Johannes Lehmann

About

In the Lehmann Lab, we work on soil biogeochemistry, nutrient and carbon cycling in managed and natural ecosystems. Our investigations span a broad range of ecosystems and include nano-scale observations of soil micro-aggregates and pyrogenic carbon particles to the global carbon cycle. Much of our work focuses on improving our basic understanding of forms and dynamics of organic matter in soil and how we can use that knowledge for sustainable soil management. Biochar research includes basic insights into its behavior in soil, effects on plant growth, microbial composition and dynamics, as well as life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions or water quality and economics. We run a test kiln in the Cornell Pyrolysis program, conducting research on many aspects of pyrolysis systems from bioenergy to new biomaterials, agronomy and soil science, environmental remediation, economics and social sciences.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Environmental science
• Biology
• Computer Science
• Natural resource economics
• Soil science
• Environmental resource management
• Chemistry
• Engineering
• Economics

Selected publications

• The concept and future prospects of soil health

  Nature Reviews Earth & Environment · 2020 · 1550 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Technologies and perspectives for achieving carbon neutrality

  The Innovation · 2021 · 1260 citations

  Global development has been heavily reliant on the overexploitation of natural resources since the Industrial Revolution. With the extensive use of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other forms of land-use change, anthropogenic activities have contributed to the ever-increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, causing global climate change. In response to the worsening global climate change, achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is the most pressing task on the planet. T…

  DOI

• Persistence of soil organic carbon caused by functional complexity

  Nature Geoscience · 2020 · 910 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Biochar in climate change mitigation

  Nature Geoscience · 2021 · 825 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Microbial carbon use efficiency promotes global soil carbon storage

  Nature · 2023 · 765 citations

  . Here we examine the relationship between CUE and the preservation of SOC, and interactions with climate, vegetation and edaphic properties, using a combination of global-scale datasets, a microbial-process explicit model, data assimilation, deep learning and meta-analysis. We find that CUE is at least four times as important as other evaluated factors, such as carbon input, decomposition or vertical transport, in determining SOC storage and its spatial variation across the globe. In addition,…

  DOI

Recent grants

• Biogeochemical Cycling of Organic Carbon in Soil Ecosystems as Affected by Black Carbon (REVISED)

  NSF · $794k · 2004–2008

• Dissertation Research: Mechanisms of soil organic carbon interactions with black carbon

  NSF · $20k · 2014–2017

• Acquisition of a hydropyrolysis unit for pre-treatment of soils for isotopic analysis and black carbon quantification

  NSF · $86k · 2011–2017

Frequent coauthors

• Annette Dathe

  639 shared

• Michaeline Albright

  Los Alamos National Laboratory

  637 shared

• Rachelle LaCroix

  Cornell University

  637 shared

• John Dunbar

  637 shared

• Marie Kroeger

  Los Alamos National Laboratory

  637 shared

• Akio Enders

  Cornell University

  94 shared

• Rattan Lal

  89 shared

• James E. Amonette

  88 shared

Labs

• Lehmann LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Soil Science

  University of California, Berkeley

  1993

• M.S., Soil Science

  University of California, Berkeley

  1989

• B.S., Soil Science

  University of California, Davis

  1986

Similar researchers at Cornell University

• Janice Thiesh-52
• Harold van Esh-49
• Dan Buckleyh-46