Research topics and profile (related to bioeconomy)

INRES-Horticultural Sciences aims to establish holistic systems analysis approaches in agricultural sciences. Particular emphasis is placed on supporting horticultural decisions in
the face of risk and uncertainties. In addition to this, the group investigates climate change impacts on horticultural products and value chains, with dormancy processes in fruit trees currently at the center of attention. The group is also involved in i) optimizing plant health management, mainly focussing on reducing agrochemical load in production systems to decrease environmental contamination, and ii) enhancing horticultural produce quality and adding economic value by making use of secondary compounds in vegetable crops.

Concrete research themes:
• Modeling of dormancy processes in fruit trees
• Projection of climate change impacts for deciduous fruit trees in warm locations
• Development of modeling tools for phenology analysis
• Establishment of decision theoretical approaches for agricultural sciences
• Development of modeling tools for decision analysis
• Modeling of ornamental plant value chains in Germany
• Supporting analysis for land use decisions
• Analysis of ecosystem services provided by agroforestry
• Quantification and evaluation of plant health interactions under controlled and in field conditions
• Quantification and evaluation of secondary compounds in vegetable crops

Contributions to BioSC

INRES-Horticultural Sciences represents all aspects of Horticulture in research and teaching. Since this includes a wide spectrum of issues, the group develops and applies research approaches that allow the analysis of complex systems that are not fully understood. This is achieved by harnessing decision analysis approaches for use in agricultural research. These approaches promise a host of applications in resource conservation and in the evaluation of sustainability, risk and societal as well as economic implications of existing and new bioeconomic value chains. The group tackles bioeconomic challenges using systems modeling and systematic assessment of existing knowledge. Further areas of work are the study and modeling of dormancy processes in fruit trees, investigating plant health interactions in order to optimize plant health management, strengthening copper-reduction strategies in horticultural production systems, and studying secondary metabolites or compounds in vegetable crops in order to explore the potential of horticultural crops to contribute to the bioeconomy.