Tropical Plant Production and Agricultural Systems Modelling

Prof. Dr. Reimund P. Rötter

Research interests:


I am an agronomist, agrosystems modeller and agro-ecologist with more than 25 years work experience in Europe, Africa and Asia. My research interests lie in understanding and finding solutions for the multi-facetted challenges of achieving food security in a changing climate under increasingly limited resource availability - explicitly considering the increasing need to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural production.

Research foci and activities:


  • Understanding of the production ecology of important tropical plant production systems, in particular interactions of genotype-environment-management through empirical experiment - based research
  • Analysis of the effects of climate variability and weather extremes on yield and production of major crops, land use and food security - as well as their resource use efficiencies with respect to actual and future climatic conditions
  • Development and improvement of dynamic crop and agricultural systems models for the application at different scales
  • Utilizing and managing genetic diversity to develop resilent crops/cropping systems
  • Improvement and application of integrative methods and models for the interdisciplinary analysis of the sustainability of current and alternative future agricultural production and land use systems - with due consideration of the relevant spatial and temporal scales


Teaching


  • M.SIA.P29.Mp: Impact of climate extremes on plant production systems around the globe
  • M.SIA.P22.Mp: Management of tropical plant production systems
  • M.Agr.0182: Blended E-course: Crop Modelling for Risk Management
  • B.Agr.0320.Mp: Introduction to tropical and international agriculture
  • M.SIA.P10.Mp: Tropical agro-ecosystem functions
  • M.SIA.P16M.Mp: Crop Modelling for Risk Management
  • M.Agr.0001.Mp: Exercises: Linking Models and Experimentation (bi-lingual)

    • Key publications:

    Senapati, N., Semenov, M.A., Halford, N.G….Rötter, R.P. et al. (2022). Global wheat production could benefit from closing the genetic yield gap. Nature Food 3, 532–541. DOI:10.1038/s43016-022-00540-9

    Rötter, R.P., Scheiter, S., Hoffman, M.P., Pfeiffer, M., Nelson, W.C.D., Ayisi, K., Taylor, P., Feil, J-H, Bakhsh, S.Y., Isselstein, J., Linstaedter, A., Behn, K., Westphal, C., Odhiambo, J., Twine, W., Grass, I., Merante, P., Bracho-Mujica, G., Bringhenti, T., Lamega, S., Abdulai, I, Lam, Q.D., Anders, M., Linden, V., Weier, S., Foord, S., Erasmus, B. (2021). Modeling the multi-functionality of African savanna landscapes under global change. Land Degradation & Development , 32, 2077-2081 DOI:10.1002/ldr.3925

    Rötter, R.P., Hoffmann, M.P., Koch, M., Müller, C. (2018). Progress in modelling agricultural impacts of and adaptations to climate change. Current Opinion in Plant Biology
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2018.05.009

    Rötter, R.P., M. Appiah, E. Fichtler, K.C. Kersebaum, M. Trnka, M.P Hoffmann (2018). Linking modelling and experimentation to better capture crop impacts of agroclimatic extremes - A review Field Crops Research 221, 142–156.
    DOI: 10.1016/j.fcr.2018.02.023

    Rötter, R.P., et al. (2015). Use of crop simulation modelling to aid ideotype design of future cereal cultivars Journal of Experimental Botany 66, 3463-3476.
    DOI:10.1093/jxb/erv098

    Trnka, M., Rötter, R.P., Ruiz-Ramos, M. Kersebaum, K-C., Olesen, J.E. & Semenov, M.A. (2014). Adverse weather conditions for wheat production in Europe will become more frequent with climate change. Nature Climate Change, 4, 637-643
    DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2242

    Kassie, B.T., Van Ittersum, M.K., Hengsdijk, H., Asseng, S., Wolf, J. & Rötter, R.P. (2014). Climate-induced yield variability and yield gaps of maize (Zea mays L.) in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia Field Crops Research 160, 41-53.
    DOI:10.1016/j.fcr.2014.02.010

    Rötter, R.P., et al. (2011). Crop–climate models need an overhaul Nature Climate Change 1, 175-177.
    DOI:10.1038/nclimate1152