Research

Research Activities:

  • Plausibility of regional climate change scenarios
  • Effects of Global Change on the Elbe (Germany) and Haihe (China) river basins
  • Modeling of climate change impact on crops at regional and global scale at PIK
  • Second order landscape effects of land use change at the regional scale
  • Experimental response of wheat (root growth, plant development, leaf and ear photosynthesis) to full-season CO2 enrichment using the Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) technology during 3 seasons (1993, 1994, 1997) of the Maricopa FACE experiment
  • Modeling the experimental response of cereals to higher temperatures in the Maricopa,Thermal Regime Agronomic Cereal Experiment  (TRACE, 2016 - ongoing)

PI in current and former research projects:

  • Medium scale analysis of possible reductions in environmental loads due to land use changes in the context of global change (€ 225.000, 1999-2002, supported by Volkswagen-foundation, project idea and coordination)
  • Integrated analysis of global change impacts on environment and society in the Elbe river basin, Glowa-Elbe I (19 Institutions, € 4.5 million, 2000-2003, project head from 7/2002 to 9/2003, supported by BMBF)
  • Impact of global change on environment and society in the Elbe river basin, GLOWA-Elbe II (14 Institutions, € 3.5 million, 2004-2007, main author of project proposal and head of integration, supported by BMBF)
  • Impacts of global Change on the water cycle in the Elbe basin – Results and Consequences GLOWA-ELBE III (9 Institutions, € 4.2 million, 2007-2010, main author of project proposal and project leader, supported by BMBF)
  • Climate scenarios and Climate Impact Cataster (PIK-subproject in INKA-BB http://www.inka-bb.de, 2008-2014, € 600 thousend, main author of sub-project proposal, sub-project head until 10/2012, supported by BMBF)
  • Sustainable water and agricultural land use in the Guanting watershed (Northwest of Beijing, China) under limited water resources (2008-2013, € 1.8 million, main author of project proposal, project head, supported by BMBF)
  • Area-wide analysis of land use change in Germany and its consequences for the land water, carbon and nitrogen household
    sub-project of CC-LandStraD (Interdependencies between Land use and Climate Change – Strategies for a sustainable land use management in Germany), (2010-2015, € 390 thousand, main author of sub-project proposal, sub-project head, supported by BMBF)
  • Konsequenzen des Klimawandels für die Nachhaltigkeitsziele beim Pflanzenschutzmitteleinsatz (consequences of climate change for the sustainability goals of agricultural crop protection), (2014-2016, 42.000€, UBA)
  • Impact of EXTreme events and climate change on Russian Agriculture, economic implications and adaptation (1/2016-6/2018, 89.000 € funded by by BMBF, PT DLR: FP7, ERA Net, RUSPLUS_S&T-387)
  • Sustainable Integrated Management FOR the NEXUS of water-land-food-energy-climate for a resource-efficient Europe (SIM4NEXUS), (2016-2020, 440.000€, EU)

Reviews and memberships:

  • Member of the editorial board of Environmental and Experimental Botany (2002-2012)
  • Journal review: Environmental  and Experimental Botany, Field Crop Research, Nature Climate Change, European Environmental Research letters, PNAS, Ecological Modeling, Plant, Cell & Environment, Plant & Soil, Regional Environmental Change, on occasion also for some other journals
  • Reviewer for BMBF and Östereiches Umweltbundesamt