Event_olds

Our group for Geocomputation and Earth Observation develops new model and data integration methods to gain a mechanistic understanding of the terrestrial biosphere. We are hosted at the Geography Institute of the University of Bern and work at the intersection of Earth system science, remote sensing, ecology, and hydrology.

Background Global terrestrial gross primary production (GPP), i.e., the uptake of CO2 by terrestrial plants, is often limited by the availability of soil water for evapotranspiration (ET). The amount of water a plant can take up from the soil depends on the soil texture, the depth of plant roots, and the storage capacity of the soil in the plant’s rooting zone.

Background Seasonal water deficits, caused by the imbalance of water from the land surface through evapotranspiration and runoff and the gain through precipitation, are an important driver of agricultural productivity and forest growth.

Background Global terrestrial gross primary production (GPP), i.e., the uptake of CO2 by terrestrial plants, is often limited by the availability of soil water. The amount of water a plant can take up from the soil depends on the soil texture, the depth of plant roots, and the storage capacity of the soil in the plant’s rooting zone.

Background Droughts have major impacts on fluxes between land and the atmosphere, agricultural production, and the carbon cycle. Future projections of drought magnitude and frequencies are surprisingly divergent and interpretations of trends from Earth System Model outputs have drawn conflicting pictures of drought impact trends in a heating climate.

Background There is a current scientific debate if the intensity of the recent 2003, 2015, and 2018 droughts is exceptional in the context of the last millennium. Based on tree-ring reconstructions, some authors find them to be within the range of natural variability (Ionita et al.

Eco-evolutionary optimality for global photosynthesis and transpiration modelling

Modelling the carbon cycle impacts of preindustrial land use change