Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and fix it in biomass. Climate extremes such as droughts and heat waves lead to lower plant growth (primary production). This means that less CO2 is sequestered from the atmosphere. An international study led by researchers from the University of Augsburg shows that, especially in the northern latitudes, negative extremes in plant growth increased by 10.6 percent between 1982-1998 and 2000-2016. International research team publishes study in the journal ‘Nature Climate Change’, which also shows consequences for the carbon cycle as well as for agriculture
Adding finely ground rock to ecosystems can stimulate CO2 uptake by increasing both the rate of weathering and plant productivity. In a new international study led by geographers from the Augsburg University, the proportion of increased CO2 uptake due to plant productivity was estimated for the first time and the results show that this biological effect is significantly higher than previously assumed.
Researchers from the University of Augsburg and ETH Zurich have discovered giant conductivity of nanometre-sized domain walls separating polar regions in a non-oxide ferroelectric material. The high sensitivity of these walls to applied magnetic fields enables gigantic switching of the sample resistance, thus providing a route to new nanoelectronic building blocks. Such behaviour is unprecedented in non-oxides, which are less hampered by defects and deviations in composition than oxides.
In future, waste from agriculture and forestry could serve as the basis for environmentally friendly building materials, insulation foams or fuels. Over the past four and a half years, an EU project involving the University of Augsburg has explored the potential of such products. The results also show how much a holistic view is needed when using them in order to avoid undesirable side effects.
Cooling is a long-standing technological challenge. Standard cooling cycle based on vapor compression exploits expensive helium gas to reach temperatures near absolute zero. Adiabatic demagnetization known since nearly a century could be a viable alternative if compact and durable paramagnetic materials were available. A team of researchers from the University of Augsburg used their recent experience in creating quantum-disordered magnetic states to design a promising new material for adiabatic demagnetization cooling.
If there is more carbon dioxide in the air, photosynthesis and plant growth can be stimulated. Geographers at the University of Augsburg, together with scientists from 12 countries, have found in a study that this effect has decreased worldwide by about 30% over the last four decades. What are the causes for this and what are the consequences of the results.
Rethinking Environment: The Environmental Humanities and the Ecological Transformation of Society The University of Augsburg and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich invite applications for 12 Doctoral Positions in their new International Doctorate Program (IDK) funded by the Elite Network of Bavaria. Deadline: April 15, 2021.
Under the direction of the Augsburg geographer Prof. Dr. Peter Fiener, a Europe-wide "EU Innovative Training Network" has been launched to investigate the pollution of agricultural soils with macro- and microplastics. A total of 14 doctoral students at eleven European research institutions are working on the topic.
A German-polish research team from Augsburg, Münster, Munich and Wrocław successfully mixed nanoscale sound waves and light quanta. In their study published in Optica the scientists use an ’artificial atom’ that converts the vibrations of the sound wave to single light quanta - photons - with unprecedented precision. The demonstrated fundamental principle marks an important step toward the development of future hybrid quantum technologies.
The environmental damage arising from the production of foods is not currently reflected in prices. If the consequential costs of the greenhouse gases emitted are determined and added to current food prices, animal products such as milk, cheese and especially meat would have to become far more expensive. The price difference between conventional and organic products would also be less. These results have been published in the journal Nature Communications by a team of researchers led by an Augsburg economist, Dr. Tobias Gaugler.
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