Recent News

Researchers at University of California and Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry have created a more accurate model of global carbon cycling. The model better accounts for the contributions of Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems to atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, a major source of uncertainty for scientists tallying global emissions. more

Carbon sinks on the land surface mitigate the greenhouse effect. An international team of scientists has now determined that the vast majority of Europe’s total above-ground carbon storage is provided by the forests of Eastern Europe. However, this carbon sink has declined, mainly due to changes in land use.
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The world’s forests, grasslands, and other terrestrial ecosystems have played a substantial role in offsetting human carbon emissions—a capability that researchers say would be threatened by continued global change. more

At certain times in the year, more soot particles reach the Amazon rainforest from bush fires in Africa than from regional fires. more

Anna Michalak, Director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science and Professor in the Departments of Earth System Science and of Biology at Stanford University, has been appointed External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. more

Germany's most popular plant identification app "Flora Incognita" has been further upgraded by a new artificial intelligence. This triples the number of plant species that can be identified up to 16,000. In addition, the app is now available in 20 different languages and also in offline mode. more

End-of-dry-season CO₂ pulses recur each year in the atmosphere above the Australian continent. Analyses show that CO₂ emissions spike when heavy rain falls on dried-out soil, thus activating microorganisms in that soil. The findings suggest that dry regions have a greater influence on the variations in the global carbon cycle than previously thought. more