Project Details
Projekt
Thermodynamic modelling of matter and energy dynamics at the aggregated soil system perspective (SysPer)
Applicants
Privatdozent Dr. Axel Kleidon; Dr. Thomas Wutzler
Subject Area
Soil Sciences
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554808738
Thermodynamics has been successful in describing systems by taking an aggregated high-level perspective with a focus on the overall optimality and boundary conditions of the studied system. However, this perspective was mostly missing in the projects funded during the first phase of the priority programme. While the study of the measured heat-exchange (enthalpy) enabled insights into specific processes, it is important to consider also Gibbs energy and entropy, and to extend thermodynamic descriptions beyond the microbial growth reaction to assess the overall dynamics of the system. Hence, this project will leverage a whole-system perspective by integrating modelling and optimality principles to 1) study how microbial traits of allocating resources to non-growth components feed back to the flow of energy in substrates becoming available to the microbes, and 2) study how boundary conditions shape adaptation of microbial community traits by maximising the rate of extracted useful work. We will (i) gain further insight on the direction of the development of energy use efficiency (EUE) and carbon use efficiency (CUE) under different boundary conditions and (ii) derive simple relationships and models with fewer parameters that describe the general average development across many detailed realizations. Using these aggregated models, we will explore relevant feedbacks that shape whole-system optimality and provide constraints for potential CUE and non-growth energy expenditure. These constraints will help those groups who work with more detailed models to gain insight also into detailed processes and contribute to the interpretation of other SPP experiments. Moreover, the system perspective will provide insights at a more general level and allow for predictions also for other soil systems, where not as many detailed observations are available.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
