The use of biochar as an additive in anaerobic digestion (AD) is a potential pathway to enhance AD while promoting biomass-to-biochar value chain within a circular bioeconomy. Biochar, a novel biomaterial, serves for managing residual biomass following the cascading use principle, prioritizing material use over sole energy generation. AD, as a well-established method for biogas production and organic substance management, plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. Therefore, this thesis investigated the ...

Maize is among the three most important crops worldwide, while its multifunctional nature allows a diversified use. However, the traditional (silage) maize production often has negative side-effects related to the unprotected soil surface — e.g., erosion, weed pressure and related mechanical weed control. There are several alternative management systems to enhance the sustainability of (silage) maize production. However, the means and strength of influence are still unclear in some cases. Therefore, the current thesis ...

Urbanization leads to effects on many aspects of ecosystems and societies. Among the affected are agricultural systems and, specifically, soils. One of the most evident pathways of urbanization effects on agricultural soils is through an increased demand for agricultural commodities requiring agricultural intensification, hence, changes in management practices that alter soils. In this context, the purpose of this study was to understand how the main agricultural management practices taking place in urbanizing ...

The activities of humans have transformed the earth over the last decades. The transformation is estimated to increase further in response to the growing world population. This has caused many countries to devise means to utilize resources sustainably. Bio-economy is seen as a means to reduce the high reliance on fossil materials and ensure the provision of raw materials, energy and food to the increasing world population in a sustainable manner. However, the rising demands for biomass to produce bioenergy have relied ...

The world population is growing steadily and with it the demand for meat and animal protein. A major source of feed for livestock is grassland, which serves as high quality and protein rich forage. In addition to permanent grassland, temporary grassland is a valuable crop rotation element, especially in organic farming, since legumes in legume-grass mixtures can fix atmospheric nitrogen (NFix). To further increase the intensification in agriculture, reliable non-destructive measurement techniques are needed as an ...

Die vorliegende Arbeit umfasst Studien zur Untersuchung technischer und ökologischer Aspekte bei der Nutzung von Restbiomassen in den Nutzungspfaden Energieerzeugung und Aktivkohleproduktion. Im Mittelpunkt der jeweiligen Untersuchung stand das Verfahren zur integrierten Erzeugung von Festbrennstoff und Biogas aus Biomasse (IFBB) und dessen Einfluss auf technische und ökologische Aspekte bei der Verwertung von Restbiomassen. Im Zuge von Naturschutz- und Landschaftspflegemaßnahmen auf extensiv bewirtschafteten ...

Extensiv bewirtschaftetes Grünland und naturnahes Naturschutzgrünland sind wertvolle Bereitsteller von Ökosystemdienstleistungen und könnten eine Schlüsselrolle in zukünftigen Managementstrategien spielen zum Schutz von Arten, die durch den Klimawandel bedroht sind. Jedoch ist extensives Grünland, wie viele andere Ökosysteme, bedroht durch die Ausbreitung invasiver Arten, welche einen großen Einfluss auf den Verlust der Biodiversität haben. Um den Herausforderungen unserer Zeit zu begegnen, sollten Innovationen in ...

RS is widely employed as a non-destructive methodology to monitor grasslands. Usage of UAV as the RS platform benefits to provide high spatial (fine-grain) and temporal resolution, unclouded data over small grassland extent. Therefore, this thesis evaluated the applications of UAV-borne RS for fine-scale grassland monitoring along with practical farm condition. Grass biomass estimation, predicting forage quality of grass and mapping invasive lupine in grasslands are considered as applications of UAVborne RS.

Energy production from biomass and the conservation of ecologically valuable grassland habitats are two important issues of agriculture today. The combination of a bioenergy production, which minimises environmental impacts and competition with food production for land with a conversion of semi-natural grasslands through new utilization alternatives for the biomass, led to the development of the IFBB process. Its basic principle is the separation of biomass into a liquid fraction (press fluid, PF) for the production ...