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Educational research has shown that reflection and feedback are crucial for substantial development of pre-service teachers' professional competence. However, reflection and feedback sessions are not a standard element of teaching practicums due to time- and location-constraints. Digital practicum environments can lift these constraints. Digital reflection and feedback environments have typically applied either textual accounts or video sequences of classroom practice, with varying effects. Consequently, the studies presented in this cumulative dissertation are focused on how the use of text- or video-based digital reflection and feedback environments during a practicum influence specific components of pre-service teachers' professional competence (i.e., beliefs about teaching and learning, self-efficacy, professional vision of classroom management, feedback competence). All studies followed a quasi-experimental, pre-test-post-test design. Pre-service teachers at the fourth-semester bachelor level in a German university took part in the studies. Pre-service teachers participated in a four-week teaching practicum at local schools. During the teaching practicum, pre-service teachers were divided into five different groups. The control group (CG) took part in a traditional practicum with live observations and face-to-face reflection and feedback with peers and experts. Pre-service teachers of the intervention groups (IG 1, IG 2, IG 3, IG 4) reflected and received feedback in highly structured text- or video-based digital environments. Intervention groups 1 (IG 1) and 2 (IG 2) participated in a text-based digital reflection and feedback environment. While IG 1 participants only received feedback from peers, IG 2 pre-service teachers also received expert feedback. Intervention groups 3 (IG 3) and 4 (IG 4) took part in a video-based digital reflection and feedback environment. IG 3 pre-service teachers only received peer feedback, whereas IG 4 participants also received expert feedback. Mixed methods were applied by generating quantitative and quantitative-qualitative data was with questionnaires, a standardized video-based test and content analysis. The studies demonstrated that classroom videos and video-based digital reflection and feedback environments can effectively enhance pre-service teachers' professional competence. This finding can be predominantly attributed to two characteristics of the application in the digital reflection and feedback environments: (a) being able to revisit a multitude of authentic teaching situations without time pressure and (b) the degree of decomposition by deliberate, focused practice and scaffolding elements. Furthermore, expert feedback seemed to be of better quality and entailed more substantial effects than peer feedback. The results of the conducted studies on professional vision of classroom management, beliefs about teaching and learning and feedback competence showed that expert feedback can be seen as a lens reducing and focusing classroom complexity, enabling pre-service teachers to perceive crucial teaching situations that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and to benefit from expert modelling of high-quality feedback. Consequently, video-based digital reflection and feedback environments with expert feedback can significantly improve pre-service teachers' professional competence during teaching practicums and, thus, better prepare pre-service teachers for future classroom challenges, leading to better learning environments for school students.
Das Bildungskonzept Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE) gilt als Schlüsselfaktor für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung. Die Stärkung der Kompetenzen von Multiplikatoren und somit Lehrkräften als Gestalter formaler Bildung ist ein Ziel auf dem Weg zu einer qualitativ hochwertigen Bildung. Es gilt, im Verlauf der Lehrkräftebildung Möglichkeiten zu schaffen, die Entwicklung relevanter Kompetenzen gezielt zu unterstützen, um effektivere Ergebnisse im Bereich BNE zu erreichen. Für den universitären Teil der Lehrkräftebildung geht dies einher mit einer entsprechenden Gestaltung von Lernumgebungen, durch die angehende Lehrkräfte relevante Kompetenzen zu Beginn ihres individuellen Bildungsweges entwickeln können. Darüber hinaus sollen durch entsprechende Fort- und Weiterbildungsformate auch bereits im Schuldienst tätige Lehrkräfte erreicht werden. Das als transdisziplinäres Format angelegte Entwicklungsteam Sachunterricht, bestehend aus Sachunterrichtslehrkräften, Vertretern außerschulischer Bildungsorte und Forschenden der Universität, bildet den Ausgangspunkt dieser Arbeit. Die vorliegende Arbeit fokussiert die Untersuchung von Möglichkeiten der Professionalisierung von (angehenden) Lehrkräften zu BNE im Kontext des Entwicklungsteams. Dazu wurde zunächst theoretisch-konzeptionell der Frage nachgegangen, welche Kompetenzen relevant für die Integration von BNE in Schule und Unterricht sind und wie Lehr-Lernsettings gestaltet werden sollten, um die Entwicklung entsprechender Kompetenzen zu unterstützen. Im Rahmen zweier empirischer Studien wurde anschließend einerseits die Kompetenzentwicklung seitens der Studierenden analysiert, die an einem durch das Entwicklungsteam begleiteten Seminar teilnahmen. Andererseits liegt der Fokus auf dem spezifischen Format des transdisziplinären Entwicklungsteams und es wurde untersucht, inwiefern wechselseitiges Lernen zwischen den Entwicklungsteammitgliedern initiiert werden und dies in einer Veränderung der pädagogischen Praxis resultieren kann. Aufgrund seiner hohen Anschlussfähigkeit an den bildungswissenschaftlichen Diskurs wurde das Modell der BNE-spezifischen professionellen Handlungskompetenz den konzeptionellen Überlegungen und den darauf aufbauenden empirischen Untersuchungen zugrunde gelegt. Die Gestaltung eines Lehr-Lern-Settings für angehende Lehrkräfte mit dem Ziel der Förderung entsprechender Kompetenzen wurde anhand des Konzepts der offenen Lernumgebung vorgenommen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen zum einen, dass das in enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Entwicklungsteam als offene Lernumgebung durchgeführte Seminar die Professionalisierung der Studierenden unterstützt und der Aufbau von (BNE-spezifischer) professioneller Handlungskompetenz durch kollaboratives Gestalten in Kooperation mit der Praxis ermöglicht wird. Zum anderen zeigt sich, dass die transdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit ein wechselseitiges von- und miteinander Lernen zu BNE im Entwicklungsteam Sachunterricht fördert und Professionalisierungsprozesse sowohl seitens der Lehrkräfte als auch des außerschulischen Akteurs zumindest in einigen Bereichen angestoßen wurden.
This dissertation includes an introduction and five empirical papers focusing on the educational and career decision-making process of individuals in Germany. The five papers embrace different determinants of educational and career decisions including school performance, social background, leisure activities as well as professional expectations, and contribute to the existing literature in this research area. Chapter 2 of this dissertation begins by analysing the nexus between students’ time allocation and school performance in terms of grades and satisfaction with their own performance in mathematics, the German language and a first foreign language, as well as overall achievement. This chapter looks at the heterogeneity of three important extracurricular activities: student jobs, sports and participation in music. Moreover, the heterogeneity of each activity is addressed by accounting for different types of the particular activity and differences in the number of years the activity has been pursued. For this purpose, data from the German SOEP, as a representative panel survey of private households and people in Germany, in particular cross-sectional survey data of 3388 students who are about 17 years old and enrolled in a German secondary school, were used. The main findings are that having a job as a student is negatively correlated with school performance, whereas participation in sports and music is positively correlated. However, the results reveal heterogeneity in each activity, especially with respect to intensity. Chapter 3 addresses the concrete post-school decision of school students, in particular whether to study or to enter the German VET system (Vocational Education and Training). It focuses on individual risk preferences and the social background of individuals and how these determinants affect the ultimate decision to enrol in university or to start an apprenticeship given the same level of qualification. For the empirical approach data from the German SOEP were used, in particular information on individuals' educational decisions between 2007 and 2013. The results indicate that (i) individual risk preferences do not have an overall effect on the real transition; (ii) privileged individuals are more likely to take up higher education; and (iii) compared to highly educated parents, parents without an academic background are less likely to guide their children into tertiary education, regardless of how much they support their children with their school work. Chapter 4 deals with the reconsideration of educational decisions in terms of early contract cancellations in VET. In particular, the effects of a second job on the intention to cancel a VET contract early are analysed for apprentices in Germany. For the empirical approach the representative German firm-level study "BIBB Survey Vocational Training from the Trainee's Point of View 2008", conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), is used. The survey contains 5901 apprentices that were interviewed during their second year of apprenticeship (205 schools, 340 classes, and 15 common occupations). Furthermore, it includes the design, procedures, basic conditions, and quality criteria of apprenticeships. The applied probit regressions show a higher intention to quit if apprentices require a secondary job to cover their living costs. In Chapter 5, new data on 191 apprentices from a vocational school, located in a northern German federal state, are used to validate the empirical results of Chapter 4. This chapter presents new insights into secondary-job-related burdens during apprenticeship. Due to limitations in the data, the applied empirical approach in Chapter 4 lacks to analyse how holding multiple jobs increases the intention to leave an apprenticeship early. Therefore, Chapter 5 includes the investigations of burdens related to the second job. The results indicate a lower intention to quit the apprenticeship if an apprentice holds a second job to cover living costs. However, secondary jobs are linked to lower quality of training, which, on the other hand, increases the intention to leave the apprenticeship early. Furthermore, the probability of secondary-job-related burdens increases with the number of working hours. Chapter 6 concludes the thesis by investigating subjective determinants of early contract cancellations in VET. It examines ten questions on what apprentices want to achieve and how unfulfilled expectations affect the intention to leave the apprenticeship early. The findings of this investigation contributes to the existing research on early contract cancellation. The questions considered include information on the performance, personal development, career development and prospects or position in society and their meaning to apprentices. For the research approach, the "BIBB Survey Vocational Training from the Trainee's Point of View 2008" is considered again. The probit and ordered probit regressions applied show significant effects of job characteristics that represent job security. The expectation of being retained after an apprenticeship and the encouragement to consistently train further decrease the intention to leave the apprenticeship early. Furthermore, women appear to be more affected by job security signals than men, but they also sort more often into occupations with lower retention probabilities. Consequently, this result may be an indication of occupational segregation rather than a sign of differences between sexes.
A Matter of Connection: Competence Development in Teacher Education for Sustainable Development
(2021)
Based on a dual case study, this cumulative dissertation investigates how individual "education for sustainable development" (ESD) courses, as part of the teacher education programs at Leuphana University in Lüneburg/Germany and Arizona State University (ASU)/USA, actually foster students' ESD-specific professional action competence. Furthermore, this work sheds light on the link between learning processes and outcomes, to reveal which factors actually affect the achievement of ILOs and competence development. The findings of this study indicate that both courses under investigation eventually live up to their role and increased student teachers' competence and commitment to implement ESD in their future careers; yet, mainly due to their different thematic foci, to varying degrees. Additionally, the four Cs (personal, professional, social, and structural connections) were revealed as significant factors that support students' learning and should be considered when planning and designing course offerings in TESD, with the goal of developing students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
The Macro Polity Revisited
(2021)
This dissertation includes six articles tied together by the overarching question of how changes in public opinion, economics and public policy co-evolve in mature democracies, with a focus on redistributive (in seven European democracies) and secessionist preferences (in Catalonia and Scotland). The theoretical inspiration derives from three sources: 1. the Macro Polity model by Erikson, MacKuen/Stimson, 2. the Thermostatic Responsiveness model by Soroka and Wlezien, and 3. the literature on representation gap models by Gilens, Elsaesser and others. The Macro Polity and Thermostatic Responsiveness models come with an optimistic undertone, emphasizing that public policies adapt to public opinion, producing the policy-opinion congruence that defines responsive government. The Representation Gap model, by contrast, is more pessimistic in highlighting that the preferences of low-income groups are generally worse represented in public policies than the preferences of middle-income and especially high-income groups. While there is evidence in favor of these models for the majoritarian political systems in the US, Canada and the UK, less is known about the validity of these models in proportional democracies of continental Europe. The contributions in this dissertation address this research gap by integrating the three models and combining nearly 500 surveys to study the evolution of European public opinion at the national and subnational level.
The principle of this thesis was to study the environmental fate of three highly used psychotropic drugs and this achieved through: 1) examining the biodegradability of TMI, DMI and CPTX, 2) studying the behaviour of TMP, DMI and CPTX in photodegradation tests using Xe and UV lamps with studying the effect of different environmental conditions on their UV-photodegradation behaviour, 3) monitoring the primary elimination of TMP, DMI and CPTX during photodegradation and biodegradation tests using HPLC, and measuring their degree of mineralization by means of dissolved organic carbon analyser (DOC), 4) elucidating the structures of the transformation products (TPs) which formed during the degradation of TMI, DMI and CPTX by using LC-MS/MS analysis, 5) analysing the biodegradability of their TPs by laboratory tests and in-silico assessments in order to determine the fate and persistence of these TPs in the aquatic environment, 6) conducting in-silico toxicity predictions for the selected psychotropic drugs and their TPs in human (carcinogenicity, genotoxicity and mutagenicity) and in eco-system (toxicity to microorganisms and toxicity in rainbow trouts). As an overall conclusion, the present work demonstrates that a combination of laboratory simulation tests, LC-MS/MS analysis and in-silico tools result in valuable new information regarding environmental fate of three important psychotropic drugs and their TPs. This dissertation also highlights that different environmental conditions such as temperature, initial drug concentration and pH can differently affect the degradation behaviour of pharmaceuticals even when they are highly structurally related. Therefore, one cannot conclude from one pharmaceutical to another but each one needs to be investigated individually and this present a great challenge for risk assessment kinetics of chemicals in the aquatic environment. The results presented here showed that the investigated pharmaceuticals and their TPs can negatively affect the environment which may be harmful to the ecosystem as they might have been present for decades in the aquatic environment without any knowledge of their environmental fate or connected risk. Therefore, further work needs to be done including analysis of environmental samples (e.g., surface waters), as well as laboratory toxicity tests to further expand knowledge on their exact environmental impact.
In zahlreichen, sowohl wissenschaftlichen als auch politischen Veröffentlichungen, wird die "Energiewende" als Transformationsprojekt eingeordnet. Zweifelsohne birgt eine Umstellung auf ein erneuerbares Energiesystem transformative Potenziale. Die Bedeutungsbestimmung von "Energiewende" oder auch Transformation bleibt in Politik und Forschung aber häufig unklar. Um dem zu begegnen, wird in der vorliegenden Studie die Bedeutung von "Energiewende", wie sie im Bundestag verhandelt wird, untersucht. Darauf aufbauend wird analysiert, ob und inwiefern die „Energiewende“ einem Anspruch als Transformationsprojekt gerecht werden kann, bzw. wie sich die Wirkrichtung der mit "Energiewende" verbundenen Politiken im Spannungsfeld beharrend – reformistisch – transformativ verorten lässt. Die besondere gesellschaftliche Bedeutung der Bundestags-Debatten um "Energiewende" leitet sich diskurstheoretisch unter anderem aus der ihnen zukommenden "Schaufensterfunktion" ab, wonach die Debatten strategisch auf eine außerparlamentarische Öffentlichkeit ausgerichtet sind. Hinzu kommt, dass sich der hier stattfindende Diskurs, bspw. in Gesetzen, unmittelbar materialisiert. Als Startpunkt der Untersuchung wird der Beginn der rot-grünen Regierungszeit gewählt (1998), da diese – u.a. wegen der Verabschiedung des Erneuerbaren-Energien-Gesetzes (EEG) und dem politischen Beschluss zum Atomausstieg – in besonderer Weise mit der "Energiewende" in Verbindung gebracht wird. Als Endpunkt dient die letzte vollständige Wahlperiode zum Zeitpunkt der Untersuchung. Die Diskursanalyse bezieht sich demnach auf die Bundestagsdebatten zur "Energiewende" zwischen der 14. und 18. Legislaturperiode (1998-2017). Das methodische Innovationspotenzial der Arbeit liegt insbesondere in der Verbindung aus einem Verfahren quantitativer, computerbasierter Diskursanalyse mit einer qualitativen Analyse. Als Ergebnis der Verknüpfung von Transformations- und Diskurstheorie wird ein methodisch komplexes Forschungsdesign präsentiert, das sich neben der Analyse des "Energiewende"-Diskurses auf weitere Bereiche der politischen Transformationsforschung übertragen lässt.
Sustainable landscape development is the main goal of decision makers worldwide. Achieving this goal in the long term leads to achieving social, economic and environmental sustainability. Remote sensing has been playing an essential role in monitoring remote areas. This study has employed part of the role of remote sensing in supporting the direction of decision makers towards sustainable landscape development. The study has focused on some of the main elements affecting sustainable environment: land uses, specifically agricultural land uses, water quality, forests, and water hazards such as floods. Three research programs were undertaken to investigate the role of Terrasar-x imagery, as a source of remote sensing data, in monitoring the environment and achieving the previous stated elements. The investigation was intended to investigate the effectiveness of TSX imagery in identifying the cropping pattern of selected study areas by employing a pixel-based supervised maximum likelihood classifier, as published in Paper I, assessment of the efficiency of using TSX imagery in determining land use and the flood risk maps by applying an object-based decision tree classifier as published in Paper II, and determination of the potential of inferential statistics tests such as the two samples Z-test and multivariate analysis, for example Factor Analysis, for identifying the kind of forest canopy, based on the backscattering coefficient of TSX imagery of forest plots, as presented in Paper III. Papers I and II covered two pilot areas in the Lower Saxonian Elbe Valley Biosphere Reserve “das Biosphärenreservat "Niedersächsische Elbtalaue" around Walmsburger Werder and Wehninger Werder. Paper III focused on the Fuhrberger Feld water protection area near Hanover in Germany. The inputs for this research were mainly SAR Imagery and the ground truth data collected from field surveys, in addition to databases, geo-databases and maps. The study presented in Paper I used two filters to decrease speckle noise namely De-Grandi as multi-temporal speckle filter, and Lee as an adaptive filter. A multi-temporal classification method was used to identify the different crops using a pixel-based maximum likelihood classifier. The classification accuracy was assessed based on the external user accuracy for each crop, the external producer accuracy for each crop, the Kappa index and the external total accuracy for the entire classification. Three cropping pattern maps were produced namely the cropping pattern map of Wehninger Werder in 2011 and the cropping pattern maps of Walmsburger Werder in 2010 and in 2011. The study showed that image filtering was essential for enhancing the accuracy of crop classification. The multi-temporal filter De-Grandi enhanced the producer accuracy by about 10% compared to the Lee filter. Furthermore, gathering and utilizing large ground truth data greatly enhanced the accuracy of the classification. The research verified that using sequence images covering the growing season usually improved the classification results. The results exposed the effect of the polarization and demonstrate that the majority of the classifications produced according to the crop calendar had higher total producer accuracy than using all acquisitions. The study demonstrated undertaken in Paper II applied the decision tree object-based classifier in determining the major land uses and the inundation extent areas in 2011 and 2013 using the Lee-filtered imagery. Based on the maps produced for the land uses and inundation areas, the hazard areas due to the floods in 2011 and 2013 were identified. The study illustrated that 95% of the inundated area was classified correctly, that 90% of vegetated lands were accurately determined, and around 80% of the forest and the residential areas were correctly recognized. The research undertaken in Paper III statistically analyzed the backscattering coefficient of the Lee-filtered TSX in some forest plots by the Factor Analysis and two sample Z-test. The study showed that Factor analysis tools succeeded in differentiating between the coniferous forest and the deciduous forest and mixed forest, but failed to discriminate between the deciduous and the mixed forest. On one hand, only one factor was extracted for each sample plot of the coniferous forest with approximately equal loadings during the whole acquisition period from March 2008 to January 2009. On the other hand, two factors were extracted for each deciduous or mixed forest sample plot, where one factor had high loadings during the leaf-on period from May to October, and the other one had high loadings during the leaf-off period from November to April. Furthermore, the research revealed that the two sample Z-test enabled not only differentiation between the deciduous and the mixed forest against the coniferous forest, but also discrimination between deciduous forest and the mixed forest. Statistically significant differences were observed between the mean backscatter values of the HH-polarized acquisitions for the deciduous forest and the mixed forest during the leaf-off period, but no statistically significant difference was found during the leaf-on period. Moreover, plot samples for the deciduous forest had slightly higher mean backscattering coefficients than those for the mixed forest during the leaf-off period.
Tropical forests worldwide support high biodiversity and contribute to the sustenance of local people’s livelihoods. However, the conservation and sustainability of these forests are threatened by land-use changes and a rapidly increasing human population. This dissertation, therefore, aimed to characterize biodiversity patterns in the moist Afromontane forests of southwestern Ethiopia and to examine how biodiversity patterns are affected by land-use and land-use changes (mediated by coffee management intensity, landscape attributes and housing development) in a context of a rapidly growing rural population. To achieve this goal, the author takes an interdisciplinary approach where, first, she examined the effects of coffee management intensity on diversity patterns of woody plants and birds, spanning a gradient of site-level disturbance from nearly undisturbed forest interior to highly managed shade coffee forests. Results showed that specialized species of woody plants (forest specialists) and birds (forest specialists, insectivores and frugivores) were affected by coffee management intensity. The richness of forest specialist trees and the richness and/or abundance of insectivores, frugivores and forest specialist birds decrease with increasing levels of disturbance. Second, the author investigated the effects of landscape context on woody plants, birds and mammals. Community composition and specialist species of woody plants and birds were sensitive to landscape context, where woody plants responded positively to gradients of edge-interior and birds to gradients of edge-interior and forest cover. Further results showed that a diverse mammal community, with 26 species, occurs at the forest edge of shade coffee forests and that the leopard, an apex predator in the region depended on large areas of natural forest. A closer examination of leopard activity patterns revealed a shift in the diel activity as a response to human disturbance inside the forest, further highlighting the importance of natural undisturbed forests for leopards in the region. Together, these findings demonstrate the value of low managed shade coffee forests for biodiversity, and importantly, emphasize the irreplaceable value of undisturbed natural forests for biodiversity. Third, the researcher investigated the effects of prospective rural population growth (mediated by housing development) on the forest mammal community. Here, population growth was projected to negatively influence several mammal species, including the leopard. Housing development that encroached the forest entailed worse outcomes for biodiversity than a combination of prioritized development in already developed areas and coffee forest protection. Fourth, to understand the motivations behind high human fertility rates in the region, she examined the determinants of women fertility preferences, including their perceptions on social and biophysical stressors affecting local livelihoods such as food insecurity and environmental degradation. Fertility preferences were influenced by underlying social norms and mindsets, a perceived utilitarian value of children and male dominance within the household, and were only marginally affected by perceptions of social and biophysical stressors. The findings suggest the need for new deliberative and culturally sensitive approaches that engage with pervasive social norms to slow down population growth. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the key value of moist Afromontane forests in southwestern Ethiopia for biodiversity conservation. It indicates the need to promote coffee management practices that reduce forest degradation and highlights that high priority should be given to the conservation of undisturbed natural forests. It also suggests the need to integrate conservation goals with housing development in landscape planning. A promising approach to achieve the above conservation priorities would be the creation of a Biosphere Reserve and to promote the ecological connectivity between the larger forest remnants in the region. Finally, this dissertation demonstrates the importance of placed-based holistic approaches in conservation that consider both proximate and distal drivers of forest biodiversity decline.
Excessive fertilizer use leads to nutrient imbalances and losses of these to the environment through leaching, runoff and gaseous emissions. Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) in agriculture is often low and improving it could increase the sustainability of agricultural systems. The main aims of this thesis were to gain a better understanding of plant-soil-microbe interactions in order to improve agricultural NUEs. The studies included experimentally tested how crops respond to addition of high carbon amendments, fertilizer application rates and timing, and crop rotations. Furthermore, methods for measurement of roots were compared and a protocol for measurement of roots was developed. The first experiment simulated an agricultural field using mesocosms. In this setting, the researchers tested the effect of 4 previous crops (precrops), which either had or did not have a symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)/rhizobia, on the focal crop (winter barley). They also tested the addition of high carbon amendments (wheat straw/sawdust) for immobilization of residual soil nitrogen (N) at harvest of the previous crop. Overall, the findings were that non-AMF precrops had a positive effect on winter barley yield compared to AMF precrops. Wheat straw reduced N leaching, whereas sawdust addition had a negative effect on the yield of winter barley. The second experiment tested the effect of different fertilizer (N/phosphorus (P)) application timings on plant traits grown in rhizoboxes. Overall, delaying N application had a more detrimental effect on plant biomass than delaying P application. The root system increased its root length initially due to N-deficiency, but was quickly thus N-limited that root length was relatively lower than the control group. Because of the many root related measurements in the second experiment, a step-by-step method for measuring root traits under controlled and field conditions was developed and included in this thesis. This method paper describes precisely how root traits of interest can be measured, and helps with deciding which approach should be taken depending on the experimental design. Additionally, the authors compared the bias and accuracy of several popular root measurement methods. Overall, these results highlight the importance of crop choice in crop rotations and the plasticity of root systems in relation to nutrient application. The results show high carbon amendments could reduce nitrate leaching after the harvest of crops, especially those with high risk of nitrate leaching, although they had only small impacts on yield.