Doctor Juergen Knauer

• Publications

I’m an environmental modeler interested in vegetation responses to ongoing environmental and climate change. I did my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena/Germany, where I worked on modelling and model-data integration of carbon and water fluxes from leaf to global scales. In 2019 I moved to Canberra/Australia where I worked at the CSIRO Climate Science Centre. In Canberra I started using and developing Australia’s land surface model CABLE, which is used for a variety of purposes, including various multi-model intercomparison projects aiming to gain a better understanding of the role of vegetation in the Earth system. I am particularly interested in investigating how plant physiological processes affect the climate system and how plants respond to a changing climate themselves. I am currently working on the development of a dynamic vegetation model for Australia together with a team led by Professor Belinda Medlyn.

Areas of research/teaching expertise

• Modelling vegetation dynamics in Australia, including effects of drought, nutrient limitation, and disturbances such as fire
• Representation of plant physiological mechanisms (e.g. photosynthetic acclimation, mesophyll conductance) in global terrestrial biosphere models and their effects on the global carbon cycle
• Derivation and interpretation of ecophysiological and micrometeorological surface and vegetation properties from eddy covariance data
• Environmental, plant physiological, and anatomical controls on leaf mesophyll conductance
• Modelling and programming (R, Fortran, Unix shell)

Bushfire Research

Our research also includes the role of fire and its effects on global change. Please see here (opens in a new window) for further details on our bushfire research.

Grants

Period: 2022-2027

Publications

Grassi G, Schwingshackl C, Gasser T, Houghton RA, Sitch S, Canadell JG, Cescatti A, Ciais P, Federici S, Friedlingstein P, Kurz WA, Sanz Sanchez MJ, Abad Viñas R, Alkama R, Bultan S, Ceccherini G, Falk S, Kato E, Kennedy D, Knauer J, Korosuo A, Melo J, McGrath MJ, Nabel JEMS, Poulter B, Romanovskaya AA, Rossi S, Tian H, Walker AP, Yuan W, Yue X, Pongratz J, (2023) 'Harmonising the land-use flux estimates of global models and national inventories for 2000-2020', Earth System Science Data, vol.15, no.3, pp 1093 - 1114

Kou-Giesbrecht S, Arora VK, Seiler C, Arneth A, Falk S, Jain AK, Joos F, Kennedy D, Knauer J, Sitch S, O'Sullivan M, Pan NQ, Sun Q, Tian HQ, Vuichard N, Zaehle S, (2023) 'Evaluating nitrogen cycling in terrestrial biosphere models: a disconnect between the carbon and nitrogen cycles', Earth System Dynamics, vol.14, no.4, pp 767-795

Tschumi E, Lienert S, Bastos A, Ciais P, Gregor K, Joos F, Knauer J, Papastefanou P, Rammig A, van der Wiel K, Williams K, Xu Y, Zaehle S, Zscheischler J, (2023) 'Large Variability in Simulated Response of Vegetation Composition and Carbon Dynamics to Variations in Drought-Heat Occurrence', Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, vol.128, no.4, Article no.e2022JG007332

Beringer J, Moore CE, Cleverly J, Campbell DI, Cleigh H, De Kauwe MG, Kirschbaum MUF, Griebel A, Grover S, Huete A, Hutley LB, Laubach J, Van Niel T, Arndt SK, Bennett AC, Cernusak LA, Eamus D, Ewenz CM, Goodrich JP, Jiang M, Hinko-Najera N, Isaac P, Hobeichi S, Knauer J, Koerber GR, Liddell M, Ma X, Macfarlane C, McHugh ID, Medlyn BE, Meyer WS, Norton AJ, Owens J, Pitman A, Pendall E, Prober SM, Ray RL, Restrepo-Coupe N, Rifai SW, Rowlings D, Schipper L, Silberstein RP, Teckentrup L, Thompson SE, Ukkola AM, Wall A, Wang Y-P, Wardlaw TJ, Woodgate W, (2022) 'Bridge to the future: Important lessons from 20 years of ecosystem observations made by the OzFlux network', Global Change Biology, vol.28, no.11, pp 3489 - 3514

Friedlingstein P, Jones MW, O'Sullivan M, Andrew RM, Bakker DCE, Hauck J, Le Quere C, Peters GP, Peters W, Pongratz J, Sitch S, Canadell JG, Ciais P, Jackson RB, Alin SR, Anthoni P, Bates NR, Becker M, Bellouin N, Bopp L, Chau TTT, Chevallier F, Chini LP, Cronin M, Currie KI, Decharme B, Djeutchouang LM, Dou XY, Evans W, Feely RA, Feng L, Gasser T, Gilfillan D, Gkritzalis T, Grassi G, Gregor L, Gruber N, Gurses O, Harris I, Houghton RA, Hurtt GC, Iida Y, Ilyina T, Luijkx IT, Jain A, Jones SD, Kato E, Kennedy D, Goldewijk KK, Knauer J, Korsbakken JI, Kortzinger A, Landschutzer P, Lauvset SK, Lefevre N, Lienert S, Liu JJ, Marland G, McGuire PC, Melton JR, Munro DR, Nabel JEMS, Nakaoka SI, Niwa Y, Ono T, Pierrot D, Poulter B, Rehder G, Resplandy L, Robertson E, Rodenbeck C, Rosan TM, Schwinger J, Schwingshackl C, Seferian R, Sutton AJ, Sweeney C, Tanhua T, Tans PP, Tian HQ, Tilbrook B, Tubiello F, van der Werf GR, Vuichard N, Wada C, Wanninkhof R, Watson AJ, Willis D, Wiltshire AJ, Yuan WP, Yue C, Yue X, Zaehle S, Zeng JY, (2022) 'Global Carbon Budget 2021', Earth System Science Data, vol.14, no.4,  pp 1917-2005

Knauer J, Cuntz M, Evans JR, Niinemets U, Tosens T, Veromann-Jurgenson LL, Werner C, Zaehle S, (2022) 'Contrasting anatomical and biochemical controls on mesophyll conductance across plant functional types', New Phytologist, vol.236, no.2, pp 357-368

O’Sullivan M, Friedlingstein P, Sitch S, Anthoni P, Arneth A, Arora VK, Bastrikov V, Delire C, Goll D, Jain A, Kato E, Kennedy D, Knauer J, Lienert S, Lombardozzi D, McGuire PC, Melton JR, Nabel JEMS, Pongratz J, Poulter B, Séférian R, Tian H, Vuichard N, Walker AP, Yuan W, Yue X, Zaehle S, (2022) 'Process-oriented analysis of dominant sources of uncertainty in the land carbon sink', Nature Communications, vol.13, no.1, Article no.4781

Villalobos Y, Rayner PJ, Silver JD, Thomas S, Haverd V, Knauer J, Loh ZM, Deutscher NM, Griffith DWT, Pollard DF, (2022) 'Interannual variability in the Australian carbon cycle over 2015-2019, based on assimilation of Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite data', Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, vol.22, no.13, pp 8897-8934

Bennett AC, Arndt SK, Bennett LT, Knauer J, Beringer J, Griebel A, Hinko-Najera N, Liddell MJ, Metzen D, Pendall E, Silberstein RP, Wardlaw TJ, Woodgate W, Haverd V, (2021) 'Thermal optima of gross primary productivity are closely aligned with mean air temperatures across Australian wooded ecosystems', Global Change Biology, vol.27, pp 4727-4744

El Madany TS, Reichstein M, Carrara A, Martín MP, Moreno G, Gonzalez-Cascon R, Peñuelas J, Ellsworth DS, Burchard-Levine V, Hammer TW, Knauer J, Kolle O, Luo Y, Pacheco-Labrador J, Nelson JA, Perez-Priego O, Rolo V, Wutzler T, Migliavacca M, (2021) 'How Nitrogen and Phosphorous Availability Change Water Use Efficiency in a Mediterranean Savanna Ecosystem', Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, vol.126, e2020JG006005

Walker AP, De Kauwe MG, Bastos A, Belmecheri S, Georgiou K, Keeling RF, McMahon SM, Medlyn BE, Moore DJP, Norby RJ, Zaehle S, Anderson-Teixeira KJ, Battipaglia G, Brienen RJW, Cabugao KG, Cailleret M, Campbell E, Canadell JG, Ciais P, Craig ME, Ellsworth DS, Farquhar GD, Fatichi S, Fisher JB, Frank DC, Graven H, Gu LH, Haverd V, Heilman K, Heimann M, Hungate BA, Iversen CM, Joos F, Jiang MK, Keenan TF, Knauer J, Korner C, Leshyk VO, Leuzinger S, Liu Y, MacBean N, Malhi Y, McVicar TR, Penuelas J, Pongratz J, Powell AS, Riutta T, Sabot MEB, Schleucher J, Sitch S, Smith WK, Sulman B, Taylor B, Terrer C, Torn MS, Treseder KK, Trugman AT, Trumbore SE, van Mantgem PJ, Voelker SL, Whelan ME, Zuidema PA, (2021) 'Integrating the evidence for a terrestrial carbon sink caused by increasing atmospheric CO2', New Phytologist, vol.229, no.5, pp 2413-2445

Bastos A, Ciais P, Friedlingstein P, Sitch S, Pongratz J, Fan L, Wigneron JP, Weber U, Reichstein M, Fu Z, Anthoni P, Arneth A, Haverd V, Jain AK, Joetzjer E, Knauer J, Lienert S, Loughran T, McGuire PC, Tian H, Viovy N, Zaehle S, (2020) 'Direct and seasonal legacy effects of the 2018 heat wave and drought on European ecosystem productivity', Science Advances, vol.6, eaba2724

Knauer J, Zaehle S, De Kauwe MG, Haverd V, Reichstein M, Sun Y, (2020) 'Mesophyll conductance in land surface models: effects on photosynthesis and transpiration', The Plant Journal, vol.101, pp 858-873

Knauer J, Zaehle S, De Kauwe M, Bahar NHA, Evans JR, Medlyn B, Reichstein M, Werner C, (2019) 'Effects of mesophyll conductance on vegetation responses to elevated CO₂ concentrations in a land surface model', Global Change Biology, vol.25, pp 1820-1838

Knauer J, El-Madany TS, Zaehle S, Migliavacca M, (2018) 'Bigleaf—An R package for the calculation of physical and physiological ecosystem properties from eddy covariance data', PLoS One, vol.13, e0201114

Knauer J, Zaehle S, Medlyn BE, Reichstein M, Williams CA, Migliavacca M, De Kauwe MG, Werner C, Keitel C, Kolari P, Limousin J-M, Linderson M-L, (2018) 'Towards physiologically meaningful water-use efficiency estimates from eddy covariance data', Global Change Biology, vol.24, pp 694–710

Nelson JA, Carvalhais N, Cuntz M, Delpierre N, Knauer J, Ogée J, Migliavacca M, Reichstein M, Jung M, (2018) 'Coupling water and carbon fluxes to constrain estimates of transpiration: the TEA algorithm', Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, vol.123, pp 3617-3632

Schaphoff S, von Bloh W, Rammig A, Thonicke K, Biemans H, Forkel M, Gerten D, Heinke J, Jägermeyr J, Knauer J, Langerwisch F, Lucht W, Müller C, Rolinski S, Waha K, (2018) 'LPJmL4 – a dynamic global vegetation model with managed land – Part 1: Model description', Geoscientific Model Development, vol.11, pp 1343-1375

Schaphoff S, Forkel M, Müller C, Knauer J, von Bloh W, Gerten D, Jägermeyr J, Lucht W, Rammig A, Thonicke K, Waha K, (2018) 'LPJmL4 – a dynamic global vegetation model with managed land – Part 2: Model evaluation', Geoscientific Model Development, vol.11, pp 1377-1403

Wutzler T, Lucas-Moffat A, Migliavacca M, Knauer J, Sickel K, Šigut L, Menzer O, Reichstein M, (2018) 'Basic and extensible post-processing of eddy covariance flux data with REddyProc', Biogeosciences, vol.15, pp 5015-5030

De Kauwe MG, Medlyn BE, Knauer J, Williams CA, (2017) 'Ideas and perspectives: How coupled is the vegetation to the boundary layer?', Biogeosciences, vol.14, pp 4435–4453

Knauer J, Zaehle S, Reichstein M, Medlyn BE, Forkel M, Hagemann S, Werner C, (2017) 'The response of ecosystem water-use efficiency to rising atmospheric CO₂ concentrations: sensitivity and large-scale biogeochemical implications', New Phytologist, vol.213, pp 1654–1666

Medlyn BE, De Kauwe MG, Lin Y-S, Knauer J, Duursma RA, Williams CA, Arneth A, Clement R, Isaac P, Limousin J-M, Linderson M-L, Meir P, Martin-StPaul N, Wingate L, (2017) 'How do leaf and ecosystem measures of water-use efficiency compare?', New Phytologist, vol.216, pp 758-770

Knauer J, Werner C, Zaehle S, (2015) 'Evaluating stomatal models and their atmospheric drought response in a land surface scheme: A multibiome analysis', Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, vol.120, pp 1894–1911