IMPRS course 'Terrestrial biosphere'

This course will focus on processes important in biosphere-atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases as well as methods used to scale these exchange processes to understand their importance in global biogeochemical cycles.

The emphasis will be on plants since soil science is covered in a separate course.

Category: Core course
Credits: 0.2 per course day

>> Terrestrial Biosphere 2022

If you are an doctoral researcher with limited background knowledge in biology and ecology, this is the right course for you. You can attend any or all days of the course.

1.  When

September 2024

2.  Where

Am Planetarium 1: Lecture hall (ground floor of the Schleiden Institute)
Philosophenweg 16, Institute of Ecology and Evolution
Entrance of the Jena Experiment
MPI-BGC: B0.002 and outside

3.  Preliminary agenda

Legend L = lecture, D = demonstration, P = practical, E = excursion

Sept 2 - Biodiversity and ecosystem functions
Part I: Introduction to biodiversity research with Christine Römermann
(Am Planetarium 1: Lecture hall, ground floor of the Schleiden Institute)
9:00 - 10:30 Biodiversity (L)
- What is biodiversity?
- Changes and threat on biodiversity
- Consequences of biodiversity loss
- Functional biodiversity
- Biodiversity experiments
- Biodiversity and ecosystem processes
Part II: Experimental approaches to biodiversity research
11:00 - 13:00 Observing changes in phenology and traits in a global network of Botanical Gardens (D, P) with Robert Rauschkolb (Philosophenweg 16, Institute of Ecology and Evolution; Entrance)
15:00 - 17:00 Excursion to the Jena Experiment (E) with Markus Lange (Meeting point at the entrance of the Jena Experiment)

Sept 3 - Plant traits and modeling plant/soil (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
Jens Kattge
09:00 -12:30 Biogeochemical cycles in general & models of BGC cycles (L)
Traits as characteristics of plants (including their relevance for determining soil properties)

Sep 17 - Ecophysiology (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
Jianbei Huang
09:00 - 13:00 Carbon Metabolism, water in plants, transport processes, nutrients and interactions (L)
Plant carbon and water relations in a changing world.
Implications for global forest ecosystems.
13:00 - 17:00 Hands on part (D/P)

Oct 28 - From plants to planet: The global biosphere (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
Axel Kleidon
09:00 - 12:30 Population dynamics, resources, and dynamics of the biosphere (interactive L)
14:00 - 16:30 Atmosphere-biosphere interactions and planetary-scale dynamics (interactive L)

October 29 - Introduction to process-based vegetation modelling (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
Phillip Papastefanou
9:30 - 11:00 Mathematical representation of ecosystem models (L)
11:30 - 12:30 Building a simple biogeochemical model in 3 steps of abstraction (visual representation, mathematical representation, working model) (P/D)
for this part, please bring a laptop with a current version of python and spyder or another python IDE installed. Ideally you should have some basic programming knowledge, but we will build the model step by step so that everyone can follow.
13:30 - 16:00 Building a simple biogeochemical model in 3 steps of abstraction (visual representation, mathematical representation, working model) (P/D)

for this part, please bring a laptop with a current version of python and spyder or another python IDE installed. Ideally you should have some basic programming knowledge, but we will build the model step by step so that everyone can follow.

4.  Registration

>> Register here by August 16, 2024.