USER II
Fig.1. Laserscanning by microdrone at testsite Gessenwiese to estimate tree height and biomass productivity of willow, birch, alder on different soil substrates in short-rotation-coppice.
Image: Angewandte Geologie JenaImplementation of heavy metal landfarming for sustainable landscaping and for exploitation of renewable energies on radionuclide contaminated Areas: Optimizing strategies
Funding number 15S9417
Duration: 01.07.2019 bis 30.06.2022
Projectleader: Prof. Erika Kothe External link& Prof. Thorsten Schäfer
Person in charge:
Dr. Daniel Mirgorodsky, Sarah Nettemann, K. Lenk, D. Fürst, S. Pietschmann
Description:
The current project funded by the R&D program "Decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear facilities" focusses on radiation protection by establishing bioremediation methods for substrates contaminated by heavy metals and radionuclides. This goal is combined with the exploitation of bioenergy. Microbial methods are applied to improve phytoremediation using soil and microbial amendments (mycorrhiza, streptomyces). In the USER-project field scale investigations are applied to areas of moderate heavy metal and radionuclides (HM/R) contaminated substrates at the testsites Gessenwiese and Kanigsberg, near Ronneburg, to investigate phytoremediation strategies. Here, the main focuses lie on designing sustainable landscapes by reducing the bioavailability of contaminants with carbonatic soil material (rendzina) and microbial amendments, as well as the production of renewable energy with metal tolerant plants within a short-rotation-coppice (SRC, landfarming). In this connection, production of woody biomass with fast growing plants in SRC provides a positive effect on biodiversity and erosion protection. Furthermore, quantification of biomass productivity and HM/R-transfer within the soil-plant-water system by using soil and microbial amendments (mycorrhiza, streptomyces) are scopes of this project, and should lead to reduction in leaching of HM/R and soil erosion as well. Therefore, soil hydrological measurement stations and a lysimeter station are installed to get information about distribution, changes, transfer and output of HM/R in the water phase. Additionally, biomass productivity, plant vitality and erosion processes should be monitored with a multispectral camera and a high resolution camera system (accuracy 5 mm) installed on a microdrone (project TerraSensE, FKZ 13007-715).