History of Department of Agrometeorology and Applied Informatics
Department
of Agrometeorology and Applied Informatics in its present form was
established on 1st Feb. 2000 by a merge of two scientific departments
at the IUNG:
Department of Agrometeorology and Department
of Applied Mathematics and Informatics. Due to this fact the
presentation of its history requires the description of two parallel
threads of development until the merge and then as one after the merge.
Department
of Agrometeorology
After
the reorganization of the PINGW in 1950 research within the scope of
meteorology was conducted at more than one unit of the Puławy
research centre. In the years between 1953 and 1956 it was confined
mainly to the Laboratory of Local Climate and Microclimate of the IMUZ.
In 1957 the IMUZ moved from Puławy and at the IUNG the
Autonomous Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology was
created with dr. Henryk Mitosek as Head. As of 1962 Tadeusz
Górski, MSc, became Head of the Laboratory. In 1966 the
Laboratory was changed into the Agrometeorology Department, headed by
dr. Tadeusz Górski. Initially the Department had 9 persons of
staff: 2 scientific workers, 6 technicians and 1 hand. The activities
were focused on research methodology and problems within the scope of
microclimatology and agrohydrometeorology, for which empirical
materials were acquired from fields at Kępa and Osiny
experimental stations. Fixed fields of 1 hectare of area, cultivated
according to unchanging tillage practices were the experimental objects
on which the experiments begun by the earlier research units were
continued, aided with the current biometric, phonologic and physical
agrometeorologic information. Measurements of atmospheric pollution
within the impact range of chemical works in the Puławy region
and in Sulphur Basin had been conducted for a few years.
Owing to
scientific and organizational initiative of Prof. Tadeusz
Górski the research area was broadened, co-operation with
other scientific centres was initiated and the number of staff raised.
Between 1971 and 1975 the research had been focused mainly on climatic
requirements of various crops and methods of objective assessment of
yield-effectiveness of the climate. The agroclimatic valuation was
elaborated at the Department as part of the complex valuation of
agricultural production space of Poland developed by an
inter-departmental team. For this achievement the team was awarded the
first degree State Reward. The actinometrical measurements that had
been previously conducted at Puławy for a long time were
expanded and large-scale research within the scope of photoecology was
begun; the latter was conducted at a laboratory founded in the Upper
Garden inside the Department's own means. In 1971, after
many years of research, the activities on the fixed fields had been
finished and the empirical materials acquired were taken over by dr.
Zygmunt Jakubczak, who moved with two other employees to the Department
of Soil Science and Recultivation of the IUNG.
Apart
from a diverse scientific programme at the Department standard
measurements of weather elements were carried out as well as special
ones stimulated by the needs of field experiments of the Institute. For
this purpose, in early 70s, the Meteorogical Service was created,
supervised by Józef Wójcik. The organizational
structure of weather stations network of experimental stations of the
IUNG was established and the departmental data archive was extended. In
1972 the XXII Agrometeorological Meeting was organized on the occasion
of the Centenary of Meteorology in Puławy. This anniversary
was mainly related to the functioning of the Puławy weather
station, which had been run by the Department of Agrometeorology, one
of only few stations in Poland of such long measurement series.
In late
70s the Department was in charge of co-ordination of a nation-wide
project concerning agrometeorological basis of yield forecasting. Apart
from that the research into climatic requirements of maize production
for different uses was conducted. Furthermore, work on the methodology
of loss assessment in plant production as caused by precipitation
deficiency was conducted. At the end of 70s the number of staff at the
Department reached 17 persons: 4 scientific workers, 10 technicians and
3 hands.
Between 1981
and 1990 the Agrometeorology Laboratory, headed by dr. Gustaw
Demidowicz, functioned within the Department. Its team, numbering 8
people, conducted work on climatic requirements of plants in which
these properties had been unknown before. The Laboratory also developed
the agroclimatic valuation to the scale of voivodship. Moreover, Prof.
T. Górski, Head of the Department, formed an informal small
group to continue the earlier research into variability of crop
yielding and photobiology of seeds and plants. The research into
variability of climatic elements and its description in probabilistic
terms as well as refining methods of determination the relationship
between development and yielding of plants and the weather was also
going on. This research became the information and methodology
foundation for the Agroclimatic Atlas of Poland, the elaboration of
which was begun within a broad thematic scope; the task was to crone
the earlier achievements of the Department in the field of
agrometeorology.
In the 90s
the development of the Atlas was aided with computer technology. In
addition, the research into the impacts of climate change on plant
production was conducted and climatic index of water balance was
constructed. The homogenization of temperature and precipitation series
of the length of over one century from the weather station in
Puławy was accomplished. In the field of photoecology the
research into exploiting the photoblastism of seeds in weed control in
crops was conducted as well as into photomorphogenetic factors of habit
and yielding formation of plants in stand. In 1992 the Department of
Agrometeorology hosted the III Nation-wide Scientific Symposium
"Climate of the Cultivated Field".
As of 1995 dr
Gustaw Demidowicz became Head of Department. In 1996 the anniversary of
125 years of agricultural meteorology in Puławy was celebrated
and on this occasion the International Scientific Conference "Climatic
Conditions of Plant Poduction" and the International Seminar on
Phytoactinometry were held. The Seminars on Phytoactinometry have been
organized at the Institute for many years owing to a strong scientific
position of the photoecology team at the Department. The employees of
the Department took part in the realization of the commissioned
research project "Methodology of current and long-term forecasting of
production volume of staple crops in Poland". The statistical and
empirical methods developed within the project have been used since in
the current forecasting service run by the Department. In co-operation
with the Department of Applied
Mathematics and Informatics the Agroclimatic Atlas of Poland
was finished in the form of computer programs generating data for map
creation.
In 1970 a Department of Computation was founded
at the IUNG. Its main task was analysis of the results of field
experiments conducted in ZDUNGs (Soil, Fertilization and Cultivation
Experimental Stations) and at the regional network of experimental
sations. Henryk Nadzieja, MSc, was appointed as Head of the Department,
which at that time was equipped with a GEO-2 machine (manufactured by
Warsaw Polytechnic). The Department had 8 persons of staff.
In 1972 the name of the Department was changed
to the Department of Electronic Computational Technology with Erazm
Działoszyński, MSc, as Head. In the Department an
ODRA-1325 computer had been installed (in 1974) and the number of staff
grew to 25. Since the new machine had no software dedicated to special
jobs it was the task of the crew to develop a library of programs for
statistical analysis of results from all experiments conducted at the
IUNG. This had been achieved in a few years.
In 1976 Prof. Jerzy Krzymuski was appointed Head
of Department. The unit changed the status from services to
science-and-services, which was also reflected in its new name:
Department of Methodology of Experiments and Informatics. Two
laboratories had been created: Laboratory of Methods of Experiments and
Applied Informatics with Krystyna Filipiak, MSc, as Head and Laboratory
of Applied Informatics with Bogusław Pietraś, MSc, as
Head. The Computation Division was headed by Erazm
Działoszyński, MSc. This organizational structure
persisted till 1987.
The fundamental mission of the Department
continued to be computational services and statistical analysis of
results from experiments as well as verification of documentation
sheets from experiments conducted at ZDUNGs. Parallel to the services
research was carried out into regionalization of staple crops, progress
in field crop varieties as well as field-experiment methods and
application of informatics. The focus was on implementation of new
statistical methods, new experimental methods and numerical processing
of data.
Apart from typically statistical programs,
numerous application programs were created at that time in co-operation
with other scientific departments. Of these Valuation of Production
Agricultural Space, Programmed Recommendations for Fertilisation and
Optimisation of Cropping Systems were the most important. The SYGRODAN
system for data collection was developed, in which the following
databases were created: a database on sample farms (830 farms from all
the country), a database on weed infestation of crops and a database of
results from the farms taking advantage of the Programmed
Recommendations for Fertilisation system.
After Prof. J. Krzymuski had left in 1987, the
Department was changed into Division of Informatics and Experimental
Methodology with Czesław Pietruch as Head and a new mission to
develop software for PC computers. Due to the restructuring of the
Institute in 1992 about 60% of employees left the Division. From the
remaining staff of 8 persons a new department was created: The
Department of Applied Mathematics and Informatics headed by Prof.
Antoni Faber. The changes become faster. KBN, in answer to a
proposal prepared by Czesław Pietruch, MSc, grants funding for
the purchase of a SUN
computer, the installation of a LAN network at the IUNG and the
Internet connection. In 1994 dr. Andrzej Zaliwski becomes Head of
Department. Gradually new staff is recruited. In the Department new
research projects are introduced that take into account new
developments in informatics. Research projects on simulation modelling
of yields of selected crops are started, but the development of Spatial
Information System on Agricultural Resources in Poland becomes the most
important. The projects taken on require close co-operation of
specialists from such fields as natural sciences, cartography, geodesy,
geography, remote sensing, mathematics, mathematical statistics and
informatics. These have been considered the priority direction of
research at the IUNG. Technical equipment now makes possible to create
numerical maps at different scales: country, regional and local in
order to present the distribution of natural variables, such as:
climate, contamination of soils etc. Between 1998 and 2000 the research
is continued within the "Integrated Spatial Information System for
Agricultural Production in Poland" project, commissioned by
the Polish Minister of Agriculture.
At the present
the Department have such computer programs as: AGROEFEKT
(Technology Modeling and Economic Analysis of Private Farms), NAW3,
AGRONOM (Fertilization Advisory Service), AWAR (Variance Analysis
System), DOPL2 (Crop Rotation Advisory Service), which are in the IUNG's
advertisement. Progress is made on a new version of Advisory
Service in Cereal Production Technology. The staff of the Department
have co-operated with other scientific departments at the IUNG in
realization of many interdisciplinary research projects. The effects
are common scientific publications rewarded with national, ministerial
and Director of the Institute's awards.
Department
of Agrometeorology and Applied Informatics
The
Department of Agrometeorology and Applied Informatics between 2000 and
2002 takes part in statutory, commissioned and international research
projects and grants. Services activity along the line of mathematical
statistics, experimental design, data processing, spatial analysis and
cartography for the benefit of other departments has been continued.
In
another project, "Assessment of the content of heavy metals, sulphur
and some organic compounds in the soil of arable land", which had been
realised in co-operation with the Soil
Science, Erosion Control and Land Protection Department, the
GIS team of the Department of Agrometeorology and Applied Informatics
developed applications for spatial analyses and took part in
preparation (spatial analysis, editing and printing) of numerical maps
of the state of contamination of the soil with Cu, Cd, Ni, Pb, Zn and S
to the scale of 1:500,000.
In the project
"Starting the information system on distribution of segetal weeds" a
data processing system was created to generate information on weed
infestation of crops in Poland. The data came from a 20-years long
monitoring conducted by the Department
of Weed Ecology and Control of the IUNG. With the aid of the
system the atlas of distribution of segetal weeds in Poland, containing
16 maps, was prepared and printed.
For research in which spatial data and spatial analyses are used the
results achieved in the project "Geostatistic Methods in Spatial
Experimental Design" are especially important.
Modelling
of growth and development of plants was the subject of the project
"Assessment of the usefulness of the SUCROS / WOFOST / NWHEAT
deterministic models in explanation of winter-wheat
yielding-variability in field conditions".
In two
international projects, "Development and Implementation of an Internet
based Decision Support System for Integrated Pest Management in Poland
2000-2002" and "Development of an Internet based Decision Support
System for Cereal Diseases and Potato Late Blight in Poland, 2001-2002"
web pages with weather, climatic, variety and other information were
developed along with the pages with disease, weed and potato late
blight models. These latter projects have been conducted in
co-operation with the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences (DIAS),
Danish Agricultural Advisory Service (DAAC)
and the key Polish institutions in plant protection, namely Plant
Protection Institute (IOR)
in Poznań, Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR)
in Radzików, the IHAR - Bonin
branch, Main Inspectorate of Plant Protection and Seed Inspection
(GIIORiN) in Warsaw, Institute of Meteorology and Water Management
(IMGW) - the Poznań branch
and the Voivodship Agricultural Advisory Centre (LODR)
in Końskowola.
Among
the major achievements of the Department in the period 2000-2002
numerous computer programs, Internet applications, research progress
reports, results of spatial analyses, numerical maps, scientific publications and
reviews can be numbered. The Department has had co-operation with
scientific domestic institutions such as the Institute of Geodesy and
Geodetic Astronomy of the Warsaw University of Technology, the
Institute of Meteorology and Water Management in Warsaw and the
Wrocław University as well as foreign ones. The employees of
the Department have taken part in numerous domestic and foreign
symposia, conferences and workshops to present scientific papers and
posters.
