Soil microorganisms and plants are key players in the production and breakdown of organic matter, and together control global biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. TER, the Division of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research, aims to advance our fundamental understanding of how plants and soil microorganisms respond to, and in turn shape, their abiotic and biotic environment, and to determine the consequences for the functioning of Earth’s ecosystems.
Research Mission
Primarily dedicated to basic research, TER addresses pressing environmental issues, such as the impact of climate and land-use change on ecosystem functioning and the role of soils in the global carbon cycle and in food security. In doing so, we work on scales from µm (i.e. the scale at which microbes operate) to the biosphere (i.e. where plant and microbial processes become evident), and in ecosystems spanning the Arctic tundra to tropical rainforests. We integrate this scale of thinking with state-of-the-art methods, including stable isotope tracing and biomarker fingerprinting, and are developing novel approaches to estimate gross environmental processes with isotope pool dilution techniques.
We are strongly committed to conduct world-leading research in a motivating and intellectually stimulating environment, and to train our students to become independent and internationally competitive scientists who enjoy research and contribute to society as conscientious citizens.
Research Projects
COUP - Constraining uncertainties in the permafrost-climate feedback
Permafrost ecosystems hold more carbon than the atmosphere. There is mountain concern that rapid warming in the Arctic will accelerate the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from these ecosystems, resulting in a positive feedback to climate change. Despite such a feedback being of central importance to future climate, it is currently not acknowledged in global climate models.
This is for two reasons. First, warming effects on CO2 and CH4 release are dependent on a suite of geophysical and ecological factors that vary locally across permafrost landscapes. Second, the soil food web, which is a key regulator of permafrost carbon dynamics, can respond to warming on a multitude of spatial and temporal scales. Together, these factors create a level of carbon cycle complexity that is poorly understood at the biome-scale, leading to uncertainties in the magnitude and timing of the permafrost-climate feedback.
We are working in COUP with fourteen partner countries to better constrain these uncertainties.Our overarching aims are to: (i) identify and quantify factors driving carbon release from permafrost ecosystems at the landscape-level; and (ii) incorporate these as variables into a new global climate model. Our group is particularly focussed on the responses of the soil microbial community, and the carbon cycle processes they govern, to rising temperature.
Investigated by:
- Andreas Richter
- Tom Walker
- Julia Wiesenbauer
- Christina Kaiser