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.P22.Mp: Management of tropical plant production systems
- M.Agr.0182: Blended E-course: Crop Modelling for Risk Management
- B.Agr.0400: Applications of explorative data analysis to agronomy
- 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:
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., Höhn, J., Trnka, M., Fronzek, S. Carter, T.R. & Kahiluoto, H. (2013). Modelling shifts in agroclimate and crop cultivar response under climate change. Ecology and Evolution, 3, 4197-4214. DOI:10.1002/ece3.782
Rötter, R.P., et al. (2011). Crop–climate models need an overhaul Nature Climate Change 1, 175-177.
DOI:10.1038/nclimate1152