Agricultural Systems and Resources

Coordination

Professor Klaus Eder, Professor Rod Snowdon, Professor Andreas Gattinger, Professor Lutz Breuer

Abstract of Area of Potential

A growing world population requires an increase in the supply of food and feed, renewable energies, and renewable raw materials through agriculture. The potential area “Agricultural Systems and Resources” conducts interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on the fundamentals needed to achieve this increase sustainably under the conditions of global climate change and biodiversity loss. To this end, ecological, agricultural, insect biotechnology, nutritional science, social science, and business administration research approaches are integrated, spanning levels from the molecular scale to landscapes. The research focuses in this potential area include (i) plant breeding, (ii) insect biotechnology, (iii) sustainable production of food and feed, and (iv) sustainable intensification of agriculture.

Involved Disciplines

Insect biotechnology, plant sciences, zoology, microbiology, virology and immunology, agricultural, forestry sciences and veterinary medicine, water research, atmospheric, marine, and climate research

External Cooperation Partners

In Germany:

• Fraunhofer Institute for Bioresources, Fraunhofer IME at the Gießen site
• Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt
• Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e.V.
• Julius Kühn Institute (JKI), Quedlinburg/Braunschweig
• Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) e.V.

International:

• Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)
• University of Queensland / Queensland Alliance for Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Australia

Structures and Programs for Supporting Early Career Researchers

• International Research Training Group IRTG 2843 – Accelerating Crop Genetic Gain
• Gießen Graduate Centre for Life Sciences (GGL), sections “Nutrition and Metabolism,” “Bioresources, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology,” “Ecology and Global Change”
• Participation in the Graduate Centre for Engineering Sciences (PZI) of the FCMH; enabling engineering doctoral studies
• Inter-university doctoral program “Bioresources and Biotechnology”
• Research-oriented, English-language Master’s programs (M.Sc. “Insect Biotechnology and Bioresources,” M.Sc. “Agrobiotechnology,” M.Sc. “Global Change: Ecosystem Science and Policy”)

Most significant scientific achievements since 2018

Strucutral elements

• International Research Training Group IRTG 2843 – Accelerating Crop Genetic Gain
• Sustainable strengthening of international cooperation: DAAD approval of the third funding phase of the binational Center of Excellence for Marine Sciences (CEMarin, 2019) and BMBF funding for the Colombia Connect network (2020)
• 2018: Establishment of the Fraunhofer Bioresources division of the Fraunhofer IME at the Gießen location (including its own research building on the JLU Science Campus)

External funds / awards

• 2024: FOR 5664 – Research Group “Agroforestry Systems for Sustainable Multifunctional Agriculture (FORMULA)”
• 2023: IRTG 2843 – Accelerating Crop Genetic Gain
• 2021: FOR 5095 - Research Group "Pollutant – Antibiotic Resistance – Pathogen Interactions in a Changing Wastewater Irrigation System"
• 2020: FOR 5116 – Research Group “Communication in Host Plant-Microbe Interaction via exRNA”
• 2019: SDGnexus: Higher Education Excellence Center in Development Cooperation (DAAD exceed)

Publications

• Heyde BJ, Braun M, Soufi L, ..., Siebe C & Siemens J (2025) Transition from irrigation with untreated wastewater to treated wastewater and associated benefits and risks. npj Clean Water 8, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-025-00438-6
• Voss-Fels K*, Stahl A*,  … , Frisch M, … , Snowdon RJ (2019) Breeding improves wheat productivity under contrasting agrochemical input levels. Nature Plants 5: 706-714, doi: 10.1038/s41477-019-0445-5
• Kang L, …, Schiessl SV, …, Snowdon RJ, Hua W, Liu Z (2021) Genomic insights into the origin, domestication and diversification of Brassica juncea. Nature Genet 53: 1392-1402, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00922-y
• Jayakodi M*, Golicz AA*, … Snowdon R, Stein N, Stoddard F, Stougaard J, Tayeh N, Torres A, Usadel B, Schubert I, O'Sullivan D, Schulman A, Andersen S (2023) The giant diploid faba genome unlocks variation in a global protein crop. Nature 615: 652-659, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05791-5
• Eisert, J., Sahraei, A., Knob, D.A., Lambertz, C., Zollitsch, W., Hörtenhuber, S., Kral, I., Breuer, L., Gattinger, A., 2025. Transforming the feeding regime towards low-input increases the environmental impact of organic milk production on a case study farm in central germany. Int J Life Cycle Assess 30, 79–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02382-y
• Gessner, D.K., Schwarz, A., Meyer, S., Wen, G., Most, E., Zorn, H., Ringseis, R., Eder, K., 2019. Insect Meal as Alternative Protein Source Exerts Pronounced Lipid-Lowering Effects in Hyperlipidemic Obese Zucker Rats. J Nutr 149, 566–577. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxy256
• Jacobs, S.R., Webber, H., Niether, W., Grahmann, K., Lüttschwager, D., Schwartz, C., Breuer, L., Bellingrath-Kimura, S.D., 2022. Modification of the microclimate and water balance through the integration of trees into temperate cropping systems. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 323, 109065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2022.109065
• Schaefer, L., Grundmann, S.M., Ruehl, M., Zorn, H., Seel, W., Simon, M.-C., Schuchardt, S., Most, E., Ringseis, R., Eder, K., 2024. Effects of a biotechnologically produced Pleurotus sapidus mycelium on gut microbiome, liver transcriptome and plasma metabolome of broilers. Poult. Sci. 103, 103975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2024.103975
• Sylvester, F., ..., M. Balint, ... Pauls, S., … Vilcinskas, A., Hollert, H., 2023. Better integration of chemical pollution research will further our understanding of biodiversity loss. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 7, 1552–1555.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02117-6