Projects & initiatives
The BGI department forms part of various international research projects in the field of e.g. land-biosphere-atmosphere interactions, carbon and nutrient cycles, Earth System modelling, remote sensing and Earth Observation, experimental field and lab studies; it forms part of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network on Remote Sensing for Ecosystem modelling (TRuStEE), the Biodiversity Exploratories, and other research activities. Currently the department hosts the ERC funded QUINCY project (Quantifying the effects of interacting nutrient cycles on terrestrial biosphere dynamics and their climate feedbacks) and coordinates the Future Earth IRDR WCRP Knowledge-Action Network on Emergent Risks and Extreme Events. Additionally, the department has coordinated the H2020 project BACI (Detecting changes in essential ecosystem and biodiversity properties – towards a Biosphere Atmosphere Change Index), the FP7-funded project CARBO-Extreme studying the impacts of climate variability and weather extremes, the ESA project CAB-LAB Coupled Atmosphere Biosphere Virtual Laboratory and the Future Earth cluster E3S Extreme Events and Environments from climate to Society.
Short descriptions of funded projects and scientific initiatives we are involved in are available below.
Current projects
 | Acronym: 4C Title: Climate-Carbon Interactions in the Current Century Duration: 6/2019 - 5/2023 PI/Co-PIs: Sönke Zaehle Project link: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/821003 Participating department members: | |
 | Acronym: BIOMASS Title: Project Office BIOMASS Duration: 7/2020 - 5/2023 PI/Co-PIs: Nuno Carvalhais, Markus Reichstein Project link: Within ESA’s Earth Explorers, the primary objective of BIOMASS is to improve our understanding on the role of the land biosphere on the global carbon cycle, with clear implications in a context of climate change. Project Office BIOMASS aims to synthesize, produce and disseminate relevant information within the biomass community; identify gaps and investigate solutions within the context of BIOMASS; and establish communication to maintain a necessary dialogue within the broader context of the BIOMASS mission. Participating department members: Hui Yang, Stefanie Burkert, Nuno Carvalhais | |
 | Acronym: CIRCASA Title: Coordination of International Research Cooperation on soil CArbon Sequestration in Agriculture Duration: 11/2017 - 2/2021 PI/Co-PIs: Marion Schrumpf Project link: https://www.circasa-project.eu/ Participating department members: Marion Schrumpf | |
 | Acronym: CoCO2 Title: Prototype system for a Copernicus CO2 service Duration: 1/2021 - 12/2023 PI/Co-PIs: Julia Marshall, Martin Jung Project link: CoCO2 is a European project lead by ECMWF to build a monitoring and verification support capability for global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) related to human activities. The future anthropogenic CO2 emission monitoring and verification support capability will support action on climate change in line with the Paris Agreement. Key CoCO2 requirements are to distinguish emissions related to human activities from other sources of CO2 in the atmosphere; monitoring CO2 emissions from local to global scales; and providing uncertainty estimates. Participating department members: Julia Marshall, Martin Jung | |
 | Acronym: COS-SIF Title: Constraining terrestrial gross primary productivity by joint measurements of the carbonyl sulfide exchange and sun-induced fluorescence Duration: 10/2019 - 9/2022 PI/Co-PIs: Mirco Migliavacca Project link: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/Research/BAIE The project aim at constrain the estimates of gross primary productivity (GPP), and ecosystem respiration (ER). To this end we propose a combined approach including joint measurements of carbon dioxide and carbonyl sulfide fluxes and sun-induced fluorescence during two field campaigns in two contrasting ecosystems, a mesocosm experiment, and process-based simulation modelling making use of the experimental data. The project is in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck Participating department members: Mirco Migliavacca, Tarek El-Madany | |
 | Acronym: CRESCENDO Title: Coordinated Research in Earth Systems and Climate: Experiments, Knowledge, Dissemination and Outreach Duration: 11/2015 - 1/2021 PI/Co-PIs: Sönke Zaehle Project link: http://www.crescendoproject.eu The CRESCENDO project aims to facilitate a coordinated European contribution to the CMIP6 experiment where the climate change community compares different international climate models to improve our knowledge of the Earth’s climate processes and provide the best possible future climate projections to governments and decision-makers Earth system models are increasingly the primary tools used for estimating the full Earth system response to future emissions of greenhouse gases. Hence it is crucial these models are continually improved in order that more reliable future climate projections can be made. Participating department members: Nuno Carvalhais, Sujan Koirala, Sönke Zaehle | |
 | Acronym: DeepCube Title: Big data technologies and Artificial Intelligence for Copernicus Duration: 1/2021 - 12/2023 PI/Co-PIs: Nuno Carvalhais Project link: DeepCube is a research project that aims to explore and develop new deep learning approaches to address relevant Earth system dynamics related to localized impacts of extreme events (drought and heat waves) and ecosystem disturbances (wildfires), including impacts of climate variability on migration flows, through AI-based understanding, quantification and prediction. Participating department members: Nuno Carvalhais, Fabian Gans and Markus Reichstein | |
 | Acronym: E-SHAPE Title: EuroGEOSS Showcases: Applications Powered by Europe Duration: 5/2019 - 4/2023 PI/Co-PIs: Markus Reichstein, Martin Jung Project link: http://e-shape.eu/ E-SHAPE aims to develop operational Earth Observation (EO) services with and for the users and to create a conducive environment whereby the strengths of Europe are exploited towards addressing societal challenges, fostering entrepreneurship and supporting sustainable development. Participating department members: Markus Reichstein, Martin Jung, Jacob A. Nelson | |
 | Acronym: ESA-CCI RECCAP-2 Title: REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes, Phase 2 Duration: 7/2020 - 1/2022 PI/Co-PIs: Ana Bastos Project link: https://climate.esa.int/en/projects/reccap-2/ The second phase of ESA-CCI RECCAP2 aims at improving the consistency between estimates of total greenhouse budgets produced by top-down and bottom-up methods against official estimates of national anthropogenic emissions and land sinks reported by individual countries to the UNFCCC as national communications. Participating department members: Ana Bastos | |
 | Acronym: Extreme Events Title: Extreme Events: Building Climate Resilient Societies Duration: 1/2019 - 12/2021 PI/Co-PIs: Markus Reichstein Project link: https://climate-extremes-emergent-risks.org/hkextremes2019/ Climate extremes are a top threat to human well-being and sustainable development Extreme events such as droughts, heatwaves, heavy rain, and violent storms are now part of our daily news. Risk-aware development towards the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals can significantly reduce societal risks associated with climate extremes. Participating department members: Markus Reichstein, Dorothea Frank, Miguel Mahecha, Linda Maack, Alice Ratajczak | |
 | Acronym: Flora Incognita++ Title: Flora Incognita – Systematic and reliable monitoring of German flora as a citizen science challenge Duration: 8/2019 - 7/2024 PI/Co-PIs: Jana Wäldchen Project link: http://floraincognita.com Project objectives: 1) Establishment of the Flora Incognita app as a standard method for plant identification in Germany 2) Development and implementation of an observation methodology and data exchange with various partners like nature conservation authorities and research groups 3)Development of quality assurance methods for observations and spatio-temporal analyses. 4) Expansion of the Flora Capture Citizen Science project and new didactic concepts for the dissemination of citizen species monitoring. Participating department members: Markus Reichstein, Michael Rzanny, Alice Deggelmann | |
 | Acronym: LCC Title: Land Surface Carbon Constellation Study Duration: 10/2020 - 3/2023 PI/Co-PIs: Sönke Zaehle, Mirco Migliavacca Project link: https://lcc.inversion-lab.com/ Investigate the terrestrial biosphere’s net ecosystem exchange – photosynthetic CO2 uptake minus respiratory CO2 release – response to climatic drivers by means of combining a process-based model with a wide range of observations (in-situ and remotely sensed) on local and regional scale. In the project we are involved in the modelling part and in the field activity. Participating department members: Sönke Zaehle, Mico Migliavacca | |
 | Acronym: LST_cci Title: Land Surface Temperature CCI project Duration: 11/2018 - 5/2021 PI/Co-PIs: Markus Reichstein Project link: http://cci.esa.int/lst#Project%20team Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an important variable within the Earth climate system. It describes processes such as the exchange of energy and water between the land surface and atmosphere, and influences the rate and timing of plant growth. The LST_cci aims to provide an accurate view of temperatures across land surfaces globally over the past 20 to 25 years and meet the requirements of Global Climate Observing System Participating department members: Markus Reichstein, Sophia Walther | |
 | Acronym: MALAICC Title: Multivariate analysis of the land-atmosphere-interactions in a changing climate Duration: 2/2018 - 1/2021 PI/Co-PIs: Rene Orth Project link: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/Research/HydroBioClim Land surface hydrology acts at the interface between soil, vegetation, and atmosphere, and therefore impacts food production, water availability, and extreme events such as droughts and floods. The question whether or not land surface impacts on vegetation and near-surface weather are intensifying in the context of global warming is tackled by a multivariate approach and an integrated analysis of soil moisture, matric potential, gross primary production, evapotranspiration, temperature, and ancillary land surface data. Land-atmosphere interactions with respect to its short- and long-term variability, its potential changes with climate change, and identify past, present and future hot spot regions of land-climate feedbacks will be investigated. Participating department members: Rene Orth, Jasper Denissen, Sungmin O, Markus Reichstein | |
 | Acronym: Monitoring biodiversity from space Title: Monitoring biodiversity from space: exploring the potentials of ESA’s Copernicus and German national EO missions Duration: 1/2020 - 6/2022 PI/Co-PIs: Mirco Migliavacca Project link: Project objectives: 1) To develop innovative method that can ingest multi-sourced satellite data (multispectral, hyperspectral, radar) to retrieve forest taxonomic and functional diversities; 2) To map taxonomic and functional diversity over European forests by applying methods developed in 1); 3)To study biodiversity effect on ecosystem functioning and resilience by integrating biodiversity maps from 2) and ecosystem functioning variables from the ICOS or similar networks. Participating department members: Mirco Migliavacca, Miguel Mahecha, Javier Pacheco Labrador, Diego Kraemer | |
 | Acronym: oBEF-Accross 2 Title: The potential of Earth observation to capture patterns of biodiversity European forests and analyze their resilience Duration: 1/2020 - 6/2022 PI/Co-PIs: Mirco Migliavacca Project link: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/Research/BAIE The influence of Biodiversity on Ecosystem Functioning (BEF) has been investigated for decades using long-term experiments and ground observations. Today, novel remote sensing (RS) approaches are about to revolutionize research into BEF: Higher spectral resolutions now allow quantifying biodiversity patterns; unprecedented spatiotemporal resolutions advance analyzing ecosystem functioning. However, assessing BEF using RS data still remains a challenge. This project addresses this topic by exploring the potential of the Sentinels, EnMap, and ESA-Flex missions for revealing BEF across environmental gradients, and to assess their temporal “stability”. This project will generate and test new hypothesis, for instance regarding the post-disturbance BEF recovery. Key questions in the context of “biodiversity patterns” and “biodiversity functions” will profit and be broadened. Participating department members: Mirco Migliavacca, Javier Pacheco-Labrador | |
 | Acronym: Projektbüro BIOMASS Title: Projektbüro BIOMASS Duration: 7/2020 - 4/2023 PI/Co-PIs: Nuno Carvalhais Project link: Im Vorfeld der ESA-Mission BIOMASS ist es wichtig, das derzeitige Verständnis der Herausforderungen und Möglichkeiten bei der Überwachung von Biomasse in terrestrischen Ökosystemen zu synthetisieren und voranzubringen, um unser Wissen über das Erdsystem weiterzuentwickeln. Im Rahmen der ESA-Erderkundung besteht das Hauptziel von BIOMASS darin, unser Verständnis über die Rolle der Landbiosphäre im globalen Kohlenstoffkreislauf zu verbessern, mit klaren Auswirkungen im Zusammenhang mit dem Klimawandel. Der Informationsgehalt bei der Charakterisierung der räumlichen und zeitlichen Variabilität der P-Band-Biomasse ist beispiellos und einzigartig für Studien über terrestrische Ökosysteme, insbesondere im Hinblick auf Landnutzungsänderungen und die Flüsse der Störungsdynamik, was letztlich die Fähigkeit zur Modellierung des globalen Kohlenstoffs verbessert. Die Mission beinhaltet notwendigerweise Herausforderungen in allen Bereichen, von der Instrumentengestaltung, der Definition von Retrieval-Algorithmen und Kalibrier-Validierungsstrategien bis hin zu nachgelagerten Datenkonzepten und dem Einsatz für eine große Vielfalt von Anwendungen. Aus dieser Perspektive zielt der vorliegende Vorschlag darauf ab, das Projektbüro BIOMASS einzurichten, um relevante Informationen innerhalb der Biomasse-Gemeinschaft zu synthetisieren, zu produzieren und zu verbreiten; Lücken zu identifizieren und Lösungen im Rahmen von BIOMASS zu untersuchen; und die Kommunikation zu etablieren, um einen notwendigen Dialog im breiteren Kontext der BIOMASS-Mission aufrechtzuerhalten. In diesem Zusammenhang verfolgt das Projektbüro BIOMASS insbesondere folgende Ziele: (1) Wissenssynthese und -verbreitung; (2) Erstellung eines Datenkonzepts; (3) Lückenanalyse; und (4) Öffentlichkeitsarbeit für eine breitere Öffentlichkeit. Das Projektbüro BIOMASS stellt Verbindungen zu anderen biomasseorientierten Missionen und den anderen ESA Earth Explorer-Missionen her. Participating department members: Nuno Carvalhais | |
 | Acronym: QUINCY Title: Quantifying the effects of interacting nutrient cycles on terrestrial biosphere dynamics and their climate feedbacks Duration: 9/2015 - 8/2021 PI/Co-PIs: Sönke Zaehle Project link: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/Projects/QUINCY The objective of QUINCY is to clarify the role of the interacting terrestrial nitrogen and phosphorus cycles and their effects on terrestrial C allocation and residence times as well as terrestrial water fluxes Participating department members: Lucia Eder, Enrico Weber, Melanie Kern, Jan Engel, Siliva Caldararu, Marion Schrumpf,Sönke Zaehle | |
 | Acronym: SUBSOM Title: The forgotten part of carbon cycling: Organic matter storage and turnover in subsoils Duration: 12/2017 - 12/2021 PI/Co-PIs: Markus Reichstein, Marion Schrumpf Project link: http://www.subsom.de Participating department members: Markus Reichstein, Marion Schrumpf | |
 | Acronym: USMILE Title: Understanding and Modelling the Earth System with Machine Learning Duration: 9/2020 - 8/2026 PI/Co-PIs: Markus Reichstein Project link: https://www.usmile-erc.eu/ Participating department members: Markus Reichstein | |
 | Acronym: VERIFY Title: Observation-based system for monitoring and verification of greenhouse gases Duration: 1/2018 - 12/2021 PI/Co-PIs: Martin Jung, Christoph Gerbig Project link: https://verify.lsce.ipsl.fr/ Activities in VERIFY are targeted towards developing a pre-operational system to quantify greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O) across the EU based on independent observations in support of inventories that rely only on statistical data. It integrates atmospheric measurements, improved emission inventories, ecosystem data, and satellite observations to estimate anthropogenic and natural GHG emissions and sinks, including their attribution to processes and sectors. The projects outputs help to deliver policy-relevant information to track progress of the EU mitigation efforts to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement on Climate. Participating department members: Martin Jung, Sophia Walther | |
Completed projects
 | Acronym: ABBA Title: Advancing the Integrated Monitoring of Trace Gas Exchange between Biosphere and Atmosphere Duration: 9/2008 - 2/2013 Project link: http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/essem/Actions/ES0804 Contact: Markus Reichstein This COST Action ES0804 provides a strong and dedicated coordination platform for planning, analysis and synthesis efforts, which will actually establish the building blocks of a European next generation of comprehensive multi-species flux monitoring sites. The COST Action will also create standardised methods and protocols for selection of site location, flux measurement techniques, (automated) processing and storage of data. This with a view to stimulate wider use of the data by a more diverse community of researchers, operational forecasters and environmental assessment organisations, policy and public. | |
 | Acronym: AquaDiva Title: Tracing metabolic and organic signals through the Earth's Critical Zone Duration: 12/2013 - 6/2017 Project link: http://www.aquadiva.uni-jena.de/Projects.html Contact: Gerd Gleixner, Markus Reichstein, Susan Trumbore | |
 | Acronym: BACI Title: Detecting changes in essential ecosystem and biodiversity properties – towards a Biosphere Atmosphere Change Index: BACI Duration: 4/2015 - 3/2019 Project link: http://baci-h2020.eu Contact: Miguel Mahecha, Markus Reichstein | |
 | Acronym: Biodiversity Exploratories Title: Biodiversity Exploratories Core-Projects, Coordination Duration: 5/2014 - 12/2009 Project link: http://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/startseite/ Contact: Marion Schrumpf, Susan Trumbore The project provides essential soil characteristics that determine ecosystem properties such as plant and soil organism abundance, diversity, and productivity under different land use and management, and information on soil processes driving belowground carbon (C) and nutrient cycles, to link management, biodiversity and soil function. | |
 | Acronym: BIOMASCAT Title: Assessing vegetation carbon dynamics from multi-decadal spaceborne observations Duration: 11/2018 - 10/2019 Project link: Contact: Nuno Carvalhais In this project, we'll work on creating a multi-decadal record of biomass estimates from multiple Earth Observation datasets and investigate the integration of these new remote sensing data streams into an analysis of ecosystem dynamics and modelling | |
 | Acronym: CAB-LAB Title: Coupled Atmosphere Biosphere virtual LABoratory Duration: 2/2015 - 1/2017 Project link: http://cab-lab.eu/ Contact: Miguel Mahecha, Fabian Gans | |
 | Acronym: CARBO-Extreme Title: The terrestrial Carbon cycle under Climate Variability and Extremes a Pan-European synthesis Duration: 6/2009 - 5/2013 Project link: http://www.carbo-extreme.eu/ Contact: Christian Beer, Nuno Carvalhais, Dorothea Frank, Miguel Mahecha, Markus Reichstein, Xiuchen Wu, Jakob Zscheischler CARBO-Extreme aims to * improve our understanding of the terrestrial carbon cycle in response to climate variability and extreme events * represent and apply this knowledge over Europe with predictive terrestrial carbon cycle modelling * interpret the model predictions in terms of vulnerability of the terrestrial - in particular soil - carbon pools under different scenarios and give advice to the European Commission and other stakeholders to support the development and implementation of climate, soil and ecosystem protection policies. | |
 | Acronym: CARBOAFRICA Title: Quantification, understanding and prediction of carbon cycle, and other GHG gases, in Sub-Saharan Africa Duration: 10/2006 - 3/2010 Project link: http://www.carboafrica.net/index_en.asp Contact: Markus Reichstein, Werner Kutsch | |
 | Acronym: CarboEurope IP Title: Assessment of the European Terrestrial Carbon Balance Duration: 1/2004 - 12/2008 Project link: http://www.carboeurope.org/ Contact: Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Martin Heimann, Christoph Gerbig, Martin Jun, Miguel Mahecha, Markus Reichstein, Sönke Zaehle To advance our understanding in a multidisciplinary and integrated way, 61 research centres from 17 European countries have joined forces for a 5-year EU-funded research project started in January 2004. CarboEurope-IP addresses basic scientific questions of high political relevance. | |
 | Acronym: Carbones Title: 30-year re-analysis of CARBON fluxES and pools over Europe and the Globe Duration: 4/2010 - 3/2013 Project link: http://www.carbones.eu/ Contact: Matthias Forkel, Markus Reichstein A novel approach for quantifying and understanding CO2 surface fluxes is proposed with CARBONES. It is a global information system that will address in a comprehensive and accurate way the quantification and understanding of the distribution of CO2 fluxes, carbon pools and underlying processes. It will take advantage of (and further adapt) in situ data infrastructures (ICOS, FLUXNET, CO2 networks, biomass and soil inventories) as well as space-based information of land and ocean surface biophysical properties and atmospheric composition. CARBONES will deliver the first ever consistent, high space and time resolution information of the history of the carbon Cycle, with associated uncertainties and attribution to controlling processes. Our tasks are: Leading WP 300: The aim of this work package is to provide three independent classes of data that will be used in the CARBONES system and advice on methodologies to use these data: (a) anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, land cover type and meteorological data as model forcing; (b) Satellite and in-situ data for assimilation into the system using the Core Services Products; (c) independent validation data that will be prepared and “metrics” defined that are robust indicators of model performance at the time- and space scales of interest. Our strategy is to have the different observational time and space scales 'built in" into the cost function minimized by the assimilation system. This is described in WP400. Carbon cycle observations are based upon different measurement principles (e.g. concentrations and fluxes), have different temporal and spatial densities (e.g. satellite and in-situ) and different scales. A further complexity of the carbon cycle data assimilation problem is that five orders of magnitudes of time-scales need to be resolved, going from hour in the case of photosynthesis, to decades in the case of soil organic carbon decomposition. | |
 | Acronym: CarboPerm Title: Carbon processes in permafrost ecosystems: generation, transformation and release Duration: 10/2013 - 9/2016 Project link: http://www.planeterde.de/Members/huenken/BMBF%20Projekte/wtz-russland-carboperm/ Contact: Martin Heimann, Mathias Goeckede, Markus Reichstein | |
 | Acronym: CHE Title: CO2 Human Emissions Duration: 10/2017 - 12/2020 Project link: https://www.che-project.eu/ Contact: Julia Marshall, Martin Jung The CO2 Human Emissions project is a European effort to develop a monitoring system for global anthropogenic CO2 emissions as opposed to variability in atmospheric CO2 concentrations that is caused by natural processes in order to enable well-informed decision making for greenhouse gas emission reductions, and to monitor policy effectiveness. It combines space-borne observations, ground-based measurements and Earth system models with national emission inventory data. | |
 | Acronym: CIRCE Title: Climate Change and Impact Research: the Mediterranean Environment Duration: 4/2007 - 3/2011 Project link: http://www.circeproject.eu/ Contact: Markus Reichstein, Dorothea Frank, Enrico Tomelleri CIRCE aims at developing for the first time an assessment of the climate change impacts in the Mediterranean area. The objectives of the project are: - to predict and to quantify physical impacts of climate change in the Mediterranean area; - to evaluate the consequences of climate change for the society and the economy of the populations located in the Mediterranean area; - to develop an integrated approach to understand combined effects of climate change; - to identify adaptation and mitigation strategies in collaboration with regional stakeholders. | |
 | Acronym: CLIMAFRICA Title: Climate change predictions in Sub-Saharan Africa: impacts and adaptations Duration: 10/2010 - 9/2014 Project link: Contact: Martin Jung, Markus Reichstein, Eric Thomas, Ulrich Weber ClimAfrica is conceived to respond to the urgent international need for the most appropriate and up-to-date tools to better understand and predict climate change, assess its impact on African ecosystems and population, and develop the correct adaptation strategies. Africa is probably the most vulnerable continent to climate change and climate variability and shows diverse range of agro-ecological and geographical features. Thus the impacts of climate change can be very high and will greatly differ across the continent, and even within countries. The project focus on the following specific objectives: 1. Develop improved climate predictions on seasonal to decadal climatic scales, especially relevant to SSA; 2. Assess climate impacts in key sectors of SSA livelihood and economy, especially water resources and agriculture; 3- Evaluate the vulnerability of ecosystems and civil population to inter-annual variations and longer trends (10 years) in climate; 3. Suggest and analyse new suited adaptation strategies, focused on local needs; 4. Develop a new concept of 10 years monitoring and forecasting warning system, useful for food security, risk management and civil protection in SSA; 5. Analyse the economic impacts of climate change on agriculture and water resources in SSA and the cost-effectiveness of potential adaptation measures. | |
 | Acronym: ClimateResilience Title: DKN Future Earth Working group “Societal resilience and climate extremes” Duration: 10/2017 - 9/2019 Project link: http://www.dkn-future-earth.org/community/arbeitsgruppen/arbeitsgruppen/societal-resilience-and-climate-extremes.html Contact: Markus Reichstein Climate extremes are one of the major future threats to society, as recognized by several international bodies. Yet, it is difficult to conceive the question: “Which instabilities, tipping points and risk cascades are most likely emerging from the interaction of future climate extremes with ecological and societal systems?” There is lack of systematic assessment which modelling approaches and data from various disciplines can be used to better constrain this question. In addition, climate extremes are usually defined with extreme weather events in mind, while risks to society emerge as well from longer-term (e.g. decadal) extreme climatic conditions, including slow onset events. Thus, the key goal of this working group is to envision how far the German and international scientific community may come in the next 5-10 years to answer the above question. | |
 | Acronym: COMBINE Title: Comprehensive Modelling of the Earth System for Better Climate Prediction and Projection Duration: 5/2009 - 10/2013 Project link: Contact: Christian Beer, Martin Jung, Markus Reichstein, Sönke Zaehle The European integrating project COMBINE brings together research groups to advance Earth system models (ESMs) for more accurate climate projections and for reduced uncertainty in the prediction of climate and climate change in the next decades. COMBINE will contribute to better assessments of changes in the physical climate system and of their impacts in the societal and economic system. The proposed work will strengthen the scientific base for environmental policies of the EU for the climate negotiations, and will provide input to the IPCC/AR5 process. Our main role is to provide strategies, methods and data for model evaluation, in particular of the carbon and water cycles. | |
 | Acronym: COREGAL Title: Combined Positoning-Relfectomerty GALileo Code Receiver for Forest Management Duration: 1/2015 - 5/2017 Project link: http://www.coregalproject.com/ Contact: Nuno Carvalhais | |
| Acronym: Coupled Carbon-Nitrogen Cycle Models Title: Systematic assessment of uncertainty in coupled carbon-nitrogen cycle models and their climate feedbacks Duration: 8/2012 - 8/2015 Project link: Contact: Sönke Zaehle, Johannes Meyerholt The new generation of land carbon-nitrogen-cycle models show that nitrogen feedbacks attenuate the responses of the carbon cycle to perturbations, thereby affecting long-term projections of climate change. However, the magnitude of this effect is very different between the models, leading to considerable uncertainty in projected rates of climate change. This PhD project seeks to better understand and quantify this uncertainty by systematically assessing alternative model components in a common framework. Key observations of global carbon-nitrogen cycling will be used to evaluate competing process formulations. The thoroughly examined set of model components, linked in a common global modelling framework, will be used to make ensemble projections of the effects of future global change on terrestrial feedbacks to the climate system, systematically assessing uncertainty in these projections stemming from uncertainty in both parametric and process- formulation of global carbon-nitrogen cycle modelling. | |
 | Acronym: DEHESHyrE Title: Monitoring mass and energy fluxes in a manipulated Mediterranean tree-grass Dehesa (Mediterranean Savanna) ecosystem through the integration of ground and satellite data with airborne hyperspectral imagery Duration: 1/2015 - 4/2016 Project link: http://www.eufar.net/planning/xml_print.php?idp=ta_deheshyre_1291 Contact: Mirco Migliavacca DEHESHyrE proposes joint modeling of water, carbon and nutrient cycling by means of ground measurements, airborne and satellite systems, which involves combination of data at various spatial and temporal scales. The project if focused on the Integration of multitemporal/multiscale optical and thermal data to interpret and monitor ecosystem-scale water, carbon and nutrient fluxes in Mediterranean areas with complex vegetation structure. | |
 | Acronym: E3S Title: Extreme Events and Environments from climate to Society Duration: 10/2014 - 9/2016 Project link: http://www.e3s-future-earth.eu Contact: Markus Reichstein, Dorothea Frank | |
 | Acronym: ECLAIRE Title: Effects of Climate Change on Air Pollution Impacts and Response Strategies for European Ecosystems Duration: 10/2011 - 9/2015 Project link: http://www.eclaire.ceh.ac.uk/ Contact: Martina Franz, Sönke Zaehle ÉCLAIRE seeks to quantify the effects of climate change on air pollution impacts and use this to develop response strategies for European ecosystems. Focussing especially on the role of ozone and nitrogen, and where relevant their interactions with volatile organic compounds, the main objectives of Eclaire are to provide a robust understanding of the air pollution impacts on European land ecosystems under changing environmental conditions, and to provide reliable and innovative risk assessment methodologies to support EU policy. BGI is mainly involved in developing modelling schemes to account for ozone impacts on vegetation and feedback to the terrestrial carbon-nitrogen cycles. | |
 | Acronym: EMBRACE Title: Earth system Model Bias Reduction and assessing Abrupt Climate ChangE Duration: 11/2010 - 2/2016 Project link: http://www.embrace-project.eu Contact: Nuno Carvalhais, Martin Jung, Markus Reichstein, Sönke Zaehle Das EU-Projekt EMBRACE hat zum Ziel, die bewährten europäischen Erdsystemmodelle zu verbessern, um u.a. verlässliche Aussagen über zu erwartende Extremereignisse wie Dürren, Überflutungen und Hitzewellen zu ermöglichen. | |
 | Acronym: ENIGMA Title: Earth System Network of Integrated Modelling and Assessmen Duration: 1/2006 - 1/2013 Project link: http://enigma.zmaw.de/ Contact: Daniela Dalmonech, Martin Heimann, Christoph Köstler, Gregor Schürmann, Sönke Zaehle This is a joint research project of MPI for Biogeochemsitry, MPI for Meteorology, MPI for Chemistry, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research to bridge the current gap between the traditional modelling of physical-chemical components of the Earth system and the modelling of the biosphere. TBM contributes to the workpackages on data assimilation and carbon-nitrogen cycling. | |
 | Acronym: ESDL Title: Earth System Data Laboratory Duration: 4/2018 - 9/2019 Project link: https://www.earthsystemdatalab.net/ Contact: Miguel Mahecha The Earth System Data Lab (ESDL) is a multi-variate data set of essential Earth System variables on a common grid and sharing a common data model. The main objective of the ESDL activity is to establish and operate a service to the scientific community that greatly facilitates access and exploitation of the multivariate data set in the ESDL and by this means advances the understanding of the interactions between the ocean-land-atmosphere system and society. | |
 | Acronym: EUROSPEC Title: Spectral Sampling Tools for Vegetation Biophysical Parameters and Flux Measurements in Europe Duration: 11/2009 - 5/2013 Project link: http://cost-es0903.fem-environment.eu/ Contact: Enrico Tomelleri The main objective of this Cost Action ES0903 is to develop common protocols and new instruments within a larger European network for optical measurements, bringing together scientists and industries in order to increase the reliability, value and cost-efficiency of the existing spectral observations within the European flux network. The Action will focus on the optical sampling strategies, which can be considered a fundamental tool in monitoring Biophysical Parameters (BP) and which act as a "bridge" between the flux tower and the remote sensing community. | |
 | Acronym: FACE-MDS2 Title: Benchmarking ecosystem models using DoE FACE experiments Duration: 7/2013 - 12/2015 Project link: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/People/SoenkeZaehle Contact: Sönke Zaehle, Kristina Luis FACE-MPI2 is an international effort to use observations from free-air CO2 enrichment experiments to better understand the validity of assumptions commonly used in ecosystem models. Using the FACE-MIP approach developed for analyzing Duke and ORNL FACE data, the analysis is now extended to additional elevated CO2 experiments: DOE-supported experiments will broaden the range of ecosystem types and environmental interaction to include the colder conditions and ozone interaction of the Rhinelander FACE; the hot, droughty conditions and very different vegetation of the Nevada FACE experiment; the especially long-term record of the Maryland salt marsh OTC experiment; and the high temperature interactions with CO2 in the Florida OTC experiment. This activity will test how the models compare under different circumstances, and provide a broader picture of what model behaviors we should expect. Where there are explainable differences in the responses observed in these different experiments, we can test whether the models replicate those differences. | |
 | Acronym: FLEXSense Title: FLEXSense: Technical assistance for airborne measurements during the FLEX sentinel tandem experiment Duration: 12/2018 - 11/2019 Project link: Contact: Mirco Migliavacca The FLEX-Sense 2018 envisaged campaign activities focus on collecting relevant airborne data over representative monitoring sites, concurrent with ground-based measurements and in coordination with the spaceborne mission Sentinel 3-B. (ESA, subcontract with research centre Jülich) | |
 | Acronym: GEOCARBON Title: Toward an Operational Global Carbon Observing System Duration: 10/2011 - 9/2014 Project link: http://www.geocarbon.net/ Contact: Nuno Carvalhais, Christoph Gerbig, Martin Heimann, Martin Jung, Christoph Köstler, Manos Kalomenopoulos, Miguel Mahecha, Markus Reichstein, Gregor Schürmann, Sönke Zaehle GEOCARBON aims at designing a coordinated Global Carbon Observation and Analysis System, addressing the climate targets of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) toward building a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) for carbon. Specific objectives are: 1. Provide an aggregated set of harmonized global carbon data (CO2 and CH4) and information (integrating the land, ocean, atmosphere and human dimension) 2. Develop improved Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation Systems (CCDAS) 3. Define the specifications for an operational Global Carbon Observing System 4. Provide improved regional carbon budgets of Amazon and Central Africa 5. Provide comprehensive and synthetic information on the annual sources and sinks of CO2 and CH4 for the globe and for large ocean and land regions 6. Provide an economic assessment of the value of an enhanced Global Carbon Observing System 7. Strengthen the effectiveness of the global Carbon Community participation in the GEO system. The achievements of each of the specific objectives will represent key advancements. Another major advancement will be the translation of the scientific knowledge into policy relevant information. This will allow decision makers timely addressing mitigation and adaptation strategies and verification process of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks. | |
 | Acronym: GHG-Europe Title: Greenhouse gas management in European land use systems Duration: 1/2010 - 9/2013 Project link: http://www.ghg-europe.eu/ Contact: Martin Heimann, Christoph Gerbig, Jošt Valentin Lavric, Antje Moffat, Markus Reichstein, Enrico Tomelleri, Sönke Zaehle | |
 | Acronym: GlobBiomass Title: The GlobBiomass project develops and demonstrates an integrated and validated methodology using EO and in-situ data to improve regional and global biomass estimates. Duration: 1/2015 - 12/2017 Project link: http://globbiomass.org/ Contact: Nuno Carvalhais, Markus Reichstein | |
 | Acronym: ICOS Title: Integrated Carbon Observing System Duration: 4/2008 - 3/2013 Project link: Contact: Christoph Gerbig, Markus Reichstein ICOS is a new European Research Infrastructure for providing the long-term observations required to understand the present state and predict future behavior of the global carbon cycle and greenhouse gas emissions and for monitoring the effectiveness of carbon sequestration and/or greenhouse gases emission reduction activities on global atmospheric composition levels, including attribution of sources and sinks by region and sector. Our main role is to contribute to an assessment and optimization of the representativeness and usefulness of the European eddy covariance flux network for the goals of ICOS. | |
 | Acronym: iDiv Title: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Duration: 11/2013 - 1/2015 Project link: http://www.idiv-biodiversity.de/ Contact: Jens Kattge, Miguel Mahecha, Markus Reichstein, Sue Trumbore, Franziska Schrodt The central mission of the iDiv is to promote theory-driven synthesis and experiments and data-driven theory in biodiversity sciences, and provide the scientific foundation for a sustainable management of the earth’s biodiversity. The main deliverables of the centre are (i) novel experimental and meta-analytical tests of existing theories, (ii) novel theories inspired by and testable with data, and (iii) practical solutions for improving biodiversity conservation. This will be supported by existing, as well as several new experimental and database-platforms. iDiv is based in Leipzig and jointly hosted by the University of Leipzig (UL), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), all of which have a strong tradition in biodiversity sciences. | |
| Acronym: JULIA Title: Joining ecophysiological Understanding and global ecosystem modelling for improved simulation of Land surface Interactions with the Atmosphere Duration: 8/2008 - 7/2011 Project link: Contact: Sönke Zaehle | |
 | Acronym: Microbial Turnover Title: Studying microbial turnover with soil phosphate oxygen isotopes Duration: 1/2013 - 12/2015 Project link: Contact: Markus Reichstein GIF | |
 | Acronym: MOCABORS Title: Moisture dynamics and carbon sequestration in boreal soils Duration: 4/2018 - 12/2019 Project link: https://nibio.no/en/projects/moisture-dynamics-and-carbon-sequestration-in-boreal-soils-mocabors Contact: Bernhard Ahrens, Markus Reichstein The project addresses the effect of soil moisture on carbon dynamics in boreal forest soils. It will improve our understanding of this key process and generate new data on soil C stocks and moisture conditions. The new data and knowledge will be used to improve the models. We will run the improved models to estimate soil C amounts for whole landscapes. We expect this work to decrease the uncertainty in the prediction of global soil C dynamics, which is a relevant issue for the international research community. | |
 | Acronym: MoReDEHESHyReS Title: Modelling Responses of Dehesas with Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Duration: 1/2017 - 12/2019 Project link: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/Research/MoReDEHESHyReS Contact: Mirco Migliavacca MoReDEHESHyReS methodology will be tested using hyperspectral ground and airborne data acquired in a Mediterranean tree-grass ecosystem located in Majadas del Tiétar, Cáceres, Spain. I this site, a complete set of replicated Eddy covariance ecosystem and subcanopy towers support a large scale fertilization experiment (MANIP). Spectral data were acquired from ground (SMANIE) and airborne (DEHESHyRe, FLUXPEC) platforms simultaneously to surface fluxes. | |
 | Acronym: Mr. PARTS Title: Minirhizotron: Phenology and Root Traits Duration: 6/2017 - 5/2019 Project link: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/Research/MRPARTS Contact: Richard Nair, Mirco Migliavacca, Markus Reichstein | |
 | Acronym: PAGE 21 Title: Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century Duration: 11/2011 - 10/2015 Project link: http://page21.org/ Contact: Christian Beer, Mathias Goeckede, Martin Heimann , Sonja Kaiser PAGE21 is a Large-scale integrating collaborative project under the ENV call topic "Vulnerability of Arctic permafrost to climate change and implications for global GHG emissions and future climate" (ENV.2011.1.1.3-1) PAGE21 will aim to understand and quantify the vulnerability of permafrost environments to a changing global climate, and to investigate the feedback mechanisms associated with increasing greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost zones. This research will make use of a unique set of Arctic permafrost investigations performed at stations that span the full range of Arctic bioclimatic zones. The project will bring together the best European permafrost researchers and eminent scientists from Canada, Russia, the USA, and Japan. | |
 | Acronym: QUASOM Title: Quantifying and modeling pathways of soil organic matter as affected by abiotic factors, microbial dynamics, and transport processes Duration: 9/2008 - 2/2014 Project link: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgi/index.php/Main/Quasom Contact: Bernhard Ahrens, Maarten Braakhekke, Lenka Forkelova, Gerd Gleixner, Myroslava Khomik, Markus Reichstein, Marion Schrumpf, Stefany Thiessen, Enrico Weber, Thomas Wutzler The general aim of the QUASOM project is to improve our understanding of the key interactions between the biological and the physicochemical soil systems. These are often not explicitly considered in current experimental and modeling approaches and are likely to influence the biogeochemical cycles for a large part of the terrestrial biosphere and thus have the potential to significantly impact the Earth System as a whole. This will be achieved through an approach that integrates new soil mesocosm experiments, field data from ongoing European projects, and soil process modeling. An incorporation of a new soil module into a global dynamic vegetation model (DGVM) is foreseen. | |
| Acronym: SAVNET Title: Observing vegetation status and function from the ground to the space (SAVNET) Duration: 1/2017 - 12/2018 Project link: Contact: Mirco Migliavacca The project will provide complementarily support our collaborative research/training and networking activities and field work in the context of the projects SynerTGE, MANIP and TRUSTEE. | |
 | Acronym: SIB-LAB Title: The Central Siberian Global Change Laboratory Duration: 8/2011 - 5/2013 Project link: http://sib-lab.uni-jena.de/index.html Contact: Christian Beer, Martin Thurner, Sonja Kaiser Due to its climatic importance as well as high industrial development rates caused by the region´s precious natural resources (gas, oil, lumber, gold, minerals, diamonds), central Siberia and namely the Krasnoyarsk region was and is in the focus of European, Russian and global research projects starting twenty years ago (namely the IGBP Boreal Transect Study). | |
 | Acronym: SIBAE Title: Stable Isotopes in Biospheric-Atmospheric-Earth System Research Duration: 5/2009 - 5/2013 Project link: http://www.sibae.ethz.ch/cost-sibae Contact: Christian Beer SIBAE is an integrative, coordinated European platform for the use of stable isotopes in biosphere-atmosphere-Earth system studies | |
 | Acronym: SOPRAN II Title: Ozeanische Oberflächenprozesse im Anthropozän II; Vorhaben: Quantifizierung regionaler ozeanatmosphärer Gasaustauschflüsse von CO2, O2 und N2O im subtrop. Atlantik und in der Mauretanischen Auftriebszone Duration: 2/2010 - 1/2013 Project link: http://sopran.pangaea.de/ Contact: Martin Heimann, Markus Reichstein | |
 | Acronym: SPP 1685 Phase II Title: Ein Modellansatz zur Kontrolle des Umsatzes organischer Substanz im Ökosystem durch Nährstoffverfügbarkeit Duration: 2/2017 - 1/2020 Project link: https://www.ecosystem-nutrition.uni-freiburg.de/ Contact: Marion Schrumpf, Sönke Zaehle The objective of the priority Program 1685 is to investigate the relevance of the ecological paradigm of the ‘whole being more than the sum of its parts’ for P - nutrition of forest ecosystems. Therefore new concepts of ecosystem nutrition and new methods will be developed. We will investigate if there are any adaption mechanism of forest ecosystems to sites with poor P supply, which are not a result of the adaptation of single organisms but of ecological interactions, which enable coordinated nutrient (re-) mobilisation, uptake, usage and storage. | |
 | Acronym: Terrabites Title: The Terrestrial Biosphere in the Earth System Duration: 1/2009 - 12/2014 Project link: http://enigma.zmaw.de/Working-Group-1.1678.0.html Contact: Sönke Zaehle The main objective of the Cost Action ES0805 is a cross-disciplinary assessment of our current understanding of the terrestrial biosphere from an Earth system perspective to improve the reliability of future Earth system projections in coupled climate-biosphere simulations. This Action is a cross-community initiative to join efforts for improving the reliability of future combined climate-biosphere projections by accounting for recent progress in understanding, modelling and quantification of biospheric processes in the Earth system. | |
 | Acronym: TRuStEE Title: Training on Remote sensing for Ecosystem modElling Duration: 10/2016 - 9/2020 Project link: http://www.trusteenetwork.eu/ Contact: Mirco Migliavacca TRuStEE aims to capacitate the next generation of scientists to understand and deal with the increasing pressure of environmental change on ecosystem functioning and land-atmosphere interactions. Specifically, TRuStEE will train a new generation of scientists with complementary and interdisciplinary skills in ecosystem modelling, plant physiology, remote sensing technologies and big data analysis, addressing the specific objectives: 1) to identify essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) and the link with plant traits (PTs) and ecosystem functional properties (EFPs), inferable from remote sensing, 2) to investigate a completely new avenue for assessing vegetation photosynthetic efficiency from remote sensing measurements of canopy fluorescence, 3) to assimilate diverse remote sensing data streams with varying spatial and temporal resolution in dynamic ecosystem models 4) to exploit new satellite missions (e.g. ESA-FLEX, ESA-Sentinels, NASA-GEDI) and Earth Observation products for the upscaling of PTs, EBVs and EFPs. | |
 | Acronym: WACMOS-II Title: Evapotranspiration estimates at global and regional scales Duration: 9/2012 - 5/2014 Project link: http://due.esrin.esa.int/stse/projects/stse_project.php?id=173 Contact: Martin Jung, Markus Reichstein WACMOS-II aims to advance towards the development of evapotranspiration (ET) estimates at global and regional scales, having as main objectives to develop a Reference Input Data Set to derive and validate ET estimates, and to perform a cross-comparison, error characterization, and validation exercise of a group of selected ET algorithms driven by the Reference Input Data Set. | |
Cost Actions and other networks
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FLUXNET, a "network of regional networks" coordinates regional and global analyses of eddy covariance observations from micrometeorological tower sites. Together with Dario Papale, Viterbo and Dennis Baldocchi, Berkeley, and in collaboration with regional networks and Microsoft Research and Berkeley Water Centre, we have been preparing a new generation FLUXNET dataset, for that a pre-version was discussed on the Last workshop in La Thuile, Italy: 19-22 Feb 2007.
Participating department members: |
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Name: iDiv - German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research |
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Name: TRY - Quantifying and scaling global plant trait diversity
Participating BGI department members (from other MPI-BGC departments): |