Biography
Silvia studies how plants are affected by climate change and how this in turn impacts the world's carbon cycle and feeds back to the climate. She uses land surface models to understand current plant and ecosystem observations and make predictions about the future.
Silvia completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2013, where she built a global model of leaf phenology. After that, she spent 2 years at Microsoft Research Cambridge in the Computational Ecology lab, looking at general models of crop growth. From 2015 to 2022 she was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, where she contributed to the QUINCY model and started looking at ecosystem nutrient limitation and effects of elevated CO2 on plant physiology. She joined the college in summer 2022.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Abramowitz Gab, Ukkola Anna, Hobeichi Sanaa, Cranko Page Jon, Lipson Mathew, De Kauwe Martin, Green Sam, Brenner Claire, Frame Jonathan, Nearing Grey, On the predictability of turbulent fluxes from land: PLUMBER2 MIP experimental description and preliminary results , EGUsphere , 2024 , 2024, p1 - 47
Nair Richard, Luo Yunpeng, El-Madany Tarek S, Rolo Victor, Pacheco-Labrador Javier, Caldararu Silvia, Morris Kendalynn A, Schrumpf Marion, Carrara Arnaud, Moreno Gerardo, Nitrogen availability and summer drought, but not N: P imbalance drive carbon use efficiency of a mediterranean tree-grass ecosystem , 2023
Thurner Melanie Alexandra, Caldararu Silvia, Engel Jan, Rammig Anja, Zaehle Sönke, Modelled forest ecosystem carbon-nitrogen dynamics with integrated mycorrhizal processes under elevated CO 2 , Biogeosciences Discussions , 2023 , 2023, p1 - 30
Caldararu, S. and Rolo, V. and Stocker, B. D. and Gimeno, T. E. and Nair, R., Ideas and perspectives: Beyond model evaluation -- combining experiments and models to advance terrestrial ecosystem science, Biogeosciences, 20, 2023, p3637"364
Knauer Juergen, Cuntz Matthias, Smith Benjamin, Canadell Josep G, Medlyn Belinda E, Bennett Alison C, Caldararu Silvia, Haverd Vanessa, Higher global gross primary productivity under future climate with more advanced representations of photosynthesis, Science Advances, 9, (46), 2023, peadh9444-
Ecosystem experiments as a window to future carbon, water, and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, (2023), Karin Rebel, Teresa Gimeno, Sönke Zaehle, Silvia Caldararu, Richard Nair, Victor Rolo, Benjamin Stocker, [Guest editor]
Lorna E. Street, S. Caldararu, Why are Arctic shrubs becoming more nitrogen limited?, New Phytologist, 233, (2), 2022, p585--587
Journal of Advances in Modelling Earth Systems, American Geophysical Union, [Associate editor], 2022
Fabrice Lacroix, Sönke Zaehle, Silvia Caldararu, Jörg Schaller, Peter Stimmler, Mathias Goeckede, Temporal Disconnect of Seasonal Plant Nutrient Demand and Thaw Depth implies an Increasing Source of N2O in High-Latitude Permafrost Ecosystems , 2022
Manon Sabot, Martin De Kauwe, Andy Pitman, Belinda Medlyn, David Ellsworth, Silvia Caldararu, Sönke Zaehle, Mengyuan Mu, Teresa Gimeno, Predicting resilience through the lens of competing adjustments to vegetation function, 2022
Migliavacca Mirco, Musavi Talie, Mahecha Miguel D, Nelson Jacob A, Knauer JÃŒrgen, Baldocchi Dennis D, Perez-Priego Oscar, Christiansen Rune, Peters Jonas, Anderson Karen, The three major axes of terrestrial ecosystem function , Nature , 598 , (7881 ), 2021, p468 - 472
Silvia Caldararu, Tea Thum, Richard Nair, Sönke Zaehle, Disentangling the long-term foliar 15N signal using a land surface model, 2020
Silvia Caldararu, Tea Thum, Lin Yu, Sönke Zaehle, Whole"plant optimality predicts changes in leaf nitrogen under variable CO 2 and nutrient availability, New Phytologist, 225, (6), 2020, p2331--2346
Jiang Mingkai, Caldararu Silvia, Zhang Haiyang, Fleischer Katrin, Crous Kristine Y, Yang Jinyan, De Kauwe Martin G, Ellsworth David S, Reich Peter B, Tissue David T, Low phosphorus supply constrains plant responses to elevated CO2: a metaâ analysis , Global Change Biology , 2020
Mingkai Jiang, Sönke Zaehle, Martin G. De Kauwe, Anthony P. Walker, Silvia Caldararu, David S. Ellsworth, Belinda E. Medlyn, The quasi-equilibrium framework revisited: analyzing long-term CO<sub>2</sub> enrichment responses in plant"soil models, Geoscientific Model Development, 12, (5), 2019, p2069--2089
Jiang Mingkai, Caldararu Silvia, Zaehle Sönke, Ellsworth David S, Medlyn Belinda E, Towards a more physiological representation of vegetation phosphorus processes in land surface models , New Phytologist , 222 , (3 ), 2019, p1223 - 1229
Tea Thum, Silvia Caldararu, Jan Engel, Melanie Kern, Marleen Pallandt, Reiner Schnur, Lin Yu, Sönke Zaehle, A new model of the coupled carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles in the terrestrial biosphere (QUINCY v1.0; revision 1996), Geoscientific Model Development, 12, (11), 2019, p4781--4802
Silvia Caldararu, Drew W. Purves, Matthew J. Smith, The impacts of data constraints on the predictive performance of a general process-based crop model (PeakN-crop v1.0), Geoscientific Model Development, 10, (4), 2017, p1679--1701
Silvia Caldararu, Drew W. Purves, Matthew J. Smith, The effect of using the plant functional type paradigm on a data-constrained global phenology model, Biogeosciences, 13, (4), 2016, p925--941
S. Caldararu, D. W. Purves, P. I. Palmer, Phenology as a strategy for carbon optimality: a global model, Biogeosciences, 11, (3), 2014, p763--778
S. Caldararu, P. I. Palmer, D. W. Purves, Inferring Amazon leaf demography from satellite observations of leaf area index, Biogeosciences, 9, (4), 2012, p1389--1404
Research Expertise
Description
QUINCY (Quantifying the effects of interacting nutrient cycles on terrestrial biosphere dynamics and their climate feedbacks) is a newly developed land surface model with fully coupled carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and water cycles. QUINCYis built in a modular fashion, and is the ideal tool to test out new hypotheses and model processes. We of course have some new scientific features as well, such as the ability to track carbon and nitrogen isotopes, a short and long-term plant storage pool and decoupling photosynthesis from growth.Projects
- Title
- Climate+
- Funding Agency
- SFI
- Date From
- January 2024