Content
Research
Three quarters of the ice-free land surface are managed by humans. This has severe consequences on climate: local climate can be altered by several degrees Celsius just by the way the land is managed, and about 6 billion tons of CO2 are emitted each year from land use change, in particular from tropical deforestation. Pressure on land will rise, as growing population and affluence increases demand for food and fibre, but also because many scenarios compatible with the Paris Agreement's goals require massive deployment of land-based carbon dioxide removal through, e.g., afforestation or bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).
The goal of our research is to deepen our understanding of how land use activities have contributed to climate change and what their potential is to help communities adapt to climate change and to mitigate global warming. We particularly focus on providing a comprehensive view of local, regional, and global scales, where ideally win-win situations for local and global climate effects can be found. We also focus on providing a comprehensive view in terms of processes, by considering greenhouse gas consequences of land use activities together with their biogeophysical effects (changes in momentum, water and energy fluxes); typically, so far, only the greenhouse has budget is considered by policy. We investigate various types of land use and land management, often in comparative form, in particular deforestation, re/afforestation, degradation, forest management, BECCS, and irrigation. Our main tools are various types of vegetation and climate models, integrated with Earth observations.
Projects
Last update: 19.04.2024 09:10 Uhr
You'll find a complete overview of all research projects of the department here.
| The Land-Atmosphere Feedback Initiative (LAFI) Fachgebiet(e): Modellierung Projektleitung: Pongratz, J., Sakradzija, M. , Prof. Dr. Volker Wulfmeyer et al., Universität Hohenheim Laufzeit: 04/2024 - 03/2028 |
| RESCUE (Response of the Earth System to overshoot, Climate neUtrality and negative Emissions) Fachgebiet(e): Klimatologie, Modellierung Projektleitung: Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 08/2023 - 08/2026 |
| Scale-aware modeling of the ABL and its impact on deep convection (SCALABLe) Fachgebiet(e): Modellierung Projektleitung: Sakradzija, M. , Prof. Dr. Juerg Schmidli, Goethe Universität Frankfurt Laufzeit: 07/2023 - 06/2027 |
| SOS-iClimate: Southern Ocean Salinity-Isotopic Fingerprints and Impacts on Global Climate Fachgebiet(e): Allgemeine Geographie, Fernerkundung, Geländemessungen, Hydrologie, Klimatologie, Modellierung, Regionale Geographie Projektleitung: Haumann, F. A. Laufzeit: 07/2023 - 06/2028 |
| VERTEXSO: VERTical EXchange in the Southern Ocean Fachgebiet(e): Allgemeine Geographie, Fernerkundung, Geländemessungen, Klimatologie, Modellierung, Regionale Geographie Projektleitung: Haumann, F. A. Laufzeit: 01/2023 - 12/2027 |
| CDRSynTra: Carbon Dioxide Removal Synthesis and Transfer project Fachgebiet(e): Klimatologie, Modellierung Projektleitung: , Laufzeit: 04/2022 - 10/2024 |
| STEPSEC: Comparative evaluation of the potential of terrestrial carbon dioxide removal
Fachgebiet(e): Geographische Gesellschaft-Umwelt-Forschung, Klimatologie, Modellierung, Vegetationsgeographie Projektleitung: Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 10/2021 - 09/2024 |
| CDRSynTra: Carbon Dioxide Removal Synthesis and Transfer project Fachgebiet(e): Geographische Gesellschaft-Umwelt-Forschung, Klimatologie, Modellierung, Vegetationsgeographie Projektleitung: Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 10/2021 - 09/2024 |
| STEPSEC: Comparative evaluation of the potential of terrestrial carbon dioxide removal Fachgebiet(e): Geographische Gesellschaft-Umwelt-Forschung, Klimatologie, Modellierung, Vegetationsgeographie Projektleitung: Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 10/2021 - 09/2024 |
| High-resolution monitoring of avoided carbon emissions and carbon restoration potentials from land use change Fachgebiet(e): Fernerkundung, Klimatologie, Modellierung Projektleitung: Bultan, S., Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 04/2020 - 05/2021 |
| Occurence and Dependance of Cold-Air-Pools for Microrefugia (Dinaric Karst, Montenegro). Fachgebiet(e): Geomorphologie, Hochgebirgsforschung, Vegetationsgeographie Projektleitung: , Laufzeit: 03/2020 - 03/2022 |
| LAMACLIMA Fachgebiet(e): Klimatologie, Landschaftsökologie, Modellierung Projektleitung: Guo, S., Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 09/2019 - 08/2022 |
| Human-Earth system coupling Fachgebiet(e): Modellierung Projektleitung: Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 01/2019 - 12/2025 |
| Global Carbon Budget Fachgebiet(e): Klimatologie, Modellierung, Vegetationsgeographie Projektleitung: Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 04/2018 - 12/2025 |
| Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) Fachgebiet(e): Klimatologie, Modellierung Projektleitung: Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 04/2018 - 12/2025 |
| VERIFY Fachgebiet(e): Geländemessungen, Klimatologie, Modellierung Projektleitung: Ganzenmüller, R.G., Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 04/2018 - 08/2022 |
| Earth system and vegetation modeling Fachgebiet(e): Modellierung Projektleitung: Loughran, T., Pongratz, J. Laufzeit: 04/2018 - 12/2025 |