How do ecosystems respond to changing weather patterns, rising temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide concentrations? Is the effect of precipitation more important than that of temperature? Or are ecosystem dynamics more strongly affected by nutrient availability? What is the role of extreme events in shaping biogeochemical cycles? To find out the answers we need to understand the interactions among three complex systems: climate, vegetation, and soil. Thus, we combine experiments and in-situ long-term observation with Earth Observations gathered by aircraft and satellites across a range of spatial scales, and embrace data-driven machine learning and theory-driven mechanistic modelling. With our research, we try to understand how the terrestrial biosphere reacts to and exerts feedbacks on ongoing environmental change and variation in atmospheric conditions.
Latest publications
Hanggara, B., T.El-Madany, A.Carrara, et al. 2026. “Non-Abrupt Vegetation Changes due to Altered Nutrient Balance Make Complex Scale-Dependent Warming and Cooling Effects.” Global Change Biology32, no. 3: e70782. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70782. // Figure 1: Illustration of hypothesis and research questions in this study. Nutrient addition (i.e., nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P]) affects surface-atmosphere interaction through energy fluxes dynamics such as changes in latent heat (Δ LE), sensible heat (Δ H), soil heat flux (Δ G), resid-ual energy imbalance (Δ I ), which lead to surface temperature change (Δ Ts). It also influences the atmosphere via combination of the impacts causedby surface albedo change (Δ 𝛼) and net CO2 uptake (Δ NEE), represented using radiative forcing (RF) at the top of atmosphere (TOA). // No changes were made to the illustration.
Hanggara, B., T.El-Madany, A.Carrara, et al. 2026. “Non-Abrupt Vegetation Changes due to Altered Nutrient Balance Make Complex Scale-Dependent Warming and Cooling Effects.” Global Change Biology32, no. 3: e70782. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70782. // Figure 1: Illustration of hypothesis and research questions in this study. Nutrient addition (i.e., nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P]) affects surface-atmosphere interaction through energy fluxes dynamics such as changes in latent heat (Δ LE), sensible heat (Δ H), soil heat flux (Δ G), resid-ual energy imbalance (Δ I ), which lead to surface temperature change (Δ Ts). It also influences the atmosphere via combination of the impacts causedby surface albedo change (Δ 𝛼) and net CO2 uptake (Δ NEE), represented using radiative forcing (RF) at the top of atmosphere (TOA). // No changes were made to the illustration.
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Kepp, J.; Kiese, R.; Klaus, V. H.; Kleinebecker, T.; Pacay-Barrientos, N. L.; Schäufele, R.; Schloter, M.; Schöning, I.; Schrumpf, M.; Schulz, S.et al.; Schwärzler, T.; Schweizer, S. A.; Dannenmann, M.: Management rather than climate and biodiversity shapes long-term delta15N dynamics in grassland soils. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 411, 110651 (2026)
Schmidt, L.; Effenberger, N.; Benson, V.; Bommer, P. L.; Brunstein, R.; Samarin, M. N. M.; Schillinger, M.: How can machine learning emulators best support climate science? arXiv (accepted)
Bebber, A.; Gutknecht-Gmeiner, M.; Rzanny, M.; Fiebelkorn, F.; Mäder, P.; Wäldchen, J.: Integrating identification apps into university plant identification courses: implications for teaching and learning. Journal of Biological Education (2026)
Winkler, A. J.; Kranz, J.; Graf, A.; Caporaso, L.; Duveiller, G.; Fan, N.; Gharun, M.; Green, J. K.; Hammerle, A.; Harrison, S. P.et al.; Hau, O.; Javadian, M.; Li, X.; Guohua, L.; Mauder, M.; Migliavacca, M.; Miralles, D. G.; Hafezi Rachti, D.; Panwar, A.; Reichstein, M.; Reimers, C.; Ribeiro, A. F. S.; Richardson, A. D.; Wohlfahrt, G.; Yerba, M.; Zhao, L.; Forkel, M.: The phenology-climate feedback loop: Current understanding and future directions. ESS Open Archive (2026)
