Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Richter

Soil microorganisms are the hidden engines of all global biogeochemical cycles and are essential to life on Earth. The Soil Ecology Research Group, led by Andreas Richter, focuses on understanding how microbial growth and turnover regulate the decomposition and transformation of organic matter in soils. Ultimately, their goal is to predict how future climate change, including climate extremes, will reshape microbial physiology, cross-kingdom microbial interactions, and microbial communities and their processes, and how this may feed back on climate change.

The Soil Ecology Research Group expands and redefines the theoretical concepts of microbial growth, as well as carbon- and nitrogen-use efficiency, linking these to ecological stoichiometry theory. They also pioneer novel approaches to quantify microbial growth processes using stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes. The group explores microbial activities and soil organic matter turnover in a wide variety of ecosystems, ranging from Arctic tundra to tropical rainforests across all continents.
 

Canarini, A., Fuchslueger, L., Schnecker, J., Metze, D., Nelson, D., Kahmen, A., Watzka, M., Pötsch, E., Schaumberger, A., Bahn, M., Richter, A. (2024) Soil fungi remain active and invest in storage compounds during drought independent of future climate conditions. Nature Communications 15: 10410.

Metze, D., Schnecker, J., Le Noir de Carlan, C., Bhattarai, B., Verbruggen, E., Ostonen, I., Janssens, I.A., Sigurdsson, B.D., Hausmann, B., Kaiser, C., Richter, A. (2024) Soil warming increases the number of growing bacterial taxa, but not their growth rates. Science Advances 10: eadk6295.

Metze, D., Schnecker, J., Canarini, A., Fuchslueger, L., Koch, B.J., Stone, B.W., Hungate, B.A., Hausmann, B., Schmidt, H., Schaumberger, A., Bahn, M., Kaiser, C., Richter, A. (2023)
Microbial growth under drought is confined to distinct taxa and modified by potential future climate conditions. Nature Communications 14: 5895.

Canarini, A., Schmidt, H., Fuchslueger, L., Martin, V., Herbold, C., Zezula, D., Gündler, P., Hasibeder, R., Jecmenica, M., Bahn, M., Richter, A. (2021) Ecological memory of recurrent drought modifies soil processes via changes in soil microbial community. Nature Communications 12: 5308.

Soong, J.L., Fuchslueger, L., Marañon-Jimenez, S., Torn, M.S., Janssens, I.A., Penuelas, J., Richter, A.  (2020) Microbial carbon limitation - the need for integrating microorganisms into our understanding of ecosystem carbon cycling. Global Change Biology 26: 1953-1961.