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Successful completion of the PhD thesis


Fig 1: Marcus Schlingmann with the memebers of the examination board (f.l.: Prof. Dr. Friederike Lang, Dr. Marcus Schlingmann, Prof. Dr. Heinz Rennenberg, Dr. Ralf Kiese, Dr. Michael Dannenmann)

Fig 2: In- and output of Nitrogen (left) and nitrogen balance (right) in montane grassland as influenced by management intensity and climate change conditions.

Marcus Schlingmann (KIT IMK-IFU) successfully defended his dissertation at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg on July 3, 2020 (Figure 1). In his dissertation within the SUSAPLS project, Marcus Schlingmann was able to show for the first time that nitrous oxide (N2) emissions represent the largest, so far unnoticed, nitrogen (N) loss path in pre-alpine grassland. In addition, he was able to show that climate change and especially intensive farming are a threat to N storage in alpine and pre-alpine grassland. The high productivity of grassland, coupled with high losses from manure, lead to a clearly negative N balance (up to 240 kg N ha-1 yr-1), which could significantly reduce the N stores in soil organic matter within decades (Figure 2). We sincerely congratulate Dr. Schlingmann!