About Us

The Division of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research aims to advance the fundamental understanding of how soil microorganisms and plants respond to and in turn shape their abiotic and biotic environment, and what consequences these interactions have for the functioning of the Earth’s ecosystems.

Researchers at TER address pressing environmental issues, such as the impact of climate change on ecosystem functioning and the role of soils in the global carbon cycle and in food security.

 News

28.03.2025
 

Congratulations to Dr. Eva Simon, who successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled

"The fine-scale spatial organisation of the soil microbiome" on...

19.03.2025
 

Iris Karbon successfully defended her Master’s thesis “Off-target Effects of Biological Nitrification Inhibitors in an Agricultural Soil” on March...

01.03.2025
 

We are delighted to announce that Jillian Petersen has been appointed Full Professor (§ 99/4) at the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems...

 Events

11.07.2024 15:00
 

Josh Schimel

Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

UBB HS 2

27.06.2019
 

Yong-Guan Zhu

Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences & Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Lecture Hall HS5, UZA2...

15.11.2018
 

Ivan Janssens

Centre of Excellence of Global Change Ecology, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Lecture Hall HS2, UZA 1

 Latest Publications

Valverde-Barrantes OJ, Figueiredo Lugli L, Fuchslueger L, Hofhansl F, Martins NP, Cordeiro AL et al. Rainfall seasonality shapes belowground root trait dynamics in an Amazonian tropical rainforest: A test of the stress-dominance hypothesis. Functional Ecology. 2025 Mar 1;39(3):799-812. Epub 2025 Jan 26. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.14744

Sun L, Qiao Y, Wanek W, Moorhead DL, Cui Y, Peng Y et al. Nitrogen input decreases microbial nitrogen use efficiency in surface soils of a temperate forest in northeast China. Geoderma. 2025 Jan;453:117159. Epub 2024 Dec 25. doi: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.117159

Spohn M, Wanek W. Quantifying element fluxes using radioisotopes. New Phytologist. 2025 Jan;245(2):443-445. doi: 10.1111/nph.20203

Knight CG, Nicolitch O, Griffiths RI, Goodall T, Jones B, Weser C et al. Soil microbiomes show consistent and predictable responses to extreme events. Nature. 2024 Dec 19;636(8043):690-696. Epub 2024 Nov 27. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08185-3