
Soil Biogeochemistry
Dr. Marion Schrumpf
The Soil Biogeochemistry Group is an interdepartmental group of the BGI and the Biogeochemical Processes department.
Mission
The Soil Biogeochemistry Group aims at understanding and quantifying the role of belowground processes for biogeochemical cycles at different spatial scales. Our main focus is explaining the persistence of organic matter in soils (SOM) and assessing its vulnerability to global environmental changes, land use intensification, and associated loss of biodiversity.
More specifically, we are interested in
(1) explaining the vertical profile of organic carbon and radiocarbon in soils, thereby identifying factors affecting the stability of organic carbon in topsoils and subsoils;
(2) exploring how plants, soil properties and microorganisms affect carbon storage via interacting carbon and nutrient cycles, including the role of biodiversity for soil functions;
(3) finding abstractions and simplified descriptions of these processes to better represent soils in ecosystem and earth system models.

The strength of our group is in combining experimental and modelling approaches. On the experimental side we are conducting field surveys and monitoring as well as experimental manipulation studies in ecotrons and laboratory incubations, using 13C, 14C, and 15N as tracer for fast and slow element fluxes. Our modelling approaches span from model development of specific soil compartments to global applications of full soil profile models, using model-data integration for improved parameterization. |
Team
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