Matthias Cuntz - Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research

Dr Matthias Cuntz

Department Computational Hydrosystems (CHS)
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Permoserstr. 15
04318 Leipzig, Germany
Tel.: +49 341 235 1071
Fax: +49 341 235 45 1071
E-mail: matthias.cuntz (at) ufz.de
Personal webpage: www.macu.de
CV: pdf

Research Subjects

Observation and modelling energy, water and trace gas exchange in terrestrial ecosystems
Using stable isotopes for process studies of the terrestrial biosphere
Global modelling of the water, carbon and their isotope cycles

For more information see the Regional Ecophysiology group page.

Publications since 2009

2018 (4)

Cuntz, M., Haverd, V. (2018):
Physically accurate soil freeze-thaw processes in a global land surface scheme
J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst. 10 (1), 54 - 77 10.1002/2017MS001100
Marañón-Jiménez, S., Van den Bulcke, J., Piayda, A., Van Acker, J., Cuntz, M., Rebmann, C., Steppe, K. (2018):
X-ray computed microtomography characterizes the wound effect that causes sap flow underestimation by thermal dissipation sensors
Tree Physiol. 38 (2), 287 - 301 10.1093/treephys/tpx103
Rödig, E., Cuntz, M., Rammig, A., Fischer, R., Taubert, F., Huth, A. (2018):
The importance of forest structure for carbon fluxes of the Amazon rainforest
Environ. Res. Lett. 13 (5), art. 054013 10.1088/1748-9326/aabc61
Zink, M., Mai, J., Cuntz, M., Samaniego, L. (2018):
Conditioning a hydrologic model using patterns of remotely sensed land surface temperature
Water Resour. Res. 54 (4), 2976 - 2998 10.1002/2017WR021346

2017 (7)

Dechant, B., Cuntz, M., Vohland, M., Schulz, E., Doktor, D. (2017):
Estimation of photosynthesis traits from leaf reflectance spectra: Correlation to nitrogen content as the dominant mechanism
Remote Sens. Environ. 196 , 279 - 292 10.1016/j.rse.2017.05.019
Lange, M., Dechant, B., Rebmann, C., Vohland, M., Cuntz, M., Doktor, D. (2017):
Validating MODIS and Sentinel-2 NDVI products at a temperate deciduous forest site using two independent ground-based sensors
Sensors 17 (8), art. 1855 10.3390/s17081855
Rödig, E., Cuntz, M., Heinke, J., Rammig, A., Huth, A. (2017):
Spatial heterogeneity of biomass and forest structure of the Amazon rain forest: Linking remote sensing, forest modelling and field inventory
Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 26 (11), 1292 - 1302 10.1111/geb.12639
Rödig, E., Huth, A., Bohn, F., Rebmann, C., Cuntz, M. (2017):
Estimating the carbon fluxes of forests with an individual-based forest model
For. Ecosyst. 4 , art. 4 10.1186/s40663-017-0091-1
Schrön, M., Köhli, M., Scheiffele, L., Iwema, J., Bogena, H.R., Lv, L., Martini, E., Baroni, G., Rosolem, R., Weimar, J., Mai, J., Cuntz, M., Rebmann, C., Oswald, S.E., Dietrich, P., Schmidt, U., Zacharias, S. (2017):
Improving calibration and validation of cosmic-ray neutron sensors in the light of spatial sensitivity
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 21 (10), 5009 - 5030 10.5194/hess-21-5009-2017
Wollschläger, U., Attinger, S., Borchardt, D., Brauns, M., Cuntz, M., Dietrich, P., Fleckenstein, J.H., Friese, K., Friesen, J., Harpke, A., Hildebrandt, A., Jäckel, G., Kamjunke, N., Knöller, K., Kögler, S., Kolditz, O., Krieg, R., Kumar, R., Lausch, A., Liess, M., Marx, A., Merz, R., Mueller, C., Musolff, A., Norf, H., Oswald, S.E., Rebmann, C., Reinstorf, F., Rode, M., Rink, K., Rinke, K., Samaniego, L., Vieweg, M., Vogel, H.-J., Weitere, M., Werban, U., Zink, M., Zacharias, S. (2017):
The Bode hydrological observatory: a platform for integrated, interdisciplinary hydro-ecological research within the TERENO Harz/Central German Lowland Observatory
Environ. Earth Sci. 76 (1), art. 29 10.1007/s12665-016-6327-5
Zink, M., Kumar, R., Cuntz, M., Samaniego, L. (2017):
A high-resolution dataset of water fluxes and states for Germany accounting for parametric uncertainty
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 21 (3), 1769 - 1790 10.5194/hess-21-1769-2017

2016 (5)

Cuntz, M., Mai, J., Samaniego, L., Clark, M., Wulfmeyer, V., Branch, O., Attinger, S., Thober, S. (2016):
The impact of standard and hard-coded parameters on the hydrologic fluxes in the Noah-MP land surface model
J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos. 121 (18), 10676 - 10700 10.1002/2016JD025097
Haughton, N., Abramowitz, G., Pitman, A.J., Or, D., Best, M.J., Johnson, H.R., Balsamo, G., Boone, A., Cuntz, M., Decharme, B., Dirmeyer, P.A., Dong, J., Ek, M., Guo, Z., Haverd, V., van den Hurk, B.J.J., Nearing, G.S., Pak, B., Santanello, J.A., Stevens, L.E., Vuichard, N. (2016):
The plumbing of land surface models: Is poor performance a result of methodology or data quality?
J. Hydrometeorol. 17 (6), 1705 - 1723 10.1175/JHM-D-15-0171.1
Haverd, V., Cuntz, M., Nieradzik, L.P., Harman, I.N. (2016):
Improved representations of coupled soil–canopy processes in the CABLE land surface model (Subversion revision 3432)
Geosci. Model Dev. 9 , 3111 - 3122 10.5194/gmd-9-3111-2016
Rakovec, O., Kumar, R., Mai, J., Cuntz, M., Thober, S., Zink, M., Attinger, S., Schäfer, D., Schrön, M., Samaniego, L. (2016):
Multiscale and multivariate evaluation of water fluxes and states over European river basins
J. Hydrometeorol. 17 (1), 287 - 307 10.1175/JHM-D-15-0054.1
Wiedemann, A., Marañón-Jiménez, S., Rebmann, C., Herbst, M., Cuntz, M. (2016):
An empirical study of the wound effect on sap flux density measured with thermal dissipation probes
Tree Physiol. 36 (12), 1471 - 1484 10.1093/treephys/tpw071

2015 (5)

Best, M.J., Abramowitz, G., Johnson, H.R., Pitman, A.J., Balsamo, G., Boone, A., Cuntz, M., Decharme, B., Dirmeyer, P.A., Dong, J., Ek, M., Guo, Z., Haverd, V., van den Hurk, B.J.J., Nearing, G.S., Pak, B., Peters-Lidard, C., Santanello Jr., J.A., Stevens, L., Vuichard, N. (2015):
The plumbing of land surface models: benchmarking model performance
J. Hydrometeorol. 16 (3), 1425 - 1442 10.1175/JHM-D-14-0158.1
Costa-e-Silva, F., Correia, A.C., Piayda, A., Dubbert, M., Rebmann, C., Cuntz, M., Werner, C., David, J.S., Pereira, J.S. (2015):
Effects of an extremely dry winter on net ecosystem carbon exchange and tree phenology at a cork oak woodland
Agric. For. Meteorol. 204 , 48 - 57 10.1016/j.agrformet.2015.01.017
Cuntz, M., Mai, J., Zink, M., Thober, S., Kumar, R., Schäfer, D., Schrön, M., Craven, J., Rakovec, O., Spieler, D., Prykhodko, V., Dalmasso, G., Musuuza, J., Langenberg, B., Attinger, S., Samaniego, L. (2015):
Computationally inexpensive identification of noninformative model parameters by sequential screening
Water Resour. Res. 51 (8), 6417 - 6441 10.1002/2015WR016907
Piayda, A., Dubbert, M., Werner, C., Correia, A.V., Pereira, J.S., Cuntz, M. (2015):
Influence of woody tissue and leaf clumping on vertically resolved leaf area index and angular gap probability estimates
For. Ecol. Manage. 340 , 103 - 113 10.1016/j.foreco.2014.12.026
Zech, M., Bösel, S., Tuthorn, M., Benesch, M., Dubbert, M., Cuntz, M., Glaser, B. (2015):
Sauna, sweat and science – quantifying the proportion of condensation water versus sweat using a stable water isotope (²H/¹H and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O) tracer experiment
Isot. Environ. Health Stud. 51 (3), 439 - 447 10.1080/10256016.2015.1057136

2014 (4)

Dubbert, M., Cuntz, M., Piayda, A., Werner, C. (2014):
Oxygen isotope signatures of transpired water vapor: the role of isotopic non-steady-state transpiration under natural conditions
New Phytol. 203 (4), 1242 - 1252 10.1111/nph.12878
Dubbert, M., Mosena, A., Piayda, A., Cuntz, M., Correia, A.C., Pereira, J.S., Werner, C. (2014):
Influence of tree cover on herbaceous layer development and carbon and water fluxes in a Portuguese cork-oak woodland
Acta Oecol. - Int. J. Ecol. 59 , 35 - 45 10.1016/j.actao.2014.05.007
Dubbert, M., Piayda, A., Cuntz, M., Correia, A.C., Costa e Silva, F., Pereira, J.S., Werner, C. (2014):
Stable oxygen isotope and flux partitioning demonstrates understory of an oak savanna contributes up to half of ecosystem carbon and water exchange
Front. Plant Sci. 5 , art. 530 10.3389/fpls.2014.00530
Piayda, A., Dubbert, M., Rebmann, C., Kolle, O., Costa e Silva, F., Correia, A., Pereira, J.S., Werner, C., Cuntz, M. (2014):
Drought impact on carbon and water cycling in a Mediterranean Quercus suber L. woodland during the extreme drought event in 2012
Biogeosciences 11 (24), 7159 - 7178 10.5194/bg-11-7159-2014

2013 (5)

Dubbert, M., Cuntz, M., Piayda, A., Maguás, C., Werner, C. (2013):
Partitioning evapotranspiration – Testing the Craig and Gordon model with field measurements of oxygen isotope ratios of evaporative fluxes
J. Hydrol. 496 , 142 - 153 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.05.033
Göhler, M., Mai, J., Cuntz, M. (2013):
Use of eigendecomposition in a parameter sensitivity analysis of the Community Land Model
J. Geophys. Res.-Biogeosci. 118 (2), 904 - 921 10.1002/jgrg.20072
Mauder, M., Cuntz, M., Drüe, C., Graf, A., Rebmann, C., Schmid, H.P., Schmidt, M., Steinbrecher, R. (2013):
A strategy for quality and uncertainty assessment of long-term eddy-covariance measurements
Agric. For. Meteorol. 169 , 122 - 135 10.1016/j.agrformet.2012.09.006
Wiedemann, A., Marañón-Jiménez, S., Rebmann, C., Cuntz, M., Herbst, M. (2013):
An empirical study of wound response dynamics on sap flow measured with thermal dissipation probes
In: Steppe, K. (ed.)
Proceedings of the IXth International Workshop on Sap Flow; Ghent, Belgium, June 4 - 7, 2013
Acta Hort. 991
International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), The Hague, p. 107 - 114 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.991.13
Wöhling, T., Gayler, S., Priesack, E., Ingwersen, J., Wizemann, H.-D., Högy, P., Cuntz, M., Attinger, S., Wulfmeyer, V., Streck, T. (2013):
Multiresponse, multiobjective calibration as a diagnostic tool to compare accuracy and structural limitations of five coupled soil-plant models and CLM3.5
Water Resour. Res. 49 (12), 8200 - 8221 10.1002/2013WR014536

2012 (3)

Ciais, P., Tagliabue, A., Cuntz, M., Bopp, L., Scholze, M., Hoffmann, G., Lourantou, A., Harrison, S.P., Prentice, I.C., Kelley, D.I., Koven, C., Piao, S.L. (2012):
Large inert carbon pool in the terrestrial biosphere during the Last Glacial Maximum
Nat. Geosci. 5 (1), 74 - 79 10.1038/NGEO1324
Haverd, V., Lovell, J.L., Cuntz, M., Jupp, D.L.B., Newnham, G.J., Sea, W. (2012):
The canopy semi-analytic P_gap and radiative transfer (CanSPART) model: formulation and application
Agric. For. Meteorol. 160 , 14 - 35 10.1016/j.agrformet.2012.01.018
Werner, C., Schnyder, H., Cuntz, M., Keitel, C., Zeeman, M.J., Dawson, T.E., Badeck, F.-W., Brugnoli, E., Ghashghaie, J., Grams, T.E.E., Kayler, Z.E., Lakatos, M., Lee, X., Máguas, C., Ogée, J., Rascher, K.G., Siegwolf, R.T.W., Unger, S., Welker, J., Wingate, L., Gessler, A. (2012):
Progress and challenges in using stable isotopes to trace plant carbon and water relations across scales
Biogeosciences 9 (8), 3083 - 3111 10.5194/bg-9-3083-2012

2011 (2)

Cuntz, M. (2011):
Carbon cycle: a dent in carbon's gold standard
Nature 477 (7366), 547 - 548 10.1038/477547a
Haverd, V., Cuntz, M., Griffith, D., Keitel, C., Tadros, C., Twining, J. (2011):
Measured deuterium in water vapour concentration does not improve the constraint on the partitioning of evapotranspiration in a tall forest canopy, as estimated using a soil vegetation atmosphere transfer model
Agric. For. Meteorol. 151 (6), 645 - 654 10.1016/j.agrformet.2011.02.005

2010 (1)

Haverd, V., Cuntz, M. (2010):
Soil-litter-iso: a one-dimensional model for coupled transport of heat, water and stable isotopes in soil with a litter layer and root extraction
J. Hydrol. 388 (3-4), 438 - 455 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.05.029

2009 (4)

Ferrio, J.P., Cuntz, M., Offermann, C., Siegwolf, R., Sauer, M., Gessler, A. (2009):
Effect of water availability on leaf water isotopic enrichment in beech seedlings shows limitations of current fractionation models
Plant Cell Environ. 32 (10), 1285 - 1296 10.1111/j.1365-3040.2009.01996.x
Hartard, B., Cuntz, M., Máguas, C., Lakatos, M. (2009):
Water isotopes in desiccating lichens
Planta 231 (1), 179 - 193 10.1007/s00425-009-1038-8
Haverd, V., Leuning, R., Griffith, D., van Gorsel, E., Cuntz, M. (2009):
The turbulent Lagrangian time scale in forest canopies constrained by fluxes, concentrations and source distributions
Bound.-Layer Meteor. 130 (2), 209 - 228 10.1007/s10546-008-9344-4
Wingate, L., Ogée, J., Cuntz, M., Genty, B., Reiter, I., Seibt, U., Yakir, D., Peylin, P., Miller, J.B., Burlett, R., Maseyk, K., Mencuccini, M., Pendall, E.G., Shim, J.H., Barbour, M.M., Hunt, J., Mortazavi, B., Grace, J. (2009):
The impact of soil microorganisms on the global budget of δ¹⁸O in atmospheric CO₂
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106 (52), 22411 - 22415 10.1073/pnas.0905210106

Contact

Head
Prof. Dr. Sabine Attinger
Department of Computational Hydrosystems
tbl-modmon@ufz.de

Deputy Head
Prof. Dr. Luis Samaniego
Department of Computational Hydrosystems
luis.samaniego@ufz.de

Assistance
Nora Pabst
Phone +49 341 6025-2367

Sindy Bleiholder
Phone +49 341 6025-1250

Susanne Gangloff
Phone +49 341 6025-2533

sekces@ufz.de

Permoserstraße 15 | 04318 Leipzig

News / Press

May 2024

New research published in Nature Communications by Hussian et al., (2024) emphasizes the game-changing potential of near-real-time and impact-based flood prediction. Their study demonstrates a 10-meter floodplain inundation hindcast of the 2021 European Summer Flood, showcasing a 17-hour lead time for better disaster preparedness. Impact-based early warnings can empower local authorities with crucial data on citizens at-risk for targeted emergency responses.

July 30, 2023

Hitze und Dürre - Interview with climate researcher Jakob Zscheischler
in Deutschlandfunk (only in German, 10:50 min) Link to interview

May 16, 2023

Start of ESA funded project 4DHydro

The overarching objective of 4DHydro is to foster collaborations between the Earth Observation (EO) water cycle community developing novel high-resolution EO data products, and the land surface and hydrological modelling community (LSM/HM) engaged in advancing hyperresolution modelling of the hydrological cycle at regional and continental scales. By involving several European institutions 4DHydro will assess and improve data sets of EO as well as synchronize EO products and LSM/HM models in order to improve predictions of the hydrological system. Overall, it will assist end-users and decisions-makers as well as the EU Destination Earth initiative. The project’s kick-off meeting will take place in Leipzig on 21st of June 2023.

Jan 30, 2023

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The following paper received the ASCE-EWRI 2023 Award for Best Case Study in the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.

Mai, J. , B. A. Tolson, H. Shen, É. Gaborit, V. Fortin, N. Gasset, H. Awoye, T. A. Stadnyk, L. M. Fry, E. A. Bradley, F. Seglenieks, A. G. Temgoua, D. G. Princz, S. Gharari, A. Haghnegahdar, M. E. Elshamy, S. Razavi, M. Gauch, J. Lin, X. Ni, Y. Yuan, M. McLeod, N. B. Basu, R. Kumar, O. Rakovec, L. Samaniego, S. Attinger, N. K. Shrestha, P. Daggupati, T. Roy, S. Wi, T. Hunter, J. R. Craig, and A. Pietroniro (2021):
The Great Lakes Runoff Intercomparison Project Phase 3: Lake Erie (GRIP-E)
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 26(9), 05021020. Accepted Feb 16, 2021.

https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29HE.1943-5584.0002097

Dec 1, 2022

Award Poster Masooma Batool

Masooma Batool won the "Best student poster award" at the XXI International Nitrogen Workshop.
This conference, hosted by ETSIAAB, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, brought together nearly 300 papers from authors from 40 countries in Madrid, Spain, October 24-28, 2022.
At the conference, Masooma and her colleagues presented long-term trends in soil nitrogen (N) surplus across Europe (1850-2019). Excess N provides information on the trends and spatial distribution of N surplus in soil systems across Europe, highlighting agricultural areas in Central Europe as nitrogen hotspots. These areas have undergone dramatic changes over the past 150 years. Importantly, we show that estimates of N surplus are subject to large uncertainties, requiring explicit consideration of these uncertainties when analyzing past trends in N surplus.

Nov 15, 2022

Earthrise - Mission Klima
How our research contributes to climate mitigation and adaptation is demonstrated in this WELT report.

Video at www.welt.de (only in German)

05:50': Hohes Holz research station
10:40': FORMIND in the Vislab
15:45': Fragmentation of forests
43:00': FORMIND and climate scenarios

Oct 12, 2022

Dr. Husain Najafi won the UFZ Young Scientist Award for Applied Research 2022. The award goes to him for his excellence and dedication in development of the operational drought forecasting system in Germany and investigation of 2021 summer flood predictability. Hydrological forecasting systems are the fundamental component of early warning systems - disaster risk reduction.

Older news are stored in the news archive.

New publications

Najafi, H., Shrestha, P.K., Rakovec, O. et al. High-resolution impact-based early warning system for riverine flooding. Nat Commun 15, 3726 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48065-y
Henniger, H., Huth, A., Frank, K., & Bohn, F. J. (2023). Creating virtual forests around the globe and analysing their state space. Ecological Modelling, 483, 110404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110404

In this paper we present the "Forest Factory 2.0″ algorithm, which generates various virtual forest stands for different biomes on Earth. To demonstrate the potential of this approach, we analyse different forest-structure->ecosystem-function relationships across biomes.
Friedrich Boeing, Oldrich Rakovec, Rohini Kumar, Luis Samaniego, Martin Schrön, Anke Hildebrandt, Corinna Rebmann, Stephan Thober, Sebastian Müller, Steffen Zacharias, Heye Bogena, Katrin Schneider, Ralf Kiese, Sabine Attinger, and Andreas Marx. High-resolution drought simulations and comparison to soil moisture observations in Germany. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 5137–5161, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5137-2022

In this paper, we deliver an evaluation of the second generation operational German drought monitor ( https://www.ufz.de/duerremonitor ) with a state-of-the-art compilation of observed soil moisture data from 40 locations and four different measurement methods in Germany. We show that the expressed stakeholder needs for higher resolution drought information at the one-kilometer scale can be met and that the agreement of simulated and observed soil moisture dynamics can be moderately improved.
Mahnken, M., Cailleret, M., Collalti, A., Trotta, C., Biondo, C., D’Andrea, E., ... & Reyer, C. P. O. (2022). Accuracy, realism and general applicability of European forest models. Global Change Biology. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16384
Pacheco-Labrador, J., Weber, U., Ma, X., Mahecha, M. D., Carvalhais, N., Wirth, C., Huth, A., Bohn, F. J., Kraemer, G., Heiden, U., FunDivEUROPE members, and Migliavacca, M.: EVALUATING THE POTENTIAL OF DESIS TO INFER PLANT TAXONOMICAL AND FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITIES IN EUROPEAN FORESTS, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVI-1/W1-2021, 49–55, 2022. DOI: 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVI-1-W1-2021-49-2022
Bevacqua, E., De Michele, C., Manning, C., Couasnon, A., Ribeiro, A.F.S., Ramos, A.M., Vignotto, E., Bastos, A., Blesić, S., Durante, F., Hillier, J., Oliveira, S.C., Pinto, J.G., Ragno, E., Rivoire, P., Saunders, K., van der Wiel, K., Wu, W., Zhang, T., Zscheischler, J. (2021): Guidelines for Studying Diverse Types of Compound Weather and Climate Events. Earth Future. 10.1029/2021EF002340
Najafi H, Robertson AW, Massah Bavani AR, Irannejad P, Wanders N, Wood EF. Improved multi-model ensemble forecasts of Iran's precipitation and temperature using a hybrid dynamical-statistical approach during fall and winter seasons. Int
J Climatol. 2021;1–28. DOI: 10.1002/joc.7148

Hari, V., Rakovec, O., Markonis, Y. et al. Increased future occurrences of the exceptional 2018–2019 Central European drought under global warming. Sci Rep 10, 12207 (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-68872-9

Schmidt, L., Heße, F., Attinger, S., Kumar, R., (2020): "Challenges in applying machine learning models for hydrological inference: A case study for flooding events across Germany", Water Resources Research DOI: 10.1029/2019WR025924

Jing, M., Kumar, R., Heße, F., Thober, S., Rakovec, O., Samaniego, L., Attinger, S., (2020): "Assessing the response of groundwater quantity and travel time distribution to 1.5, 2, and 3 °C global warming in a mesoscale central German basin", Hydrology and Earth System Sciences DOI: 10.5194/hess-24-1511-2020

Sep 2, 2022

The collaborative project "Standardisiertes Monitoring von Wachstumsreaktionen wichtiger Waldbaumarten auf klimatische Extremereignisse" (MW³) with participation of the UFZ will develop a standardized monitoring system and protocol to record growth responses of important Central European forest tree species with a focus on climatic extremes. Future extreme events and their impact on forest carbon fluxes in Germany will be analyzed using smart models.