Working Groups

We investigate micro- and mesoscale climate processes in the atmospheric boundary layer. Our focus is on the urban boundary layer.

We are interested in the effects of anthropogenic activity on ground-level air quality.

Our current research projects deal with the surface-atmosphere exchange of green roofs, the spatio-temporal variability of carbon dioxide in the ground-level urban boundary layer and the measurement and modelling of the horizontal variability of ultrafine particles.

We investigate the exchange of heat, water vapour and carbon between ecosystems and the atmosphere on various temporal and spatial scales, as well as the underlying drivers and processes. To this end, we combine ground-, aircraft- and UAV-based micrometeorological measurements, biogeochemical analyses, remote sensing and machine learning methods. Our current spatial focus is on differently used rewetted fens in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. However, we also conduct expeditions and aircraft campaigns to study Arctic and boreal permafrost ecosystems in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and northern Scandinavia.

We develop and use tools for process-based modelling of interactions and feedbacks between hydrology, ecology and microclimate in terrestrial and urban systems. Our research and teaching deal with mathematical and numerical models of soil-plant-atmosphere continua, vegetation self-organisation, and isotope-aided ecohydrology. Our interdisciplinary work is at the intersection between the Leichtweiß-Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources and the Institute of Geoecology.

We investigate effects of environmental changes on landscapes, their compartments and the associated ecosystem functions and services.

Our methods include ecological modelling, laboratory and field experiemts, remote sensing, GIS, and other methods.

We teach ecology, biodiversity and modelling.

To secure and harness the diversity of life in agricultural ecosystems

We investigate where, which and how abundantly plants and animals occur in open agricultural landscapes, which functional role they play there and how this biological diversity (biodiversity) responds to the type and intensity of agricultural land use and other influencing factors.

Our research work is dedicated to the process elucidation, measurement and model description of water and material flows in soils as well as the interactions with adjacent compartments.

We investigate biogeochemical processes and interactions at the micro level up to entire ecosystems. The main focus is on understanding processes of interactions of organic substances with trace elements and their coupling to hydrological and climatic factors.

We are interested in the effects of anthropogenic activities on biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and inorganic pollutants.