Grüne Helden: Mit Pflanzen dem Klimawandel trotzen

Climate change poses major challenges for humanity - rising temperatures, extreme weather events and water scarcity threaten global food security. How can we make crops more resilient to ensure a secure food supply in the future?

Plant research provides innovative solutions to adapt plants to changing environmental conditions. Four scientists will present their current research projects and show the methods they are using, the goals they are pursuing and how they could succeed in defying climate change with resilient plants.

Format: Discussion event with 4 scientists (CEPLAS and TRR 341), 15 minutes each of keynote speech and discussion

Junior Professor Dr. Elena Hamann, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Evolution as a genetic blueprint: How plants can adapt to the climate

How do plant populations adapt to climate change? How can findings from evolution help to predict the adaptability of plants?

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schurr, Forschungszentrum Jülich

Measuring the plant: phenotyping for targeted optimization of plant production

How do plants react to environmental conditions? And how does this affect their yield? Using state-of-the-art phenotyping techniques, researchers record the growth and development of plants with the highest precision and high throughput in the laboratory and in the field. They decipher the influence of environmental factors and thus create the basis for targeted breeding and innovative production systems for the agriculture of the future.

Prof. Dr. Nadine Töpfer, University of Cologne

Hypotheses for success: How mathematical models can predict the reaction of plants to new environmental conditions

Researchers are working with computer models to analyze plant metabolism and its adaptation to the environment - with the aim of developing more resistant and efficient plants for the future.

Dr. Simon Zumkeller, Forschungszentrum Jülich

Artificial intelligence decodes the control of genes across species boundaries

Finding the DNA segments that control genes under different conditions and make cells different despite having the same genetic information is a major challenge. Artificial intelligence accelerates this process by identifying evolutionarily conserved control elements. This enables us to explain how plants adapt to their environment.

Moderation: Nico Hoffmeister