Overview

The Department Biogeochemical Processes explores the key processes and organisms that regulate exchanges of energy, water and elements between ecosystems and their surroundings. We use observations, experiments and models to improve understanding of how human activities are altering ecosystem function, and the consequences of those changes for sustainability and regional/global climate.

We explore several aspects of ecosystem function and how it is altered by climate and land use:

- Allocation of the products of photosynthesis among respiration, storage, growth, transfer to the rhizosphere and defense

- Factors determining the age and transit time of carbon in soils

- Links between microbial community function and the diversity of organic compounds and gases found in soils and groundwater

- Landscape scale processes such as windthrow, herbivory, and fire

- Understanding how environmental conditions are recored in the isotopic composition of biomarker molecules

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News

March 2020:
Congratulations to , who successfully defended his thesis on the "Compartmental systems as Markov chains: age, transit time, and entropy". Fortuntaly, the defense could take place in person, albeit closed to the public.

January 2020:
Alice Orme is a new PhD student in the Molecular Biogeochemistry group of Gerd Gleixner. For her thesis, she will focus on "Decoding the molecular signals of dissolved organic matter". Welcome, Alice!

April 9, 2019:
Michelle Robin, Master student at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), is currently visiting the institute. She studies VOCs within the ATTO project under the supervision of Eliane Gomes-Alves. Michelle will be here until May 19th and is staying in office B1.019. Welcome!

January 18, 2019:
Members from our department are convening or co-convening sessions at this years EGU 2019 general assembly. They are:

• Gerd Gleixner: Functions and Functioning of the Critical Zone (BG2.19 / SSS13.4)
• Gerd Gleixner (Co-Chair): Application of stable isotopes in Biogeosciences (BG1.1 / GMPV7.12 / HS11.54 / OS3.8 / SSS12.15)
• Henrik Hartmann (Co-Chair): Carbon allocation in plants and ecosystems: mechanisms, responses and biogeochemical implications (BG2.49)
• Jošt Lavrič: Intact Amazon forest – a natural laboratory of global significance (BG2.4 / AS3.35 / HS11.64 / SSS10.12)
• Marion Schrumpf, Carlos Sierra (Co-Chair): Carbon sequestration and timescales of Carbon Cycling in Soils and whole Ecosystems: Observations, Data Synthesis and Modelling (SSS5.2)

Latest Publications

1	Ramsay, R., Di Marco, C. F., Sörgel, M., Heal, M. R., Carbone, S., Artaxo, P., de Araùjo, A. C., Sá, M., Pöhlker, C., Lavric, J. V., Andreae, M. O., Nemitz, E. (2020). Concentrations and biosphere–atmosphere fluxes of inorganic trace gases and associated ionic aerosol counterparts over the Amazon rainforest. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20(24), 15551-15584. doi:10.5194/acp-20-15551-2020.
2	Negrón-Juárez, R. I., Holm, J. A., Faybishenko, B., Marra, D. M., Fisher, R. A., Shuman, J. K., de Araujo, A. C., Riley, W. J., Chambers, J. Q. (2020). Landsat near-infrared (NIR) band and ELM-FATES sensitivity to forest disturbances and regrowth in the Central Amazon. Biogeosciences, 17(23), 6185-6205. doi:10.5194/bg-17-6185-2020.
3	Täumer, J., Kolb, S., Boeddinghaus, R. S., Wang, H., Schöning, I., Schrumpf, M., Urich, T., Marhan, S. (2020). Divergent drivers of the microbial methane sink in temperate forest and grassland soils. Global Change Biology. doi:10.1111/gcb.15430.
4	Loisel, J., Gallego-Sala, A., Amesbury, M. J., Magnan, G., Anshari, G., Beilman, D. W., Benavides, J. C., Blewett, J., Camill, P., Charman, D. J., Chawchai, S., Hedgpeth, A., Kleinen, T., Korhola, A., Large, D., Mansilla, C. A., Müller, J., van Bellen, S., West, J. B., Yu, Z., Bubier, J. L., Garneau, M., Moore, T., Sannel, A. B. K., Page, S., Väliranta, M., Bechtold, M., Brovkin, V., Cole, L. E. S., Chanton, J. P., Christensen, T. R., Davies, M. A., Vleeschouwer, F. D., Finkelstein, S. A., Frolking, S., Galka, M., Gandois, L., Girkin, N., Harris, L. I., Heinemeyer, A., Hoyt, A. M., Jones, M. C., Joos, F., Juutinen, S., Kaiser, K., Lacourse, T., Lamentowicz, M., Larmola, T., Leifeld, J., Lohila, A., Milner, A. M., Minkkinen, K., Moss, P., Naafs, B. D. A., Nichols, J., O’Donnell, J., Payne, R., Philben, M., Piilo, S., Quillet, A., Ratnayake, A. S., Roland, T. P., Sjögersten, S., Sonnentag, O., Swindles, G. T., Swinnen, W., Talbot, J., Treat, C., Valach, A. C., Wu, J. (2020). Expert assessment of future vulnerability of the global peatland carbon sink. Nature Climate Change. doi:10.1038/s41558-020-00944-0.
5	Lehnert, A.-S., Perreca, E., Gershenzon, J., Pohnert, G., Trumbore, S. E. (2020). Simultaneous real-time measurement of isoprene and 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol emissions from trees using SIFT-MS. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11: 578204. doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.578204.

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