Ingrid Kögel-Knabner

Short CV

Ingrid Kögel-Knabner received her Diploma in Geoecology in 1983 and was awarded her Ph.D. in Soil Science in 1987, both at University of Bayreuth, Germany. In 1992 she qualified as a professor (Habilitation) in Soil Science (topic: “Forest soil organic matter: structure and formation”) and was in the same year appointed Professor of Soil Science and Soil Ecology at the University of Bochum; since 1995 she is holding the Chair of Soil Science at the Life Sciences Centre of Technische Universität München in Freising-Weihenstephan. She was visiting scientist at the US Geological Survey/Reston and the Delft University of Technology. Prof. Kögel-Knabner is a member of various national and international academic advisory committees, the Senate and Joint Committee of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and serves in evaluation panels of the Wissenschaftsrat. She is member of the Editorial Board of several high-impact soil science journals.

Selected Awards

• 2019, German Environmental Prize of The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt DBU
• 2013, Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 2008, Member of Kommission für Ökologie, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
• 2007, Member of Deutsche Akademie für Technikwissenschaften (acatech)
• 2001, Member of Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina

Research Interests

During the biomass formation/decomposition cycle carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important climatic gas, is either released from soils or is stabilized as humic matter in soils, thereby forming soil structure and the biogeochemical soil interface by interaction of the organic matter with the soil mineral phase. Ingrid Kögel-Knabner’s work is dedicated to understanding the formation and properties of soil organic matter as a major component of soils (humus), and its central role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. The challenge to be coped with is the transition of methods which have been designed and developed for pure systems to extremely complex, often amorphous natural materials. By applying a wide spectrum of sophisticated techniques (solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy, chemolytic methods with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, stable isotopes, radiocarbon dating, scanning electron microscopy SEM and transmission electron microscopy TEM, X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure XANES) the elucidation of soil organic matter structure and turnover can be brought a step forward. Specifically NanoSIMS (secondary ion mass spectrometry at the nano scale) will help to unravel the heterogeneous composition and three-dimensional architecture of submicron-sized organo-mineral associations in soils.

Selected Publications

• Prietzel, Jörg; Tyufekchieva, Nora; Eusterhues, Karin; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid; Thieme, Jürgen; Paterson, David; McNulty, Ian; de Jonge, Martin; Eichert, Diane; Salomé, Murielle: Anoxic versus oxic sample pretreatment: Effects on the speciation of sulfur and iron in well-aerated and wetland soils as assessed by X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES). Geoderma 153 (3-4), 2009, 318-330.

• Chabbi, A.; Kögel-Knabner, I.; Rumpel, C.: Stabilised carbon in subsoil horizons is located in spatially distinct parts of the soil profile. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 41 (2), 2009, 256-261.

• Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid; Guggenberger, Georg; Kleber, Markus; Kandeler, Ellen; Kalbitz, Karsten; Scheu, Stefan; Eusterhues, Karin; Leinweber, Peter: Organo-mineral associations in temperate soils: Integrating biology, mineralogy, and organic matter chemistry. J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci. 171 (1), 2008, 61-82.

• Filimonova, S.V.; Knicker, H.; Kögel-Knabner, I.: Soil micro- and mesopores studied by N2 adsorption and 129Xe NMR of adsorbed xenon. Geoderma 130 (3-4), 2006, 218-228.

• Schöning, Ingo; Knicker, Heike; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid: Intimate association between O/N-alkyl carbon and iron oxides in clay fractions of forest soils. Organic Geochemistry 36 (10), 2005, 1378-1390.

• Eusterhues, K.; Rumpel, C.; Kogel-Knabner, I.: Organo-mineral associations in sandy acid forest soils: importance of specific surface area, iron oxides and micropores. Eur J Soil Science 0 (0), 2005, 050912034650049.

• Kiem, Rita; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid: Contribution of lignin and polysaccharides to the refractory carbon pool in C-depleted arable soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 35 (1), 2003, 101-118.

• Schmidt, M. W. I.; Skjemstad, J. O.; Gehrt, E.; Kogel-Knabner, I.: Charred organic carbon in German chernozemic soils. Eur J Soil Science 50 (2), 1999, 351-365.

• Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid; Zech, Wolfgang; Hatcher, Patrick G.: Chemical Structural Studies of Forest Soil Humic Acids: Aromatic Carbon Fraction. Soil Science Society of America Journal 55 (1), 1991, 241.

• Kögel, Ingrid: Estimation and decomposition pattern of the lignin component in forest humus layers. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 18 (6), 1986, 589-594.