MENU

Matthias Beyer

Gaston.jpg

Researcher: Dr. Matthias Beyer

Institution: Technical university of Braunschweig, Germany
Email: matthias.beyer@tu-braunschweig.de
Institution Website: https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/geooekologie/institut/geochemie/mitarbeiter/mbeyer/index.html

Main contact person at DAGRI: Daniele Penna

 

Short bio

Matthias Beyer is leading a Junior Research Group at the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany). He is Hydrologist per education and has been involved into several international research and technical cooperation projects in Africa. For his PhD, Matthias was working in the large research initiative SASSCAL (http://www.sasscal.org) in Namibia, where the focus was on improving the understanding and estimations of groundwater recharge using water stable isotopes. In this project, Matthias realized how important plants are for the hydrological cycle and that water transport and groundwater recharge in water-limited environments are mainly controlled by these.
The idea of quantifying depth and magnitude of water uptake through trees by simply taking a core sample from a tree fascinated him, and he kept working on this topic. This culminated in a proposal combining classic and novel ecohydrologic methods (e.g. sap flow measurements and in situ isotope measurements) with non-invasive methods based on drones (UAV) to understand and identify deep root water uptake, which he presented to the Volkswagen foundation in 2016. After a long selection process, Matthias was chosen for the program and is a fellow of the Volkswagen Foundation https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de since. At present, Matthias is the PI of the project Isodrones, where highly interdisciplinary and novel approaches for investigating deep roots and their implications on the water cycle are investigated (www.isodrones.de).
Matthias is happily married. His second love is the ocean, and surfing is the sport that makes him happier than (almost) everything. He also likes books, surfskates, bouldering, yoga and meditation.


General Research interests

Matthias has a strong motivation for applied research and is looking for scientifically profound, but also simple and practically relevant methods to investigate the interaction between the atmosphere, soils, plants and groundwater using a variety of methods. How can we help to keep our planet healthy under a changing climate? – in order to answer this, we must understand what is going on ‘below the surface’.

Visiting period at DAGRI:  6-12 November 2019

Aims and activities related to the visit

During his visit, Dr. Beyer will give two seminars, for students. PhD students and colleagues, entitled: “Evaluation of ecosystem services in the Zambezi region, Namibia”, and “Groundwater recharge assessment in semi-arid environments: Field and modeling studies from Sub-Saharan Africa.” Moreover, he will show his latest, cutting-edge advancements in isotopic techniques to analyse water fluxes within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum.


Research activities
at DAGRI : Field activities in the Re della Pietra experimental catchment.


Collaborations  at DAGRI:  Daniele Penna

 

Last update

18.02.2021

Cookies

I cookie di questo sito servono al suo corretto funzionamento e non raccolgono alcuna tua informazione personale. Se navighi su di esso accetti la loro presenza.  Maggiori informazioni