Ruiz-Erazo, C. E.; Riascos-Acosta, R. I.; Guerrero-Martínez, E. S.; Marín-Vélez, A. M.; Sierra, C.; Ramírez-Correa, J. A.: Carbon sequestration potential in Retrophyllum rospigliosii (Pilg.) C. N. Page plantations for restoration purposes in the Colombian Andean region. Revista Chapingo Serie Ciencias Forestales y del Ambiente 91, e24009 (2025)
Chanca, I.; Levin, I.; Trumbore, S. E.; Macario, K.; Lavrič, J. V.; Quesada, C. A.; de Araújo, A. C.; Dias Júnior, C. Q.; van Asperen, H.; Hammer, S.et al.; Sierra, C.: How long does carbon stay in a near-pristine central Amazon forest? An empirical estimate with radiocarbon. Biogeosciences 22 (2), 472, p. 455 (2025)
Tangarife-Escobar, A.; Guggenberger, G.; Feng, X.; Munoz, E.; Chanca, I.; Peichl, M.; Smith, P.; Sierra, C.: Radiocarbon isotopic disequilibrium shows little incorporation of new carbon in mineral soils of a boreal forest ecosystem. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 129 (9), e2024JG008191 (2024)
von Fromm, S. F.; Hoyt, A. M.; Sierra, C.; Georgiou, K.; Doetterl, S.; Trumbore, S. E.: Controls and relationships of soil organic carbon abundance and persistence vary across pedo-climatic regions. Global Change Biology 30 (5), e17320 (2024)
Ramirez, J. A.; Craven, D.; Herrera-Ramirez, D.; Posada, J. M.; Reu, B.; Sierra, C. A.; Hoch, G.; Handa, I. T.; Messier, C.: Non-structural carbohydrate concentrations in tree organs vary across biomes and leaf habits, but are independent of the fast-slow plant economic spectrum. Frontiers in Plant Science 15, 1375958 (2024)
Muñoz, E.; Chanca, I.; González-Sosa, M.; Sarquis, A.; Tangarife-Escobar, A.; Sierra, C.: On the importance of time in carbon sequestration in soils and climate change mitigation. Global Change Biology 30 (3), e17229 (2024)
Tangarife-Escobar, A.; Guggenberger, G.; Feng, X.; Dai, G.; Urbina-Malo, C.; Azizi-Rad, M.; Sierra, C. A.: Moisture and temperature effects on the radiocarbon signature of respired carbon dioxide to assess stability of soil carbon in the Tibetan Plateau. Biogeosciences 21 (5), pp. 1277 - 1299 (2024)
Estupinan-Suarez, L. M.; Mahecha, M. D.; Brenning, A.; Kraemer, G.; Poveda, G.; Reichstein, M.; Sierra, C.: Spatial patterns of vegetation activity related to ENSO in Northern South America. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 129 (1), e2022JG007344 (2024)
Sierra, C.; Ahrens, B.; Bolinder, M. A.; Braakhekke, M. C.; von Fromm, S. F.; Kätterer, T.; Luo, Z.; Parvin, N.; Wang, G.: Carbon sequestration in the subsoil and the time required to stabilize carbon for climate change mitigation. Global Change Biology 30 (1), e17153 (2024)
Munoz, E.; Chanca, I.; Sierra, C.: Increased atmospheric CO2 and the transit time of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems. Global Change Biology 29 (23), pp. 6441 - 6452 (2023)
Eglinton, T. I.; Graven, H. D.; Raymond, P. A.; Trumbore, S. E.; Aluwihare, L.; Bard, E.; Basu, S.; Friedlingstein, P.; Hammer, S.; Lester, J.et al.; Sanderman, J.; Schuur, E. A. G.; Sierra, C. A.; Synal, H.-A.; Turnbull, J. C.; Wacker, L.: Making the case for an International Decade of Radiocarbon. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London - Series A: Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences 381 (2261), 20230081 (2023)
Munoz, E.; Sierra, C. A.: Deterministic and stochastic components of atmospheric CO2 inside forest canopies and consequences for predicting carbon and water exchange. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 341, 109624 (2023)
Stoner, S.; Trumbore, S. E.; González-Pérez, J. A.; Schrumpf, M.; Sierra, C. A.; Hoyt, A. M.; Chadwick, O.; Doetterl, S.: Relating mineral–organic matter stabilization mechanisms to carbon quality and age distributions using ramped thermal analysis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London - Series A: Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences 381 (2261), 20230139 (2023)
Stoner, S.; Schrumpf, M.; Hoyt, A. M.; Sierra, C. A.; Doetterl, S.; Galy, V.; Trumbore, S. E.: How well does ramped thermal oxidation quantify the age distribution of soil carbon? Assessing thermal stability of physically and chemically fractionated soil organic matter. Biogeosciences 20 (15), pp. 3151 - 3163 (2023)
Sarquis, A.; Sierra, C. A.: Information content in time series of litter decomposition studies and the transit time of litter in arid lands. Biogeosciences 20 (9), pp. 1759 - 1771 (2023)
On June 24, Prof. Dr. Henrik Hartmann, head of the Julius Kühn Institute for Forest Protection and former group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, received an important award for his scientific achievements in the field of forestry. Our warmest congratulations!
We have gained a new external member: Prof. Dr. Christian Wirth has been appointed by the Senate of the Max Planck Society as External Scientific Member. As a former group leader and later fellow at the institute, Prof. Wirth initiated and supported the development of the TRY database, the world's largest collection on plant traits.
Information gaps in global maps of plant characteristics can be filled with data from nature identification apps. Users of the iNaturalist app are playing a key role in helping researchers create global maps of plant traits. Among other things, the new maps provide an improved basis for understanding plant-environment interactions and for Earth system modeling.
An international research team has succeeded in identifying globally acting factors that cause the diversity of forms and functions of plants. Researchers compiled plant data from around the world and were able to show for the first time how strongly these are determined by climate and soil properties for characteristics such as the size, structure and life span of plants.