Research interests
Long-term Goal: to contribute to our understanding of how natural (e.g. forest, grassland) and managed (e.g. agricultural, agroforestry, pasture, tree plantation) ecosystems are affected by global change processes (e.g. land-use change, variations in temperature and rainfall regimes, increases in nutrient depositions).
As today's environmental problems can only be investigated and solved through interdisciplinary approaches, my group collaborates with scientists in other disciplines.

Research Foci:
Impact of global change processes (e.g. land-use change, increases in nutrient depositions, changes in temperature and rainfall regimes) on soil nutrient cycling processes and net primary productivity
Carbon, nitrogen and nutrient fluxes in tropical ecosystems
Ecosystem functions of agroforestry systems
Soil-atmosphere exchange of trace gases (N2O, NO, CH4, CO2)
Canopy soil and epiphytes in tropical ecosystems: trace gas exchange and nitrogen cycling
Biogeochemistry of deeply-weathered tropical soils
Interaction between vegetation species diversity, soil nutrient availability, and nutrient cycling processes