Embedded Files
Climate concert "Knowledge. Creates. Perspectives": In the "Wissenschaftsschaufenster" in Braunschweig I was invited to talk with interested citizens about the potential and role of soil for the global climate change: "Digging for climate - What role play soils for climate protection?" (July2025).
EGU 2025 Session: Exploring soil biogeochemical processes that shape the interactions between carbon, nutrients, contaminants, minerals, and metal species, and the role of soil heterogeneity across scales together with Mike Rowley, Emily Lacroix, Luis Carlos Colocho Hurtarte, Maye Engel, Kaizad Patel and Steffen Schweizer. Here is the full session description (May 2025).
2025: Kick-off meeting of the AfroGrow project in Nairobi, Kenya, at ICRAF. Together with Sebastian Dötterl, I joined the first meeting to the Horizon Project AfroGrow. This project aims to establish six agroforestry living labs in Kenya, Senegal, Sambia, Botswana, Ethiopia and Cote d'Ivoire. We will look at the effects on soil functions in the different settings of agroforestry and aim to develop pathways to sustainable soil management (March 2025).
New publication on soil organic carbon fractionation: We used three different methods to measure SOC in various soil samples: separating soil particles by size, thermal fractionation, and using infrared spectroscopy. Each method revealed different aspects of how SOC changes when land use changes. The study showed that smaller soil particles contain most of the SOC and are more affected by land use changes than previously thought. The thermal analysis method showed that some SOC is more stable and less affected by changes. The infrared method helped predict how SOC might change over time. Overall, the study concludes that using these three methods together can give a comprehensive understanding of how land use changes impact SOC, although each method has its strengths and limitations. (January 2025)
Beamtime at the Max IV in Lund: Together with Mike Rowley (UZH), Steffen Schweizer (TUM) and Luis Hurtarte (Diamond) we had four days of synchrotron time. We used the SoftiMAX and imaged organic matter composition in the clay size fraction of soils across Germany, using the German Agricultural Soil Inventory. These soils have been incubated for two years after adding 13C-labelled litter and in the next step we will apply NanoSIMS measurements to align the molecular composition of organic matter with its elemental composition. We aim to better understand the organo-mineral and organo-organo interactions and thus the stabilization of SOC. (November 2024)
New publication on carbon cycle in permafrost-affected soils: Wildfires in the Arctic are creating a type of carbon called pyrogenic carbon (PyC) from burning plants and trees. In our study in northern Canada we found that PyC in soils is much older in areas with continuous permafrost, dating back thousands of years, compared to areas with less stable permafrost. PyC lasts longer in the soil than regular organic carbon and makes up about 6.9% of the total carbon in these soils. This shows that PyC plays an important role in storing carbon. Factors like climate and soil conditions affect how long PyC remains in these vulnerable Arctic ecosystems, which are increasingly threatened by climate change and more frequent wildfires. (April 2024)
New publication on soil carbon priming dynamics: Increasing soil organic carbon is vital for mitigating climate change, but new plant inputs can sometimes enhance the breakdown of existing soil carbon, a phenomenon known as the positive priming effect. In our study, we examined this effect in inverted pasture soils over 20 years. Fresh root-derived carbon significantly increased respiration in both topsoils (109%) and subsoils (331%) during a six-month incubation. However, this priming effect was temporary in new topsoils, which adapted to high carbon inputs over time. In contrast, buried topsoils became more sensitive to root carbon inputs as time passed. Ultimately, carbon losses due to priming did not exceed the new carbon inputs from roots. (October 2023)
2023: Visiting trip to Uganda with the Soil Resources Group (ETH) to explore potentials of regenerative land-use together with Kyaninga Forest Foundation and Mountains of the Moon University. (Mai 2023)
2019: Fieldwork and soil sampling in India. Between November and December 2019 we conducted soil sampling in Karnataka, India, to study fire-derived carbon in tropical soils. This is part of our project "Where on Earth is fire-derived carbon stored?" (December 2019)
2019: Fieldwork and soil sampling in Canada. In July 2019 I led a field campaign in the Mackenzie River Region to study fire-derived carbon in boreal soils. This is part of our project "Where on Earth is fire-derived carbon stored?" (July 2019)
2017: Fieldwork and soil sampling in New Zealand. In October 2017 I led a soil sampling campaign at the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island to study soil organic carbon stocks of deep flipped soils. A joint project of the Thuenen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture and the Plant and Food Reserach Instiute. (November 2017)
2017: Fieldwork and soil sampling in New Zealand. In October 2017 I led a soil sampling campaign at the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island to study soil organic carbon stocks of deep flipped soils. A joint project of the Thuenen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture and the Plant and Food Reserach Instiute. (November 2017)
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse