Wilhelm Römer (agronomist)

Wilhelm Römer

Wilhelm Römer (born December 28, 1938 in Liebenstein , Arnstadt district , Thuringia ) is a German agricultural scientist in the field of agricultural chemistry , especially plant nutrition . He taught at the universities in Jena , Halle and Göttingen . His research focus was the phosphate dynamics in soils and plants .

Life

William Roman, the son of a cabinet maker / platoon commander, was in 1956 at the scientific and mathematically oriented high school in Gräfenroda the High School and then began to study the agriculture at the University of Jena . After eight semesters of study and a two-year training course in agricultural practice, he obtained his diploma in 1962 . This was followed by a two-year activity as an operations assistant or head of animal production in the state-owned Gut Dewitz near Neubrandenburg.

In 1964, Römer's interest in scientific questions of plant nutrition drew him back to the University of Jena. He first completed a two-semester additional course in inorganic-analytical and organic-preparative chemistry and a physical internship. From 1965 he worked as a scientific assistant in the Institute for Agricultural Chemistry. In 1970 he did his doctorate at the University of Jena with a dissertation on the utilization of the photosynthetic apparatus in barley and white mustard using C-14-labeled compounds.

After receiving his doctorate his research interest was mainly the problems of phosphate nutrition of crops . With the dissolution of the agricultural faculty in Jena, he moved to the University of Halle in 1969 . Here, too, the nutritional element phosphorus was the focus of his scientific work. In 1981 he was qualified to teach the field of plant nutrition. In 1985 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on P-dynamics in soils and plants.

Despite his excellent technical competence, Römer was refused a lectureship in the GDR. It was only after the political change in 1990 that he was appointed full professor for plant nutrition at the University of Halle. In 1991 he continued his scientific work at the Institute for Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Göttingen . In 1992 he was re- qualified and in 1994 he was appointed as an adjunct professor . In March 2001, he ended his official work at the University of Göttingen.

Research and Teaching

From 1965 to 1970 studied Romans in Jena as a graduate student of Günther Schilling , the Assimilatbildung and assimilates in various agricultural and horticultural crops (barley, white mustard and tomato). Römer was able to prove that intensively growing plant organs, for example shoot and root tips or tomato fruits, direct the carbon-containing building materials towards them, accumulate and for this directed transport u. a. Phytohormones are responsible. The most important result of his dissertation (1970) was therefore the realization that the formation and distribution of the assimilates in the plant represent processes that can be influenced by external factors. Through targeted interventions in the phytohormone balance or through breeding, it is possible to change the organ ratio in the plant, for example the grain / straw ratio in cereals, in favor of the desired harvest organ.

Since 1970 Römer has devoted himself to phosphate research . Since the phosphate sorption on the solid soil matrix is ​​to be regarded as the main reason for the low P availability in the soil and thus for the low degree of utilization of numerous P fertilizers, he examined the phosphorus compounds that are hardly adsorbed in the soil. For this purpose, he synthesized non-ionic P compounds ( phosphoric acid esters and various derivatives ) and examined their transport behavior in the soil, their uptake mechanism and their metabolism in the plant. However, the results of several years of laboratory and field experiments showed that it was not possible to make the P supply of the plants more effective in this way. The production costs for such P compounds turned out to be too high and the P uptake by the plant roots was too low.

From 1980, Römer put phosphate research on a broader basis. Experiments on the temporal requirements of cereal plants during ontogenesis were initially the focus of his activity. At the same time, he checked which physical and chemical conditions must exist in the soil if the plants have a particularly high P requirement during their development and this is to be met. The results of these extensive investigations on phosphate dynamics in soil and plants and on the practice of phosphate fertilization were incorporated into his habilitation thesis (1985).

In the years that followed, Römer and doctoral students worked on the P-mobilization in the soil through the roots of the cultivated plants. The focus was on questions of root excretions , especially of organic acids and their role as ligands for the phosphate exchange in the solid soil matrix. Later he expanded this research work and also examined the mobilization of trace elements ( copper , zinc and cadmium ) in the soil by exuded organic acids and their consequences for the uptake of plants.

After 1991, Römer continued this broad-based phosphate research at the University of Göttingen with great success. The evaluation of long-term tests to determine optimal and environmentally friendly phosphate and potassium fertilizers was a major focus of the work. In addition, he dealt with the availability of phosphate in sewage sludge and the effect of new P fertilizers from phosphate recycling . The close connection between his test results and physiological and ecological aspects of plant nutrition is always noteworthy in his research work.

Römer's list of publications includes 200 articles in domestic and foreign scientific journals, but also in practice-oriented journals. Bringing the consequences of his research activities closer to agricultural practice has always been a special concern for him. This practical relevance is also evident in his committed, imaginative and educationally skillful courses. Since 1992 he has given lectures at the University of Göttingen on "Basics of Plant Nutrition", "Physiology and Nutrition of Cultivated Plants" and "Nutrition of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics". He represented the field of “plant nutrition and fertilization” on numerous faculty excursions at home and abroad. He also carried out independently organized specialist excursions.

Even "in retirement" Römer is considered a competent expert in the field of phosphate fertilization. As a sought-after speaker, he is still often invited to conferences. In the Association of German Agricultural Investigation and Research Institutes (VDLUFA), he was actively involved in the development of basic positions on phosphate fertilization. He was or is an expert reviewer for the governments in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.

Publications (selection)

• Investigations into the utilization of the photosynthetic apparatus in barley (Hordeum distichon L.) and mustard (Sinapis alba L.), carried out with the help of 14C-labeled compounds . Diss. Agr., University of Jena 1970, typescript.
• Investigations into C -14 shifts and distribution of assimilates in tomatoes of different ripeness types . In: Archives for Horticulture. Volume 30, 1982, pp. 85-93.
• Investigations on P-dynamics in soil and plants as the basis for a material-economical P-fertilization regime with a high yield level . Agricultural dissertation B (habilitation thesis), University of Halle / Saale 1985, typescript.
• Phosphorus requirement of the wheat plant in various stages of its life cycle (together with Günther Schilling). In: Plant and Soil. Volume 91, 1986, pp. 221-229.
• On the problem of very high P-contents in the soil against the background of the fertilizer ordinance of 1996 and the eutrophication of water . In: VDLUFA series of publications. Volume 50, 1999, pp. 5-19.
• Iron-rich sewage sludge reduces P availability and does not belong on arable land . In: Soil Protection. Volume 2, 2003, pp. 48-50.
• Exudation of low molecular weight organic acids by Lupinus albus L., Lupinus angustifolius L. and Lupinus luteus L. as affected by phosphorus supply (together with Komi Egle and Holger Keller). In: Agronomie (Paris) Volume 23, 2003, pp. 511-518.
• Neglected phosphorus and potash fertilization in organic farming lowers the biological nitrogen fixation in red clover and the grain yield in subsequent oats (together with Philipp Lehne). In: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science. Volume 167, Issue 1, 2004, pp. 106-113.
• More recent findings on the phosphate uptake of plants - literature findings . In: Archive of Agronomy and Soil Science. Volume 52, 2006, pp. 1-17.
• Approaches for a more efficient use of phosphorus on the basis of experimental findings . In: Reports on Agriculture. Volume 87, Issue 1, 2009, pp. 5-29.
• Phosphorus fertilizer effect of new phosphate recycling products . In: Reports on Agriculture. Volume 91, Issue 1, 2013, 24 pages, doi : 10.12767 / buel.v91i1.15.g59

literature

• Albrecht Jungk, Norbert Claassen, Günther Schilling and Wolfgang Merbach: Wilhelm Römer in retirement . In: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science. Volume 165, Issue 1, 2002, Sep. Enclosure = communications from the DGP (German Society for Plant Nutrition), SI
• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2007. Biobibliographical directory of contemporary German-speaking scientists . 21st edition, KG Saur Verlag Munich 2007, Volume III, p. 2975.