Gerd Esser

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Gerd Alois Esser (born February 20, 1942 in Bamberg ) is a German ecologist and emeritus university professor.

Life

Esser went through his schooling in Bamberg and Aschaffenburg . From 1962 he studied biology, chemistry, physics and geology in Heidelberg . His academic teachers included Otto Haxel , Ulrich Hofmann , Werner Rauh and Georg Wittig . Esser was in 1970 at the University of Heidelberg with a thesis on the vegetation structure and cactus vegetation of Paraguay Dr. rer. nat. PhD.

In 1970 he went to Lemförder Orchideenzucht as scientific director, and in 1973 as project manager to the Battelle Institute in Frankfurt / Main. In 1980 Helmut Lieth brought him to his working group General Ecology at the University of Osnabrück, to which Esser had been a member for ten years. After his habilitation in 1985, he became a private lecturer and from 1989 an adjunct professor. In 1990 he went to Laxenburg near Vienna to join the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis ( IIASA ) as head of the Biosphere Dynamics Project .

In 1991, Esser accepted a professorship for systems ecology, geoecology and modeling at the University of Giessen . He has been retired since 2008.

Gerd Esser has been married to Claudia Esser, b. Röbker. The couple have two sons and two daughters.

Scientific work

Early work concerns plant-geographical and ecological studies in North Africa and South America, physiological studies on orchids and their cloning, the use of water hyacinths , technical methods for keeping and rearing fish in aquaculture, as well as the effect of UV-B radiation on development and the Ingredients of crops.

From 1978 Gerd Esser devoted himself to the investigation of material cycles in nature using mathematical models. The models developed in his working groups found international recognition and were used, among other things, to link to ocean and climate models.

Carbon cycle models

  • Osnabrück Biosphere Model -OBM- (1986)
  • High Resolution Biosphere Model -HRBM- (1994)

Model for coupling the carbon and water cycle

  • Giessen Global Generic Water Conductance Model -GIWACOM- (2000)

Model for coupling the carbon and nitrogen cycle

  • Nitrogen Carbon Interaction Model -NCIM- (2007)

Works (selection)

  • G. Esser: Vegetation classification and cactus vegetation of Paraguay . In: Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz (ed.): Tropical and Subtropical Plant World . tape 38 . Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1982 (113 pages with 76 illustrations and 1 folding map).
  • G. Esser: The carbon budget of the biosphere - structure and first results of the Osnabrück biosphere model . In: Publ. Naturf. Ges. Emden from 1814 . tape 7 , 1986 (160 pages with 27 illustrations).
  • G. Esser: Sensitivity of global carbon pools and fluxes to human and potential climatic impacts . In: Tellus . 39B, 1987, pp. 245-260 .
  • G. Esser, H. Lieth: Productivity Modeling . In: O. Kitani, CW Hall (Ed.): Biomass Handbook, Chapter 1.1.3 . Gordon & Breach, New York, London, Paris, Montreux, Tokyo, Melbourne 1989, pp. 36-48 .
  • G. Esser: Global land-use changes from 1860 to 1980 and future projections to 2500 . In: Ecological Modeling . tape 44 , 1989, pp. 307-316 .
  • G. Esser, H. Lieth: Decomposition in tropical rain forests compared with other parts of the world . In: Lieth, Werger (Ed.): Tropical Rain Forest Ecosystems. Ecosystems of the World . Vol. 14B. Elsevier Science Publ., Amsterdam 1989, pp. 571-580 .
  • G. Esser: Osnabrück Biosphere Model: construction, structure, results . In: G. Esser, D. Overdiek (Eds.): Modern Ecology, Basic and Applied Aspects . Elsevier Science Publ., Amsterdam, New York 1991, pp. 679-710 .
  • AD McGuire, LA Joyce, DW Kicklighter, JM Melillo, G. Esser, CJ Vorosmarty: Productivity response of climax temperate forests to elevated temperature and carbon dioxide. A North American comparison between two global models . In: Climatic Change . tape 24 , 1993, pp. 287-310 .
  • G. Esser, M. Lautenschlager: Estimating the change of carbon stored in the terrestrial biosphere from 18,000 BP to present using a carbon cycle model . In: Environmental Pollution . tape 83 , 1994, pp. 45-53 .
  • U. Wittenberg, G. Esser: Evaluation of the isotopic disequilibrium in the terrestrial biosphere by a global carbon isotope model . In: Tellus 49B . 1997, p. 263-269 .
  • TG Reichenau, G. Esser: Is interannual fluctuation of atmospheric CO ₂ dominated by combined effects of ENSO and volcanic aerosols? In: Global Biogeochemical Cycles . tape 17 , 2003, p. 1094 , doi : 10.1029 / 2002GB002025 .
  • G. Esser: stomatal response of some trees and shrubs from various tropical environments to variable CO ₂ Concentrations . In: Tropical Ecology . tape 45 , 2004, p. 113-121 .
  • G. Esser, J. Kattge, A. Sakalli: Feedback of carbon and nitrogen cycles enhances carbon sequestration in the terrestrial biosphere . In: Global Change Biology . tape 16 , 2010, doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-2486.2010.02261.x .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Esser, Gerd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Esser, Gerd Alois (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ecologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg