Our team

As head of the LEMG team and leader of the Campus Alpin’s division on Ecosystem-Atmosphere Interactions, I focus on how terrestrial ecosystems respond to climate change and land-use change. My work explores how natural and managed ecosystems can contribute to climate change mitigation, with co-benefits for adaptation and broader sustainability goals. I am particularly interested in the role of ecosystem processes and services in shaping land-use decisions within socio-ecological systems. My research also aims to improve the representation and quantification of biodiversity-ecosystem function links in modeling frameworks. I have contributed as an author to IPBES and IPCC assessment reports for many years.

Email: almut.arneth∂kit.edu
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6616-0822

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Global Land Ecosystem Modelling group at KIT/IMKIFU. My research focuses on understanding and modelling the interactions between climate, land use change and management, and ecosystem functioning, with an emphasis on forest disturbances (e.g. wildfires) and forest carbon dynamics. I develop and apply machine learning and deep learning approaches as core modelling tools to capture complex, nonlinear processes in terrestrial ecosystems. I hold a doctorate in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering from the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil. My research has been supported by fellowships from the Swiss Excellence Scholarship programme, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the KIT Young Investigator Group Preparation Programme.

Email: carolina.moura∂kit.edu

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3103-6789

Peter Anthoni obtained his doctorate in atmospheric science at the Oregon State University, USA, and joined the PAI modelling group in 2015 as a scientific programmer.  His main tasks involve model development, data analysis, and performing model simulation at HPC centers in Germany.

I did my bachelor and master degree in agricultural sciences in Colombia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) and USA (Washington State University), respectively. For my PhD (University of Birmingham, UK) I focused my research in large scale vegetation dynamical modelling, specifically LPJ-GUESS where I worked improving crop simulations but also evaluating the cropland relationships with legacies of previous pastures and natural vegetation covers.

I joined the Global Land Ecosystem Modelling group of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology/IMKIFU in January 2024 with a postdoctoral Alexander von Humboldt fellowship. My interest research at KIT is to evaluate the effect of different climate and environmental pressures on forests and agroecosystems and assesing management activities to mitigate and adapt to those pressures.

I started as a master student in the LEMG group and wrote my master thesis with the title: Herbivory in the Savanna - Assessing the impact of large mammal herbivores on the vegetation using PlanetScope data. In October 2023 I started my PhD within the LEMG group. My research focuses on the development of an open-source individual-based ecological model, which aims to investigate migratory grazing systems in the family of ungulates. The focus of this study is the Serengeti Greater Maasai Mara ecosystem, where I am exploring the effects of land use and climate change on the wildebeests' movement and population dynamics.

I hold a Master's degree in Geography, complemented by studies in Biology (140 ECTS) at the University of Heidelberg, Carleton University, Ottawa and the University of Innsbruck. I am interested in biodiversity research, population dynamics, and animal movement and ecological modelling in the context of global change.

Email: helena.back∂kit.edu
Orcid ID: 0009-0008-8902-7387

My current research interests include but are not limited to questions at the nexus of human-natural coupled systems. As part of the Global Land-Ecosystem Modelling group, I collaborate with colleagues to synchronize and optimize integrated land surface, biogeochemical, socioeconomic and climate models - to explain and predict impacts and feedback of global land use patterns on climate. 

I received my PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecological Sciences and Engineering from Purdue University. There, I developed Individual based models to examine the influence of behavior (e.g., movement, social), mortality and landscape heterogeneity on the distribution of animal-transported subsidies (i.e., ecological resource and consumer transfers across ecosystems).

I graduated in Physics and Astrophysics in Spain, after which I moved to Germany to complete my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen. In my thesis I studied how certain plasma flow patterns on the Sun’s surface may affect the strength of the solar magnetic cycle. By the end of my PhD I started taking an interest in Climate Science and the relationship between the Climate system and human activities. Since then I have been working in the Global Land-Ecosystem modeling group at KIT/IMKIFU in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. My work here has focused on expanding the Dynamic Global Vegetation Model LPJ-GUESS into a Land Surface Model suitable for coupled Land-Ecosystem-Atmosphere experiments. This involves implementing various constraints and new physics schemes into LPJ-GUESS, such as energy balance, heat and water transport in the soil or radiative transfer. When ready, this model will allow to study feedbacks between the atmosphere and the slower ecosystem processes, such as population dynamics and trends of the biomass production in the context of a warming climate.

I got my master degree in Geosciences - Climatology from the University of Liege, with a focus on atmospheric physics in the Patagonian region using a Regional Atmospheric Climate Model. Subsequently, I obtained my doctorate at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute in Potsdam, where I studied permafrost dynamics using a Land Surface Model (LSM). My doctoral research aimed to improve the LSM's representation of heat and water exchanges in permafrost areas, with specific attention given to the influence of snow and soil organic matter.

As a member of the Land-Ecosystem Modeling group, I work towards the development of advanced model systems, including dynamic global vegetation models, functional biodiversity models, and coupled socio-economic/ecological models. Our common goal is to address the complex issues raised by the intersecting challenges of climate change, land-use change and biodiversity loss.

I did both my bachelor's in Natural and Environmental Science (University of Parma) and my master's in Environmental Sustainability (Marche Polytechnical University) in Italy, to then leave for Scotland for a PhD in Environmental Science at the University of Aberdeen and the James Hutton Institute. There, I have applied bioclimatic envelope models to assess the impacts of climate change on different peatland ecosystem services. I am interested in everything that deals with nature, which is why I have always changed the topic of my research. I did my thesis in ethology (bachelor), marine biology (master) and peatland ecosystem services (PhD), and my research at KIT is about… forests! I came to IMKIFU as a postdoc thanks to an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship, and I am now continuing to work here in the "WildE" project, which looks at rewilding scenarios in Europe, in terms of trade-offs/co-benefits between different ecosystem services.

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4865-3660

I am post-doc at the IMKIFU since June 2025 after defending my thesis at the IfGG in Karlsruhe.

My research focusses on ecosystem dynamics, especially the interactions between animals and their ecological habitat. Since the traditional scientific view of ecosystem marginalised the effects of the top of the food pyramid, there is a lot less known about the effects animals imply on an ecosystem when compared to other parts of the biosphere. With my research, I tackle this knowledge gap by coupling two models for the first wholistic, process-based modelling approach that simulates the whole trophic pyramid of terrestrial ecosystems. Thus, I am not only working on LPJ-GUESS (a DGVM) but also the Madingley model (a functional diversity model).

Email: jens.krause∂kit.edu

I'm a PhD student in the global land ecosystem modeling group, with a background in physics and environmental studies from LMU Munich. I'm interested in multiple dimensions of the current climate and ecological crises, especially their interactions and trade-offs inherent in potential solutions. Utilizing its early-stage coupling to CRAFTY for broader socio-ecological perspectives, I work with LPJ-GUESS to explore how different climate and policy scenarios affect terrestrial carbon cycling and ecosystem services in German and European contexts. My first paper reviewed competing demands on European forests under climate change that current policies struggle to resolve. Current projects examine land-based carbon removal pathways in Germany and protected area network expansion across Europe, comparing outcomes across different climate futures and policy configurations. Beyond my PhD research, I contribute to climate policy assessments as Almut’s scientific staff member for Baden-Württemberg's Climate Advisory Council (Klima-Sachverständigenrat).

Email: tobias.laimer∂kit.edu
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0702-7524

I earned my PhD in ecological modelling from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. My research focuses on modelling the impacts of climate change and land-management practices on terrestrial ecosystems, with an emphasis on carbon–nitrogen–water fluxes. During my PhD, I developed and implemented the Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF) in legumes into the LPJ-GUESS crop module. I am currently involved in the EU-funded EYE-CLIMA project and the Global Land Nitrogen Budget – Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (NMIP3), where I work on simulating nitrous gas emissions by developing soil nitrification–denitrification processes in LPJ-GUESS.

Isabel Pérez Postigo - Postdoctoral researcher

I joined the global land ecosystem modelling group in May 2021. Here, I am investigating the effects of large herbivores on the vegetation using remote sensing methods. The aim is to develop a method to measure large scale changes in the vegetation related to ecosystem functions, carbon cycling and ecosystem services. The findings will help to improve the simulation of herbivore effects on vegetation in the model LPJ-GUESS.

After a Bachelor in Physical Geography at the University of Erlangen (Germany) and a Master in Environmental Geography at the Universities of Marburg (Germany) and Lisbon (Portugal), I pursued a PhD in Ecology at the University of Guadalajara (Mexico) on alien plants in Western Mexico. My research interests thus combine different aspects from Geography and Biology. More specifically ecosystem functions, plant ecology and interactions with the biotic and a-biotic environment in a spatial and temporal context.

Katharina Ramm is a PhD student in the Land Use Change & Climate Research Group as well as in the Ecosystem-Atmosphere Interaction Group since October 2020. Her research focusses on quantifying biodiversity loss and developing a human pressure index to better measure human influence on extinction rates. Her scientific interest includes ecosystem services and anthropogenic impact on biodiversity, land cover change and geospatial data analysis with open source tools.

Since August 2023, I am at IMKIFU as assistance for the Global Land Ecosystem Modelling group. You can contact me with questions about onboarding and websites.

Some time ago I studied Geoecology in Braunschweig. During the last years I worked for a non-profit organization in Weilheim i. OB with the aim of supporting the insurance industry on the path to sustainable transformation.