SFB 1313 organized Girls' Day Workshop "Climate Change: Droughts and Salinization"

One of the consequences of climate change is increasing global warming. Warmer temperatures on the earth's surface lead to changed weather conditions. Storms, heavy rain and droughts are no longer rare. What happens when rainfall decreases? Soils dry out, form deep cracks and require irrigation for agriculture. In certain areas, this can lead to the formation of large salt crusts that make the soil infertile for agriculture. For example, in very dry regions in Tunisia or Israel.

The causes of soil salinization are quite diverse. For example, the use of saline water for irrigation can be one of the causes. However, there are also salts in the soils themselves, which are brought to the surface by irrigation and evaporation. Salt crusts make the soil infertile and plant growth impossible.

In our workshop, our team showed the girls what "salinization" is and how salt crusts can form on soils or salt lakes in very dry areas. They explained them, which physical forces play a major role in dry soils and how soil salinization can be prevented. Therefore, they experimented and created a simulation together to make invisible environmental processes visible.