Jörg Matschullat

• Prof. Dr. rer. nat.
• Managing Director at TU Bergakademie Freiberg

About a century ago, B was recognised as an essential element for the normal growth of plants and terrestrial organisms. Limitations for plant development have been recognised in agricultural systems, particularly in highly weathered soil. Boron is rarely analysed in whole rock or soil analysis, as it requires specific analytical techniques. It is...

The abundance of human-made inland waters, such as artificial ponds and reservoirs, has multiplied over the last decades. Compared to natural lakes, reservoirs and retention basins can exhibit a higher accumulation of organic carbon and a higher emission of greenhouse gases. Magnitude and dynamics of related emission fluxes are important to underst...

Ecosystems, like almost any environmental entity, are often highly sensitive to the presence of humans when measuring field characteristics. Robotic solutions deserve attention to avoid or greatly reduce related bias. Constant availability of robotic solutions, independent of the time of day and most weather conditions, is an additional advantage....

Plain Language Summary In 2022, western Europe recorded its hottest summer up to date since preindustrial times. At the same time, widespread dry conditions caused dramatic impacts on human health, water resources, crop yields and wildfires. This was partly enhanced by the human–caused cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases, but also potentially...

In 2022, western Europe recorded its hottest summer since preindustrial times, as well as widespread dry conditions that have caused dramatic impacts on human health, water resources, crop yields and wildfires. This was partly enhanced by the human–caused cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases, but also potentially by large-scale circulation anom...

Projected changes in summer precipitation deficits partly depend on alterations in synoptic circulations. Here, the automated Jenkinson–Collison classification is used to assess the ability of 21 global climate models (GCMs) to capture the frequency of recurring circulation types (CTs) and their implications for European daily precipitation amounts...

This work compares forecasting strategies for improving the prediction of extreme precipitation events at different timescales. Our study focuses on forecasting extreme precipitation in Calabria, southern Italy. This region with complex and abruptly varying topography poses additional challenges in forecasting precipitation. Here, we use gridded ob...

Projected changes in summer precipitation deficits partly depend on alterations in synoptic circulations. Here, the automated Jenkinson-Collison (JC) classification is used to assess the ability of twenty-one Global Climate Models (GCMs) to capture the frequency of recurring circulation types (CTs) and their implications for European daily precipit...

The Mediterranean region frequently experiences Extreme Precipitation Events (EPEs) with devastating consequences for affected societies, economies and environment. Predicting such events long in advance can support the mitigation of negative impacts. We build upon previous work that identified strong connections between localized EPEs and large-sc...

Extreme precipitation events (EPEs) can have devastating consequences, such as floods and landslides, posing a great threat to society and economy. Predicting such events long in advance can support the mitigation of negative impacts. Here, we focus on EPEs over the Mediterranean, a region that is frequently affected by such hazards. Previous work...

While the evidence for anthropogenic climate change continues to strengthen, and concerns about severe weather events are increasing, global projections of regional climate change are still uncertain due to model‐dependent changes in large‐scale atmospheric circulation, including over North Atlantic and Europe. Here, the Jenkinson–Collison classifi...

The project Geochemical Mapping of Agricultural and grazing land Soil (GEMAS) was carried out in 33 European countries (5.6 million km2) with an average sampling density of 1 site per 2500 km2. The main objective was to assess the chemical quality of productive soils. All collected soil samples were prepared in the same laboratory, and subsequently...

The Amazon rainforest, formerly pristine and highly biodiverse, is increasingly under threat from deforestation for cattle grazing , other forms of agriculture, mining and development. To better understand which land management type best serves sustainability aims, we compare soil gas exchange (CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O) and soil chemistry for forested l...

Extreme Precipitation Events (EPEs) can have devastating consequences such as floods and landslides, posing a great threat to society and economy. Predicting such events long in advance can support the mitigation of negative impacts. Here, we focus on EPEs over the Mediterranean, a region that is frequently affected by such hazards. Previous work i...

The Mediterranean region frequently experiences Extreme Precipitation Events (EPEs) with devastating consequences for affected societies, economies and environment. Thus, it is crucial to better understand this natural hazard and its drivers, so we can mitigate associated impacts and increase the resilience of our societies. In fact, one important...

The Mediterranean region frequently experiences extreme precipitation events with devastating consequences for the affected societies, economies, and environment. Being able to provide reliable and skillful predictions of such events is crucial for mitigating their adverse impacts and related risks. One important part of the risk mitigation chain i...

This work uses the Jenkinson-Collison automatic classification to derive daily synoptic atmospheric circulations in a region centred over Germany. We evaluate past and future changes in the seasonal frequencies of synoptic weather patterns over central and western Europe. A set of three reanalyses and eight Global Climate Models (GCMs) from the Cou...

The Mediterranean region is strongly affected by extreme precipitation events (EPEs), sometimes leading to severe negative impacts on society, economy, and the environment. Understanding such natural hazards and their drivers is essential to mitigate related risks. Here, EPEs over the Mediterranean between 1979 and 2019 are analysed, using ERA5, th...

Agricultural soil (Ap-horizon, 0–20 cm) samples were collected from 33 European countries as part of the GEMAS (GEochemical Mapping of Agricultural and grazing land Soil) soilmapping project. The Mg data derived from total concentrations (XRF) and two acid digestion methods, aqua regia (AR) and Mobile Metal Ion (MMI® ), were used to provide an over...

Tropospheric ozone (O3) acts as greenhouse gas and air pollutant. Over the last 100 years, tropospheric O3 levels increased above background by factor 2.5 in the northern hemisphere and by factor 3–4 across Europe. The gas poses a potential risk to forest ecosystems in many mountain areas. There, O3 concentrations result from long-range transport a...

Newspaper article with photos that show the platforms and describe first results and targets (in German)

This work quantifies the connections between Extreme Precipitation Events over the Mediterranean and large-scale atmospheric flow patterns. It is shown that conditioning the extremes to large-scale patterns increases the occurrence probability more than 3-fold, compared to the nominal one. Moreover, orography further enhances such connections. Thes...

The Mediterranean is strongly affected by Extreme Precipitation Events (EPEs), sometimes leading to negative impacts on society, economy, and the environment. Understanding such natural hazards and their drivers is essential to mitigate related risks. Here, EPEs over the Mediterranean between 1979 and 2019 are analyzed, using ERA5 dataset from ECMW...

The Mediterranean region is an area with half a billion population, about 10 percent contribution to the world’s GDP, and locations of global natural, historical and cultural significance. In this context, natural hazards in the area have the potential for severe negative impacts on society, economy, and environment. Some of the most frequent and...

Phosphorus is unique, given its characteristic of being essential for all life on Earth. The element is non-substitutable and finite in the form of highly concentrated phosphate-rock deposits. Thus, humankind should strive to utilize this resource in the most-efficient and sustainable manner. Losses, as well as overlooked opportunities, can be foun...

The demand for ‘high-tech’ element resources (e.g., rare earth elements, lithium, platinum group elements) has increased with their continued consumption in developed countries and the emergence of developing economies. To provide a sound knowledge base for future generations, it is necessary to identify the spatial distribution of critical element...

Increasing land transformation in the Amazon basin, from forest to post-forest usage such as pastureland, agriculture and agroforestry, triggers significant changes in hydrology, soil fertility and regional climatology. However, relatively little is known about Amazon basin soil chemistry in general and about possible alteration with recent land-us...

Given the dimensions of the Amazon basin (7.5 million km²), its internal dynamics, increasing anthropogenic strain on this large biome, and its global role as one of two continental biospheric tipping elements, it appears crucial to have data-based knowledge on carbon and nitrogen concentrations and pools as well as on possible intra-annual dynamic...

Geochemical mapping and the determination of baseline concentrations of potentially hazardous elements in the environment receive increasing attention. The need to know regional geochemical background data as well as the spatial allocation of areas with anomalous element concentrations and chances to identify their major sources motivate the intere...

RESUMO O mapeamento geoquímico e a determinação das concentrações dos valores de referências de elementos potencialmente perigosos no ambiente vêm obtendo uma crescente relevância nos últimos anos. A necessidade de conhecer dados geoquímicos regionais, bem como a alocação espacial de áreas com concentrações de elementos anômalos e as chances de ide...

Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 20, EGU2018-15539-4, 2018

Treatment of nutrient-rich wastewater potentially results in direct release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2, N2O or CH4 – and thus affects Waste Water Treatment Plant's carbon footprint. Accurate CO2 quantification is challenging due to various chemical, physical and operational conditions. A floating chamber equipped with a nondispersive in...

A reliable overview of measured concentrations of TC, TN and TS, TOC/TN ratios, and their regional distribution patterns in agricultural soil at the continental scale and based on measured data has been missing - despite much previous work on local and the European scales. Detection and mapping of natural (ambient) background element concentrations...

The GEMAS (geochemical mapping of agricultural soil) project collected 2108 Ap horizon soil samples from regularly ploughed fields in 33 European countries, covering 5.6 million km2. The <2 mm fraction of these samples was analysed for 53 elements by ICP-MS and ICP-AES, following a HNO3/HCl/H2O (modified aqua regia) digestion. Results are used here...

The relevance of drought is still often underestimated for moderate climate regions like central Europe. This is connected to the slow development of droughts, which not only hampers the identification of their start and end, but also makes their impacts not immediately noticeable. Nonetheless, several drought events in recent years (e.g. 1992, 200...

This contribution studies long-term changes (1851–2015) in precipitation conditions over Europe during the winter season using the modified Rainfall Anomaly Index mRAI (Hänsel et al. 2015), that delivers comparable results to the well-known SPI (McKee et al. 1993). Homogenized data are used, wherever possible, helping to evaluate variations in data...

We compiled, assesses and evaluated a long-term, spatially widespread and well-distributed, high-quality meteorological data set in daily resolution to investigate the evolution of extremely low European winter temperatures. Hereby we focussed on a large collective of threshold- and percentile-based indices, calculated from daily maximum and minimu...

CO2 emissions from soils represent the second largest carbon flux of terrestrial ecosystems (Raich & Schlesinger 1992). Moreover, soil CO2 emissions are ten times higher than the amount produced by fossil fuel combustion (Raich & Tufekcioglu 2000). CO2 emissions in winter are not negligible, since more than 50 % of the assimilated carbon of the gro...

Extreme precipitation events (EPEs) in the Ore Mountains (OM) were studied based on daily precipitation observations from 1960 to 2013. The OM are a low mountain range situated in the Czech-German border area. The Weather Extremity Index (WEI) resulting from an event-adjusted evaluation technique was used to select 54 EPEs of 1-10 days duration. Th...

Todos os Santos (All Saints) Bay area, NE-Brazil, is known for one of the most important cases of urban lead (Pb) contamination in the world. The main objective of this work was to assess and interpret the spatial distribution of As, Cd, Hg, Pb, and Zn in "background" soils of this environmentally impacted bay area, using a combination of geostatis...

The Brazilian–German project EcoRespira-Amazon currently conducts a study of soil respiration and soil chemistry in the Brazilian Amazon basin that comparatively examines forested land with post-forest land cover. The Amazon region, long recognized as a key component of the global carbon cycle and a tipping point in the global climate system, cover...

The oxidation of phenylarsine oxide (PhAsO) and cacodylic acid (CA) by UV-A assisted heterogeneous photocatalysis using ZnO and TiO2 was studied. The influence of pH and catalyst load was assessed using multifactorial design. Both studied variables showed a significant effect on organoarsenical degradation. PhAsO was completely removed in 5 min at...

This paper contributes to an enhanced understanding of present climatic conditions, observed climate trends and regional climate vulnerability of the Bhutan Himalayas. Bhutan’s complex, often high-altitude terrain and the severe impact of the Indian summer monsoon leads to a strong exposure of the countries’ key economic sectors (agriculture, fores...

Through this assessment, the authors and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) secretariat are providing an objective evaluation and analysis of the pan-European environment designed to support environmental decision-making at multiple scales. In this assessment, the judgement of experts is applied to existing knowledge to provide scienti...

This poster presents results of a project on regional drought analysis funded by the Saxon State Agency for Environment, Agriculture and Geology. The temporal and spatial drought characteristics and changes of drought at different time scales are explored using the indices SPI and SPEI.

Results of a project dealing with the concept development of a regional and impact specific drought monitoring for the German freestate of Saxony are displayed. The project is funded by the Saxon State Agency for Environment, Agriculture and Geology.

Die öffentliche Diskussion zu Energie- und Rohstoffthemen in Deutschland (Mehrheitsmeinung) ist teilweise von Wunschdenken und einer eher rückwärtsgewandten Analyse dominiert. Das stimmt insofern bedenklich, als unser Land weltweit sowohl für technologische Spitzenleistungen als auch für ausgewogene und eher proaktive Bemühungen auf dem Weg zu eine...

Konflikte um mineralische und energetische Rohstoffe verlangen nach klugen und nachhaltigen Lösungen. Was lässt sich mit heutigen Technologien und unter den derzeitigen politischen Vorgaben bereits in absehbarer Zeit verwirklichen und was wird bereits ausprobiert? Welche Chancen haben Recycling und Substitution? Der erste Teil diskutiert in acht...

Soils act as sources and sinks for greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4),and nitrous oxide (N2O). Since both storage and emission capacities may be large, precise quantificationsare needed to obtain reliable global budgets that are necessary for land-use management (agriculture,forestry), global change and for climate r...

Dieses Poster zeigt die zeitliche und saisonale Variabiltät ausgewählter Klimaelemente (Niederschlag, Lufttemperatur und Sonnenscheindauer) und daraus abgeleiter Klimakenngrößen (Evapotranspiration und Klimatische Wasserbilanz sowie die modellierte Grundwasserneubildung für das Stadtgebiet von Dresden als 30-jähriges gleitendes Mittel der Beobachtu...

A 51-year dataset (1961–2011) from nine meteorological stations in the capitals of northeastern Brazil (NEB), with daily data of precipitation totals and of mean, minimum, and maximum temperatures, was statistically analyzed for data homogeneity and for signals of climate variability. The hypothesis was explored that a connection exists between inh...

Abstract number: DACH2016-178

Abstract number DACH2016-176

Risk perception and communication are amongst the most critical topics of our time, if governance is to be successful in helping to circumnavigate the identified complex risks and "wicked" problems. But is there significant dissent within the scientific community about the pressing global environmental issues and energy challenges? Are the related...

Das Buch wendet sich an interessierte Leser, die sich die Geo-Themen erschließen oder ihr Wissen dazu erweitern wollen. Nach der Einführung in das Themengebiet um das System Erde und die Vorstellung der Fakultät mit ihren sieben Instituten, berichten alle Professuren über je ein ausgewähltes Thema, dass das Spannungsfeld zwischen Theorie und Praxi...

Dieser Bericht untersucht die jahreszeitlichen Veränderungen in der Häufigkeitsverteilung des Nieder-schlags sowie in verschiedenen Indizes zur Charakterisierung von nassen und trockenen Extremen für einen 200 Jahre umfassenden Untersuchungszeitraum (1901–2100). Die Analysen basieren auf Tages- und Monatsniederschlagssummen von Beobachtungsdaten (1...

Bioenergy crops may be an important contributor to mitigating global warming risks. A comparison between willow and poplar Short Rotation Forestry and rapeseed cultivation was designed to evaluate the ratio between soil respiration and the combustion heat obtained from the extracted products per hectare. A manual dynamic closed chamber system was a...

A successful piece of applied research will not only influence the related problem perception within the scientific community, but also lead to much better understanding of a complex challenge, including the delivery of solutions. Ideally it may contribute significantly to reducing possible risk situations for people and/or the natural environment....

Zusammenfassung: Die Erfindung betrifft das Gebiet der Messung von Bodenentgasungen mittels Kammersystem. Aufgabe der Erfindung ist es, ein Kammersystem zur Analyse von Gasflüssen von Ökosystemen zu entwickeln, dass von einer Person transportierbar ist und zuverlässig arbeitet, um die Emission von Treibhausgasen aus Böden korrekt und hochauflösend...

According to the US Energy Information Administration, Japan produced in 2013 only 3 % of its domestic gas consumption and 0.3 % of its domestic oil consumption. It has emerged as the world’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas, the second-largest importer of coal and the third largest of net oil. For this reason, the exigencies of energy sup...

Geochemical mapping and the determination of reference values receive increasing attention. The need to know regional geochemical background data as well as the spatial allocation of areas with anomalous geochemical concentrations and chances to identify their major sources motivate the interest. Here, results from a high-density geochemical mappin...

Soil respiration is the second largest CO2-exchange process between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. Yet, high-quality experimental data are still in demand. During the vegetation period of 2013 we measured soil and ecosystem respiration with a closed dynamic flux chamber at six Saxon ICP-Forests Level II monitoring sites, representative...

Precipitation extremes affect various economic sectors and may result in substantial costs for societies. Future projections of such extreme occurrences are needed to successfully develop robust regional adaptation strategies. Model ensemble-based approaches provide a higher level of confidence since they compensate to some degree for the uncertain...

The TerraTec is the only international trade fair in Germany focusing on all aspects of environmental technologies and services in 2015. As trade fair, it concentrates on forward-looking solutions for water, raw materials and closed loop recycling management and relevant aspects for adapting to climate changes. Particular attention is placed on eff...

As we have managed unprecedented population growth (albeit a slowing down of that growth process is in sight) while increasing the material wellbeing and global level of education of an expanding majority, this situation is accompanied by a growing demand for raw materials of all sorts and of energy resources, which seemingly contradicts any attemp...

Was nutzt die beste Idee zum Bau einer neuen Technik, wenn die dafür notwendigen Rohstoffe entweder unerschwinglich oder erst gar nicht in ausreichender Menge verfügbar sind? Was bedeutet technologische Führerschaft, wenn nicht mehr vorgeführt werden kann, dass neue Ideen auch dem harten Test der Wirklichkeit standhalten? Derartige Fragen provozier...

Bioenergy crops have been used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to mitigate global warming risks. In Germany, more than 2 million hectares were under bioenergy crop cultivation in 2012; more than 40% of this area occupied by rapeseed. Our research aims to study soil respiration at sites under rapeseed cultivation as well as willow and poplar...

Abstract: Bioenergy crops have been used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to mitigate global warming risks. In Germany, more than 2 million hectares were under bioenergy crop cultivation in 2012; more than 40% of this area occupied by rapeseed. Our research aims to study soil respiration at sites under rapeseed cultivation as well as willow a...

Changes in frequency, duration and/or intensity of extreme precipitation events, such as heavy precipitation or drought, profoundly impact both society and the natural environment. Regional climate models are valuable tools to assess any future progress of such events, and to complement the development of regional and local adaptation and mitigatio...

Many in the community are aware of the FOREGS atlas, edited in 2005 (Reijo Salminen) and 2006 (Walter De Vos and Timo Tarvainen) and produced by a large team of EuroGeoSurveys (http://weppi.gtk.fi/publ/foregsatlas/). That fine work saw a follow-up project concentrating on soils, the GEMAS project (http://gemas.geolba.ac.at) that resulted in the pub...

2014 | Save Cambodia’s Wildlife, Phnom Penh | 178 pp | Softcover ISBN 978-9-9950-8145-4 USD 45.00 plus postage |http://www.cambodiaswildlife.orgMost people in Europe and North America certainly think of Angkor Wat, related tourist attractions, and possibly of the Khmer Rouge, when hearing about Cambodia. Yet this fascinating country and its culture...

Recent research suggests that airborne pollutants, deposited in the urban environment, can be efficiently studied by attic dust analysis. Here, an attic dust study was carried out to determine the long-term airborne contamination load in the industrial town of Ajka, Hungary, by attic dust analysis. The spatial distribution of trace element contamin...

The spatio-temporal variability of trends in vegetation greenness in dryland areas is a well-documented phenomenon in remote sensing studies at global to regional scales. The underlying causes differ, however, and are often not well understood. Here, we analyzed the trends in vegetation greenness for a semi-arid area in northeastern Brazil (NEB) an...

Was nützt die beste Innovation für eine neue Technik, wenn die dafür notwendigen Rohstoffe entweder unerschwinglich oder erst gar nicht in ausreichender Menge verfügbar sind? Was bedeutet technologische Führerschaft, wenn nicht mehr vorgeführt werden kann, dass neue Ideen auch dem harten Test der Wirklichkeit standhalten? Derartige Fragen provozier...

Veränderungen im Klima einer Region wirken sich automatisch auch auf den Wasserhaushalt und die verfügbaren Wasserressourcen dieser Region aus. Für die Modellregion Dresden untersucht Band 5 der REGKLAM-Publikationsreihe die durch die regionalen Klimamodelle CLM und WETTREG 2010 projizierten Veränderungen im regionalen Wasserhaushalt. Mit Hilfe von...