Patrick Duddek

The main focus of my research is related to the understanding of emergent effects of two rhizosphere traits: root hairs and mucilage on root water uptake at the plant scale. During the course of the corresponding project, our research team is going to measure the relation between soil water potential, leaf water potential and transpiration rates in two maize genotypes, differing in the property of building root hairs. With regard to this issue, we are also going to compare maize and cowpea lines that exude a different amount of mucilage.

I am a participant of the DFG funded priority programme "Rhizosphere Spatiotemporal Organisation - a Key to Rhizosphere Functions (SPP2089)" which not only aims at the identification of spatiotemporal patterns in the rhizosphere but also at the understanding of their underlying mechanisms (https://www.ufz.de/spp-rhizosphere).