IMPRS core 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 2024

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

fall 206

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 7 - 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 11 - Microbial processes in biogeochemical cycles and their integration into ecosystem understanding with Janina Rahlff (MPI-BGC, B0.002)

13:00 - 14:30 Lecture with core content (L)

• Microbes as central agents in carbon, nitrogen, and methane cycles
• Coupling between plants and microbes (rhizosphere, mycorrhiza, litter decomposition)
• How microbial processes regulate greenhouse gas fluxes (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O)
• Introduction to amplicon sequencing (16S rRNA)
• ASVs/OTUs and ecological interpretation
• Difference between long read and short-read sequencing

14:30 - 17:00 Hands-on session (D/P)
16S rRNA community analysis to relate microbial community composition to ecosystem function

We will analyze 16S rRNA-based community data from a MinION sequencer (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) to evaluate the health status of soil samples and to study how microbial populations are modified by their interaction with plant roots. This will include the following steps:

• Download data
• Assess datasets quality
• Improve the dataset quality
• Re-evaluate datasets quality
• Assign taxonomic classifications
• Analyze taxonomic assignment
• Interpret results

tbd - Plant traits and modeling plant/soil (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
tbd
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)

tbd - Ecophysiology (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
Part I: Ecophysiology - the basics
tbd
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.
Part II: Ecophysiology - Hands-on
Jianbei Huang
13:00 - 17:00 Hands on part (D/P)

October X: Using Citizen Science Data in Ecological Research (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
Jana Wäldchen

October 14 - 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.

Oct 27 - 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)

4.  Registration

>> Register here by August 16, 2026.