Kolloquium: Michaela Dippold

Biogeochemistry is in the heart of Earth System Sciences and targets the understanding of the element cycles underlying the “metabolism” of this planet. Metabolic regulation is, irrespective of the spatial scale, characterized by positive or negative feedbacks controlling pools, fluxes and transformation within and interactions between the element cycles. A mechanistic understanding of these regulatory responses is key to any future prediction of the impact of altered biogeochemical cycles for the Earth System and its components.

On a journey across scales, my presentation aims to provide insights on integrative approaches linking biogeochemistry from the (sub-)cellular to the ecosystem level, to generate the mechanistic framework of regulatory relationships within the “metabolism of element cycles” at various scales. I envision to present biogeochemistry as a System Science, where a cross-disciplinary “out-of-the-box” view encourages to approach yet to discover drivers or process-based relationships and where the future research in biogeochemistry is motivated by the challenges humans will have to encounter on their rapidly changing “Planet A”.

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