News 2026

The hidden belowground recycling of phosphorus in the Amazon rainforest helps the forest continue to grow, but also makes the ecosystem potentially more vulnerable to climate change.
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The 2023-2024 El Niño caused the most severe drought ever recorded in the Amazon rainforest, along with heat waves and fires. But it also significantly affected the emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds through the Amazon rainforest’s vegetation and their uptake by soils. more

Questions and answers on the water cycle, evaporation, and precipitation more

Today Prof. Tian is  awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. The award comes with an extended research stay in Germany, which he spends at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, hosted by Director Prof. Sönke Zaehle.  more

In close cooperation with the Max Planck Institutes for Biogeochemistry and Geoanthropology the Institute for Geosciences at the Friedrich Schiller University is offering a new Master’s program, “Biogeosciences of the Anthropocene”. more

The Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” at the University of Jena has awarded the Microverse Early Career Scientist Awards 2025 to Dr. Beatrix Heinze and Dr. Harikumar R. Suma. more

As a newly elected member of the Leopoldina, Prof. Markus Reichstein receives his certificate during this year’s Life Sciences symposium. more