CP 5 Institute for Landscape Biogeochemistry, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) Germany

Introduction
The institute’s research topics deal with characterisation and quantification of biogeochemical transformations across the landscape, in particular C and N fluxes and their interaction with the water cycle. Additional research questions are related to the interactions between biodiversity, physiology and the activities of key organisms on the one hand and element and energy flows in anthropogenic influenced landscapes on the other. Moreover, processes that regulate biogeochemical cycles and biotic interactions are linked at different scales. This knowledge is transformed into assessments and predictions of shifts in the function of landscapes that are undergoing fundamental changes in the prevailing environmental conditions (climate, land use).
The Institute for Landscape Biogeochemistry is a global leader in stable isotope analysis as well as in the morphological and molecular characterisation of mycorrhizal fungi.

Contribution to the RID (research and innovation development) objectives 
ZALF will support SFI on mycorrhizal fungal turnover and function.
The main task of ZALF is to perform training of researchers and technicians on the topics of:
-    Assessment of natural 15N signatures in mycorrhiza (supplemented by tracer studies) to characterize the nitrogen form preferences of different species
-    Carbon allocation with 13C enriched labels to mycorrhiza (under different environmental conditions influencing source-sink relations).

Short profile of staff members
Prof. Dr. Arthur Gessler is a plant physiologist and is highly experienced in the application of stable isotopes in natural abundance and as enriched tracers to explain and quantify nutrient fluxes and cycles from the metabolic to the landscape level.
Dr. Zachary Kayler is an isotope biogeochemist working on atmosphere-plant interaction with a focus on carbon transfer between plants and soils.
Dr. Babette Münzenberger is an ectomycorhiza specialist with extensive experience in analyses of mycorrhizas, structural and functional diversity of ectomycorrhiza.
Dr. Marion Tauschke is a microbiologist working on plant-microbe interactions with extensive experience in analyses of mycorrhizas, structural and functional diversity of arbuscular mycorrhiza.