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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Shi, K.; Liao, J.; Delgado-Baquerizo, M.; Zou, X.; Chen, H. Y.H.; Bi, Q.-F.; Fang, Y.; Yan, Z.; Ren, T.; Ruan, H.: Forest development and seasonal variation drive functional reorganization of soil microbiomes and enzymatic activities. Catena 267, 109976 (2026)
Pu, J.; Gao, S.; Yan, K.; Sun, X.; Winkler, A.; Wang, Q.; Mynen, R. B.: Disentangling the effects of FPAR, CO2, and climate on terrestrial vegetation productivity trends over two decades (2001–2023). Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 382, 111122 (2026)
Schellenberg, K.; Paulus, S. J.; Queck, R.; Chaparro, D.; Binks, O.; Mencuccini, M.; Paligi, S. S.; Hartmann, H.; Schmullius, C.; Dubois, C.et al.; Jagdhuber, T.: Evaluating GNSS-T VOD sensitivity to plant water dynamics, rainfall interception, and dew in a coniferous forest. (accepted)
Pereira Santos, A.; De Angeli, S.; Hanf, F. S.; Mirbach, C.; van Maanen, N.; Benson, V.; de Ruiter, M. C.; Dunant, A.; Terzi, S.; Schweizer, P.-J.et al.; Carvalho, T. M. N.; de Brito, M. M.; De Polt, K.; Trogrlic, R. S.; van den Homberg, M.: Workshop report—Vulnerability in multi-hazard risks: Addressing its complexity and dynamics. iScience 29 (4), 115250 (2026)
