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 2026

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

September 7 - Biodiversity and ecosystem functions
Part I: Introduction to biodiversity research with Christine Römermann
(Philosophenweg 12, SR124)
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 Biodiversity, 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)

September 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

October 7 - Lessons learned and current challenges in data-driven modelling (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
Sophia Walther, Jacob Nelson
10:00 - 12:00 Lecture

• purpose and history of data-driven modelling
• data-driven flux estimates in comparison to independent estimates
• transferring from tower scale to global
• open scientific questions and research directions
• current short-comings and challenges

13:00 - 16:00 Hands-on on cross-validation strategies

• introduction to cross-validation and its evaluation, do and don'ts
• try different strategies of CV and compare model results
• model competition

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.

October 15 - Ecophysiology (MPI-BGC, B0.002)
Part I: Ecophysiology - the basics
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.
Part II: Ecophysiology - Hands-on
Martin Goebel, Iris Kuhlmann
13:00 - 17:00 Hands on part (D/P)

October 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.