A presenter speaks at a lectern in front of an audience, with a slide titled "The envisaged MultiStress Model" displayed on a large screen.
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Presentation of the New MultiStress Crop Modelling Approach at EGU2026 in Vienna

ByMultiStress Research Team

The MultiStress research unit was represented at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2026 in Vienna, where Prof. Reimund Rötter presented the new MultiStress crop modelling approach on behalf of the SP6 project team.

The presentation took place in Session BG2.11, “Modelling agricultural systems under global change”, and introduced the ambition of the MultiStress framework to integrate, for the first time, interactions between multiple abiotic and biotic stress factors within a process-based crop growth model.

A central component of the approach is the integration of genotype-specific carbon allocation to stress defence mechanisms, enabling a more mechanistic understanding of how maize responds to combined stresses such as drought, nutrient deficiency, diseases, and pests.

The modelling framework is supported by extensive empirical datasets collected from tropical and temperate maize systems across multiple organizational levels — ranging from genetic information to ecophysiological processes measured under field conditions.

The presentation also highlighted the broader relevance of the MultiStress experimental and modelling approach for: developing multi-stress-resilient crop cultivars, improving climate change impact assessments, evaluating adaptation strategies in agricultural systems, and contributing to global food security research.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is one of the leading international organizations in Earth, planetary, and environmental sciences. The EGU General Assembly 2026 brought together more than 22,000 participants from around the world and featured over 20,000 scientific presentations across more than 1,000 sessions.

We are grateful for the many inspiring discussions and exchanges during the conference and look forward to continuing collaborations across disciplines and research communities.