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
Tao, Feng, F.; Huang, Y.; Hungate, B. A.; Manzoni, S.; Frey, S. D.; Schmidt, M. W. I.; Reichstein, M.; Carvalhais, N.; Ciais, P.; Jiang, L. et al.: Microbial carbon use efficiency promotes global soil carbon storage. Nature (2023)
Tao, Feng, F.; Huang, Y.; Hungate, B. A.; Manzoni, S.; Frey, S. D.; Schmidt, M. W. I.; Reichstein, M.; Carvalhais, N.; Ciais, P.; Jiang, L. et al.: Microbial carbon use efficiency promotes global soil carbon storage. Nature (2023)
Massaro, E.; Schifanella, R.; Piccardo, M.; Caporaso, L.; Taubenböck, H.; Cescatti, A.; Duveiller, G.: Spatially-optimized urban greening for reduction of population exposure to land surface temperature extremes. Nature Communications 14, 2903 (2023)
Roebroek, C. T. J.; Duveiller, G.; Seneviratne, S. I.; Davin, E. L.; Cescatti, A.: Releasing global forests from human management: How much more carbon could be stored? Science 380, 6646, pp. 749 - 753 (2023)
Joswig, J.; Kattge, J.; Kraemer, G.; Mahecha, M. D.; Rüger, N.; Schaepman, M. E.; Schrodt, F.; Schuman, M. C.: Imputing missing data in plant traits: A guide to improve gap-filling. Global Ecology and Biogeography (2023)