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Former Russian weapon scientists develop new glassy fertilisers to improve the phosphorus supply of crop plants
Two years passed by since former weapon scientists from Russia first met scientists of the Institute of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science from the Federal Agricultural Research Centre (FAL) in Braunschweig, Germany to discuss their mutual interest in developing new phosphorus fertilizers in Goslar (photo 1). Background is a program funded by the European Union, which aims at maintenance of the know-how of Russian weapon technologies, but wants also to prevent weapon scientists working in security sensitive areas disappearing out of sight and control. The Institute for Research and Development of Optical Materials in St. Petersburg worked during the cold war times on special glasses as carriers for military relevant micro-organisms or for the production of lasers.
The idea of the scientists is to use glasses as carriers for the plant nutrient phosphorus (P). Together with micro-organisms such glassy fertilizers shall release the nutrient more efficiently according to the demand of the plant with less impact on eutrophication of the environment. Two years after Goslar the first prototypes of "glassy fertilizers" are ready (photo 2) and the scientists discuss at FAL on November, 28/29 the conditions for the first test of the new fertilizers in growth experiments, some of them also with peas. The scientists see, however, a special need for the new fertilizers in the re-cultivation of soils in former mining areas. There the build-up of a site-specific P dynamics, which allows to limit the amount of P fertilised to the amount of P removed by plants (balanced P fertilisation), takes sometimes several decades. The scientists hope that by use of the new glassy P fertilisers the conditions for the environmental friendly and resource saving balanced P fertilization might be established in much shorter time, quod erat demonstrandum!
Contacts: Prof. Dr. Dr. Ewald Schnug, Federal Agricultural Research Centre (FAL), Institute of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Bundesallee 50, D-38116 Braunschweig, phone +49 531 596 2101, E-mail: pb@fal.de
http://idw-online.de/pages/de/news132973 - deutsche Fassung der Pressemitteilung
Photo 1: Prof. Dr. Dr. Ewald Schnug (left), Head of the Institute of Plant Nutrition and Soil Scienc ...
Photo: FAL-PB
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Photo 2: Glassy fertilisers shall supply the nutrient phosphorus on demand and environmental friendl ...
Photo: Schnug
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Biologie, Meer / Klima, Tier / Land / Forst, Umwelt / Ökologie
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