Profile

Polar regions are some of the most sensitive and vulnerable regions on Earth. In particular, the long-term interactions between climate, ecosystems and humans in polar continental areas are still poorly understood. The “Polar Terrestrial Environmental Systems” research group investigates past climate dynamics, high-latitude vegetation change, arctic lake system dynamics and biodiversity change in high latitudes. As the time-period covered by direct observations is short, the analysis of long-term changes requires the use of indirect proxy data extracted from environmental archives such as lake sediments. Therefore, proxy development and proxy data synthesis are also key research interests of the group. From these, a better understanding of the polar continental areas and their interactions with the global Earth system can be gained.

Head
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Herzschuh

Assistant
Kristina Brenner
Email: kristina.brenner@awi.de; Phone: +49(331)58174-5600

Scientific Management
Dr. Liv Heinecke
Email: liv.heinecke@awi.de; Phone: +49(331)58174-5603

Website
Dr. Boris K. Biskaborn

 

Projects