LSAI
Mission
Global climate and land use change and its impact on our living space are one of the major societal challenges of the 21st century. Land ecosystems play an important role in this, as they store large amounts of carbon and thus counteract climate change. Land ecosystems also play an important role in global and regional water cycles.
Developing a sound understanding of the functioning of ecosystem processes which are essential for interactions with the atmosphere is the goal of the professorship for “Land Surface-Atmosphere Interactions”.
Focus
We develop a better understanding of ecosystem functioning in a changing climate. We evaluate land surface-atmosphere feedbacks. We provide solutions for ecosystem management in coupled social-ecological systems.
Methods
Our methodological approach includes a combination of observational data and models and ranges from the calculation of simple statistical models to the development of complex process-based models from local, regional to global scale.
Mission
The focus of interest of our research group "Ecophysiology of Plants" is the process-oriented mechanisms with which plants - especially trees - react to and change their environment.
Focus
We study processes that determine plant growth and plant responses in structure and function to natural and anthropogenic influences. We focus on the analysis of carbon and water budgets, resource allocation, root/shoot interactions and biotic interactions including effects of associated microorganisms (e.g. competition, facilitation, holobiont). Currently, we are particularly interested in the effects of extreme dry years and elevated atmospheric CO2 and ozone concentrations and thus the role of plants in climate change.
Methods
We record parameters of resource turnover (e.g. photosynthesis, respiration, water transport, transpiration) as well as structural and morphological parameters (e.g. crown and root structure, anatomical organ structure). Stable isotopes play a central role in almost all projects. The focus of our interest is typically the plant individual, which we study both in the laboratory and at the natural site in the field. For this purpose, we conduct experimental studies to quantify plant responses e.g. under controlled environments in climate chambers (e.g. TUMmesa) or in the intensively instrumented field laboratory "Kranzberger Forst". Our studies integrate from the molecule to the organ and individual level to the stand.