Press Releases

Vegetation can respond to drought through different mechanisms, including changes in the plants’ structure and physiology. By analyzing state-of-the-art satellite-derived datasets with explainable machine learning methods, an international team around Wantong Li and René Orth showed that the vegetation’s physiology in many ecosystems has deviated from its structure under drought on a global scale. more

Land surface temperatures are shaped mostly by the heating by sunlight, but also by evaporation and convective heat transfer in the vertical. A new study determined the role of these two processes by employing a physical limit. more

A new study shows that the efficiency of microbial carbon use is at least four times more influential than other biological factors or environmental conditions on the global storage and distribution of carbon in soil. more

With a kick-off event on January 12, 2023, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and the German Aerospace Center jointly opened the ELLIS Unit Jena.  Machine learning and artificial intelligence are being used to help address global environmental crises. more

The land carbon turnover times shape the response of the land surface to changes in climate. Therefore, understanding and quantifying the carbon turnover’s temperature sensitivity is key in the context of climate change. Our new study shows that moisture conditions strongly modify the apparent temperature sensitivity of carbon turnover times. more

Dr. Ana Bastos, group leader at Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, was awarded the Beutenberg Campus science award in the category „outstanding junior research scientist”. more

The Global Carbon Project presents its new report on global greenhouse gas budget trends. For the current year, CO₂ emissions are projected to be slightly higher than before the pandemic, only slightly below the 2019 peak. If emissions remain at this high level, stabilization of the climate and achievement of the Paris climate targets is questionable. more