundreds of soil probes – the Soil Structure Observatory (SSO) – was set up in 2014 together with ETH Zurich. After the initial compaction event, a fallow, a permanent grassland and a crop rotation with and without tillage were set up. This allows to analyse e.g. the influence of plants and tillage on recovery.

Bodenfruchtbarkeit und Bodenschutz
SoilStructureObservatory
Regeneration verdichteter Böden

Publikation Arbeitshaltung Melken

Ergonomics in the milking parlour

Milkers frequently suffer from musculoskeletal disorders, especially in the area of the shoulders and arms.  Agroscope therefore investigated whether appropriate working heights can reduce workload in the milking parlour. For this, the angle of flexion of various joints during milking was recorded in one experiment, whilst a second experiment recorded muscle contractions at three different heights. The study showed that although a lower working height in the milking parlour has no effect on forearms or upper arms, it significantly reduces strain on the shoulders. 

Publikationen Thomas Keller

Heller O., Di Bene C., Nino P., Huyghebaert B., Arlauskienė A., Castanheira N. L., Higgins S., Horel A., Kir A., Kizeková M., Lacoste M., Munkholm L. J., O'Sullivan L., Radzikowski P., Rodríguez-Cruz M. S. und weitere
Towards enhanced adoption of soil‐improving management practices in Europe.
European Journal of Soil Science, 75, (2), 2024, 1-17.

Jarvis N., Coucheney E., Lewan E., Kloeffel T., Meurer K.H.E., Keller T., Larsbo M.
Interactions between soil structure dynamics, hydrological processes, and organic matter cycling: A new soil‐crop model.
European Journal of Soil Science, 75, (2), 2024, 1-24.

Arrázola-Vásquez E., Larsbo M., Capowiez Y., Taylor A., Herrmann A., Keller T.
Estimating energy costs of earthworm burrowing using calorimetry.
European Journal of Soil Biology, 121, 2024, 1-9.

Heller O., Schittli D., Bragazza L., Ghiasi S., Guillaume T., van der Heijden M., Köstel J. K., Mayer J., Wittwer R., Keller T.
Can we manage soil structure for improved resistance against droughts and extreme rainfall events?: Preliminary results from the SoilX Project.
In: BGS Tagung 2024. 21 March, Zollikofen. 2024, 1.

Garland G., Köstel J. K., Johannes A., Heller O., Doetterl S., Or D., Keller T.
Perspectives on the misconception of levitating soil aggregates.
Soil, 10, 2024, 23-31.

Alakukku L., Heitman J., Horn R., Jansen B., Keller T., McKenzie B. M., Neollemeyer E., Peng X., Wendroth O.
Soil & Tillage Research Editorial.
Soil & Tillage Research, 237, 2024, 1-2.

Widmer A., Tamagni L., Wüst C., Paul S. M., Volpe V., Jocher M., Giger R., Dötterl S., Keller T., Leifeld J.
Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from managed organic soils in the temperate zone by paddy rice cultivation.
In: EGU General Assembly 2024. 14-19 April, Hrsg. European Geosciences Union (EGU), Vienna (AT). 2024, 1.

Albrecht M., Bossart S., Tschanz P., Keller T., Sutter L.
Grassland extensification enhances nest densities of ground-nesting wild bees.
Journal of Applied Ecology, 00, 2023, 1-11.

de Lima R. P., Rolim M. M., Torres L. C., Cavalieri-Polizeli K. V. M., Keller T.
Modelagem da compactação do solo induzida pelo tráfego agrícola.
In: Tópicos em Ciência do Solo. Band 12, Hrsg. Sociedade Brasileira de Ciência do Solo, 2023.

Sjulgård H., Keller T., Garland G., Colombi T.
Relationships between weather and yield anomalies vary with crop type and latitude in Sweden.
Agricultural Systems, 211, 2023, 1-9.

Blomquist J., Englund J.-E., Sjöberg C., Kårhammer J., Svensson S.-E., Pettersson E., Keller T., Berglund K.
Structure liming reduces draught requirement on clay soil.
Soil and Tillage Research, 231, 2023, 1-6.

Schjønning P., Lamandé M., De Pue J., Cornelis W. M., Labouriau R., Keller T.
The challenge in estimating soil compressive strength for use in risk assessment of soil compaction in field traffic.
Advances in Agronomy, 178, 2023, 61-105.

Keller T., Karlen D. L., Hallett P. D.
Soil tilth.
In: Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment. 2nd edition, Elsevier. 2023, 48-56.

Nazari M., Arthur E., Lamandé M., Keller T., Bilyera N., Bickel S.
A meta-analysis of soil susceptibility to machinery-induced compaction in forest ecosystems across global climatic zones.
Current Forestry Reports, 9, 2023, 370-381.

Tschanz P., Köstel J. K., Volpe V., Albrecht M., Keller T.
Morphology and temporal evolution of ground-nesting bee burrows created by solitary and social species quantified through X-ray imaging.
Geoderma, 438, 2023, 1-13.

Hiltebrand C., Roig-Pons M., Baumgartner M., Cockburn M., Doetterl S., Bachmann I., Keller T., Briefer S., Würbel H., Gmel A., Pauler C., Schneider M. K., Nasser R.
Laufende Versuche auf Agroscope-Forschungsterrain St.Aubin.
In: Jeudi au Haras. 20. Juli, Avenches. 2023, 1.
weitere Sprachen: französisch

Bahrami M., Naderi-Boldaji M., Ghanbarian D., Keller T.
Discrete element modelling of stress propagation in soil under a rigid wheel in a soil bin: A simulation of probe inducing stress deviation and wheel speed.
Biosystems Engineering, 230, 2023, 159-170.

van den Akker J.J.H., ten Damme L., Lamandé M., Keller T.
Compaction.
In: Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment. 2nd Edition, Elsevier. 2023, 85-99.

Heller O., ten Damme L., D'Hose T., Euteneuer P., Fér M., Goberna M., Jarvis N., Keller T., Köstel J. K., Mehdi-Schulz B., Munkholm L.J.
Management impacts on soil structure: Evidence from twelve European long-term experiments.
In: BONARES Conference. 15. Mai, Berlin. 2023, 1.

Tschanz P., Vogel S., Walter A., Keller T., Albrecht M.
Nesting of ground-nesting bees in arable fields is not associated with tillage system per se, but with distance to field edge, crop cover, soil and landscape context.
Journal of Applied Ecology, 60, (1), 2023, 158-169.

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Rinder Fuetterung

Optimised feed reduces environmental impacts

On behalf of Micarna SA, Agroscope analysed the environmental impacts of beef, pork and poultry production. With beef production, feed intensity was crucial. In the case of pork and poultry production, the quantity of feed used per kg of meat had the greatest influence on environmental impacts. The use of European soya with its shorter transport distances had a positive effect. 

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