About my research
My research focuses on carbon cycling across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. I am interested in understanding how carbon is mobilized from terrestrial ecosystems, transported and transformed along river networks, and eventually emitted to the atmosphere or exported to the ocean.
Inland waters are not simply passive pathways connecting land and ocean. Rivers and wetlands actively process and emit carbon, with implications for terrestrial carbon storage, aquatic greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon delivery to coastal ecosystems. Understanding these processes and their responses to environmental change is essential for developing a more complete picture of the global carbon cycle.
To address these questions, I combine different research approaches, linking the understanding of individual biogeochemical processes with their larger-scale implications:
- Field observations: Characterizing hydrological and biogeochemical conditions, carbon transport, and exchange processes in tropical aquatic ecosystems.
- Experimental studies: Investigating environmental controls on organic carbon decomposition and transformation.
- Process-based modelling: Representing carbon dynamics and land–water interactions in terrestrial biosphere and Earth system models.
- Data integration: Combining observations and model results to investigate regional carbon budgets and assess responses to environmental change.
TropEcS
In addition to my research, I serve as the Scientific Coordinator of TropEcS (Modelling Socio-Economic Dimensions across Tropical Coastal Ecosystems and the Earth System), a research focus area at ZMT.
TropEcS aims to improve our understanding and representation of tropical coastal ecosystems and their interactions with the Earth system in regional and global models. A particular emphasis is placed on integrating physical, biogeochemical, and ecological processes with social and economic dimensions to better understand the impacts of global change on coastal ecosystems and the people who depend on them.
In my role as Scientific Coordinator, I support interdisciplinary collaboration and the scientific development of the research focus area. Through my own research on terrestrial–aquatic carbon dynamics, I also contribute to improving the representation of connections between land, inland waters, and the ocean in Earth system models.
Selected Publications
Suhrhoff, T. J., et al. (2026). An Ecosystem of Carbon Dioxide Removal Reviews – Part 3: Enhanced Weathering. CDR.Xiv, Preprint.
Buma, B., et al. (2026). Expert elicitation on agricultural enhanced weathering reveals carbon dioxide removal potential and uncertainties in loss pathways. Communications Earth & Environment, 7, 376.
Klemme, A., et al. (2024). Sediment transport in South Asian rivers high enough to impact satellite gravimetry. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 28, 1527–1538.
Rixen, T., et al. (2023). Greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions from a plastic-lined shrimp pond on Hainan, China. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 284, 108278.
Klemme, A., et al. (2022). Destabilization of carbon in tropical peatlands by enhanced weathering. Communications Earth & Environment, 3, 212.
Klemme, A., et al. (2022). CO₂ emissions from peat-draining rivers regulated by water pH. Biogeosciences, 19, 2855–2880.