HydrOrth Lab

📢 New paper in Biogeosciences! We map contrasting impacts of wet and dry soil moisture extremes on vegetation greenness across the globe. Greenness declines are determined by pre-extreme vegetation conditions and seasonal timings, implying predictability. Read more tinyurl.com/3cmwx8vb

📢 New paper in Biogeosciences! We find that memory effects in evaporative fraction are strongest in evergreen broadleaved forests and savannas. This is shown with explainable machine learning (LSTMs) applied to fluxnet data. Read the highlight paper: tinyurl.com/mrfmcfsv

We're heading to #EGU26! 🚲🚆🧳 🌱💧☀️ Catch our latest work across biogeosciences, natural hazards, climate, hydrologic, and atmospheric sciences. Come by our presentations and sessions to connect and exchange ideas! Happy to connect even if you can't be there! 💬

@spaulus.bsky.social @xueyancheng.bsky.social @kdepolt.bsky.social @piamueller.bsky.social @egu.eu @egubg.bsky.social @hs.egu.eu @nh.egu.eu

We're heading to #EGU26! 🚲🚆🧳 🌱💧☀️ Catch our latest work across biogeosciences, natural hazards, climate, hydrologic, and atmospheric sciences. Come by our presentations and sessions to connect and exchange ideas! Happy to connect even if you can't be there! 💬

New paper from our group in Communications Earth & Environment! We find that including land surface observations from satellites improves temperature forecast skill globally across lead times from 1 to 12 days, with the largest improvements at 4-day lead time. Read more at: doi.org/10.1038/s432...

In this study, we examine the potential of satellite-derived land surface temperature and vegetation indicators to enhance near-surface temperature forecast skill. We build deep learning surrogate models for Numerical Weather Prediction using Long Short-Term Memory networks.

New paper from our group in @globalchangebio.bsky.social! We show regional emergence of water-related browning in a greening world. This is based on multiple water-related variables, and consistent gridded data covering 1982-2021. Read more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Coinciding browning and drying is found in tropical regions and in eastern Europe, and influence of water-related variables is confirmed with a regression analysis. Earth system models reproduce observation-based results in the multi-model mean, but results from individual models differ strongly.

🌱 Sinikka Paulus (@spaulus.bsky.social) was recently highlighted as the Featured Soil Modeler in the November issue of ISMC News. 📰🌱 👉 Read the full interview here: soil-modeling.org/news/ISMC-Ne...

💡In the feature, she shares insights into her current research on understanding soil’s sorptive potential at large scales, as well as the career path that led her into this topic.

Exciting news from the Future Forests Cluster of Excellence at the University of Freiburg (@uni-freiburg.de)! 🌲🌳 Applications are invited for two (7-year) positions in the Socio-Ecological Systems Modeling Lab of the Cluster: 1️⃣ Modeling Coordinator 2️⃣ Scientific Programmer Find details below 👇

The activities of the Socio-Ecological Systems Modeling Lab will be directed by the steering panel composed of Dr. Tjibbe Donker (@tjibbed.bsky.social), Prof. Carsten Dormann, Prof. Rene Orth, and JProf. Ana Stritih (@anastritih.bsky.social).

Exciting news from the Future Forests Cluster of Excellence at the University of Freiburg (@uni-freiburg.de)! 🌲🌳 Applications are invited for two (7-year) positions in the Socio-Ecological Systems Modeling Lab of the Cluster: 1️⃣ Modeling Coordinator 2️⃣ Scientific Programmer Find details below 👇

🌳📢 Modeling Coordinator position (7 years, TVöD E13) Help coordinate modeling activities, develop synergies and collaborations, as well as contribute to socio-ecological modeling research, including your own studies. 📅 Apply by 3 Dec 2025 🔗 uni-freiburg.de/en/job/00004...

New paper from our group in Environmental Research Communications! 🌳We emphasise the importance of short vegetation in urban cooling and highlight the overestimation of cooling effects when assessments rely solely on land surface temperature. Read more at: doi.org/10.1088/2515...

In this study, we analysed 216 cities around the world and found that trees decrease Universal Thermal Climate Index about 6x more than short vegetation. However, in some regions short vegetation performs similarly. We pinpointed that LST-based measures may overestimate the actual cooling effect.

🎉 Congratulations, Dr. Sinikka Paulus (@spaulus.bsky.social) ! 🎓 This past September, Sinikka successfully defended her PhD thesis titled: "A Novel Framework for Assessing the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Soil Water Vapor Adsorption Using a Global Observation Network"!

Special thanks go to her supervisors Prof. Dr. Anke Hildebrandt (@ankehildebrandt.bsky.social), Prof. Dr. Markus Reichstein (@reichstein-bgc.bsky.social), Dr. Mirco Migliavacca, Prof. Dr. René Orth, Dr. Sung-Ching Lee (@sclee.bsky.social) and Dr. Jacob Nelson (@jnelson18.bsky.social)

🎉 Congratulations, Dr. Chunhui Zhan! 🎓 This past Monday, Chunhui successfully defended her PhD thesis titled: "The Effect of Elevated Atmospheric CO2 on the Terrestrial Carbon and Water Cycle"!

Additional thanks is sent to collaborators Dr. Mirco Migliavacca, Dr. Hui Yang (@huiiyang.bsky.social), Prof. Dr. Martin De Kauwe (@mdekauwe.bsky.social). Along with members of ABC3 (@abcube.bsky.social), the hydrOth_Lab, and additional colleagues.

🎉 Congratulations, Dr. Chunhui Zhan! 🎓 This past Monday, Chunhui successfully defended her PhD thesis titled: "The Effect of Elevated Atmospheric CO2 on the Terrestrial Carbon and Water Cycle"!

🎉 Congratulations, Dr. Melissa Ruiz-Vásquez! 🎓 This past July, Melissa successfully defended her PhD thesis titled: "Exploring the potential of land surface information to improve subseasonal temperature forecast skills." A huge congratulations on this achievement!

Special thanks go to her supervisors Prof. Dr. René Orth, Prof. Dr. Sungmin O, Prof. Dr. Alexander Brenning (@alexanderbrenning.bsky.social), Prof. Dr. Markus Reichstein ( @reichstein-bgc.bsky.social), and Dr. Gianpaolo Balsamo (@gpbalsamo.bsky.social).

New paper from our group in Earth System Dynamics! We find geopotential height is the main driver of hot extremes. ☀️ Surface net radiation and evaporative fraction are secondary daily drivers, while 🪁 wind dominates weekly. Read more at: doi.org/10.5194/esd-...

In this study, we determine the relevance of atmospheric drivers, such as wind, geopotential height, horizontal geopotential height differences, and surface net radiation, and land surface drivers, such as evaporative fraction and enhanced vegetation index, for hot extremes across the globe. 🌱☀️🌍