Juliane Mai - Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research

Dr. Juliane Mai

Postdoctoral researcher
Group of Regional Ecophysiology
Department Computational Hydrosystems (CHS)
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ

Email
Phone
Fax
Address

juliane.mai@ufz.de
0341 235 1890
0341 235 1939
Permoserstraße 15
04318 Leipzig

Research topics

Modeling distribution and interaction of contaminants in cellular environments
Parameter inversion and sensitivity analysis of biological systems
Modeling the impact of environmental chemicals on immune cell differentiation
Inversion of soil hydraulic properties using parametric soil water retention models (cooperation with Dr. Gerrit de Rooij, UFZ Leipzig)
In-situ water content determination using frequency domain modeling and layered media spectra (cooperation with Dr. Jan Bumberger, UFZ Leipzig)
Calibration and uncertainty estimation of the mesocale hydrologic model (mHM)
Multi-objective calibration of complex models (cooperation with Prof. Bryan Tolson and Dr. Mahyar Shafii)
Parameter screening and sensitivity analyses of hydrologic models (mHM) and land surface models (CLM, Noah-MP)
Member of UFZ Working group on "Inverse modeling and optimization"

Scientific Career

2001 - 2005

Study of Business Mathematics (Diploma)
University of Applied Sciences HTWK Leipzig

Topic:
Zielorientierte Selektion von Vergangenheitsdaten zur Verbesserung der Qualitätsplanung in der Halbzeugfertigung

2005 - 2007

Study of Applied Mathematics (Master)
University of Applied Sciences HTWK Leipzig

Topic:
Nutzung von Computertomographie-Daten zur Modellierung einer knöchernen Struktur

2007 - 2011

PhD student
Department Computational Hydrosystems
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

Topic:
From environmental contaminants to cellular response: A 3D approach to model the distribution and interaction of contaminants in living cells. pdf

since 2011

Postdoctoral researcher
Department Computational Hydrosystems
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

Topic:
Develop methods and codes for parameter inversion and parameter reduction of complex models

10/2015 - 12/2015

Visiting Scientist
Bryan Tolson's Lab
University of Waterloo, Canada

Topic:
Multi-objective calibration of a hydrologic model

Publications

Mai, J., Trump, S., Ali, R., Schiltz, R.L., Hager, G., Hanke, T., Lehmann, I., Attinger, S. (2011):
Are assumptions about the model type necessary in reaction-diffusion modeling? A FRAP application
Biophys. J. 100 (5), 1178 - 1188
full text (doi)
Michaelson, J., Trump, S., Rudzok, S., Gräbsch, C., Madureira, D.J., Dautel, F., Mai, J., Attinger, S., Schirmer, K., von Bergen, M., Lehmann, I., Beyer, A. (2011):
Transcriptional signatures of regulatory and toxic responses to benzo-[a]-pyrene exposure
BMC Genomics 12 , art. 502
full text (doi)
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
full text (doi)
Mai, J., Trump, S., Lehmann, I., Attinger, S. (2013):
Parameter importance in FRAP acquisition and analysis: a simulation approach
Biophys. J. 104 (9), 2089 - 2097
full text (doi)
Wehrer, M., Mai, J., Attinger, S., Totsche, K.U. (2013):
Kinetic control of contaminant release from NAPLs – Information potential of concentration time profiles
Environ. Pollut. 179 , 301 - 314
full text (doi)
Thober, S., Mai, J., Zink, M., Samaniego, L. (2014):
Stochastic temporal disaggregation of monthly precipitation for regional gridded data sets
Water Resour. Res. 50 (11), 8714 - 8735
full text (doi)
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
full text (doi)
Thober, S., Kumar, R., Sheffield, J., Mai, J., Schäfer, D., Samaniego, L. (2015):
Seasonal soil moisture drought prediction over Europe using the North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME)
J. Hydrometeorol. 16 (6), 2329 - 2344
full text (doi)
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
full text (doi)
Kumar, R., Musuuza, J.L., Van Loon, A.F., Teuling, A.J., Barthel, R., Ten Broek, J., Mai, J., Samaniego, L., Attinger, S. (2016):
Multiscale evaluation of the Standardized Precipitation Index as a groundwater drought indicator
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 20 (3), 1117 - 1131
full text (doi)
Marx, A., Samaniego, L., Kumar, R., Thober, S., Mai, J., Zink, M. (2016):
Der Dürremonitor – Aktuelle Information zur Bodenfeuchte in Deutschland
In: Wernecke, G., Ebner von Eschenbach, A.-D., Strunck, Y., Kirschbauer, L., Müller, A. (Hrsg.)
Wasserressourcen – Wissen im Flussgebieten vernetzen. Beiträge zum Tag der Hydrologie am 17./18. März 2016 in Koblenz, ausgerichtet von der Hochschule Koblenz und der Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde
Forum für Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung 37
Deutsche Vereinigung für Wasserwirtschaft, Abwasser und Abfall (DWA), Hennef, S. 131 - 142
full text (url)
Nijzink, R.C., Samaniego, L., Mai, J., Kumar, R., Thober, S., Zink, M., Schäfer, D., Savenije, H.H.G., Hrachowitz, M. (2016):
The importance of topography-controlled sub-grid process heterogeneity and semi-quantitative prior constraints in distributed hydrological models
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 20 (3), 1151 - 1176
full text (doi)
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
full text (doi)
Zech, A., Müller, S., Mai, J., Heße, F., Attinger, S. (2016):
Extending Theis' solution: Using transient pumping tests to estimate parameters of aquifer heterogeneity
Water Resour. Res. 52 (8), 6156 - 6170
full text (doi)
Zink, M., Samaniego, L., Kumar, R., Thober, S., Mai, J., Schäfer, D., Marx, A. (2016):
The German drought monitor
Environ. Res. Lett. 11 (7), art. 074002
full text (doi)
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
full text (doi)
Bumberger, J., Mai, J., Schmidt, F., Lünenschloß, P., Wagner, N., Töpfer, H. (2018):
Spatial retrieval of broadband dielectric spectra
Sensors 18 (9), art. 2780
full text (doi)
Demirel, M.C., Mai, J., Mendiguren, G., Koch, J., Samaniego, L., Stisen, S. (2018):
Combining satellite data and appropriate objective functions for improved spatial pattern performance of a distributed hydrologic model
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 22 (2), 1299 - 1315
full text (doi)
Madi, R., de Rooij, G.H., Mielenz, H., Mai, J. (2018):
Parametric soil water retention models: a critical evaluation of expressions for the full moisture range
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 22 (2), 1193 - 1219
full text (doi)
Schmidt, F., Wagner, N., Mai, J., Lünenschloß, P., Töpfer, H., Bumberger, J. (2018):
Dielectric spectra reconstruction of layered multi-phase soil
In: Skierucha, W. (ed.)
Proceedings; 2018 12th International Conference on Electromagnetic Wave Interaction with Water and Moist Substances (ISEMA), Lublin, Poland, 4-7 June 2018
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), New York, NY, p. 106 - 109
full text (doi)
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
full text (doi)
Zink, M., Samaniego, L., Kumar, R., Thober, S., Mai, J., Schäfer, D., Marx, A. (2018):
A national scale planning tool for agricultural droughts in Germany
In: Friesen, J., Rodríguez-Sinobas, L. (eds.)
Advanced tools for integrated water resources management
Advances in Chemical Pollution, Environmental Management and Protection 3
Elsevier, p. 147 - 169
full text (doi)
Mai, J. (2023):
Ten strategies towards successful calibration of environmental models
J. Hydrol. 620, Part A , art. 129414
full text (doi)

Conference Papers

Mai, J., S. Attinger (2008). Modeling Motion of Contaminant BaP in Cytoplasm. Fifth International Workshop on Computational Systems Biology - WCSB 2008 - Leipzig, Germany. 11-13/06/2008 Paper_WCSB_2008.pdf (116 KB)
Mai, J., S. Trump, S. Attinger (2009). Analysis of spatio-temporal dynamics by atificial and real FRAP data. Sixth International Workshop on Computational Systems Biology - WCSB 2009 - Aarhus, Denmark. 10-12/06/2009 Paper_WCSB_2009.pdf (356 KB)

Talks

Mai, J., G. Wittum, S. Attinger (2008). The BaP-AhR-pathway: Spatio-temporal dynamics of the receptor-ligand-complex. Helmholtz Alliance on Systems Biology Status Seminar, Potsdam, Germany. 24/06/2008
Mai, J., S. Trump, R. Ali, T. Hanke, I. Lehmann, S. Attinger (2011). Imaging in Systems Biology. Contaminants In The Environment CITE, Leipzig, Germany. 05/04/2011
Mai, J., S. Trump, R. Ali, G. Hager, T. Hanke, I. Lehmann, S. Attinger (2011). Modeling spatio-temporal dynamics within living cells. SETAC Europe 21st Annual Meeting, Milano, Italy. 16/05/2011.
Mai, J., M. Cuntz, L. Samaniego, D. Schäfer (2014). Parameter sensitivity estimation: The different information in derivative- and variance-based methods. EGU General Assembly. Vienna, Austria. 28/04-02/05/2014
Mai, J., M. Cuntz, M. Shafii, M. Zink, D. Schaefer, S. Thober, L. Samaniego, and B. Tolson (2016). Single-objective vs. multi-objective calibration of a hydrologic model using single- and multi-objective screening. EGU General Assembly. Vienna, Austria. 17-22/04/2016
Mai, J., M. Cuntz, L. Samaniego, D. Schaefer. Computationally inexpensive identification of noninformative model parameters. REKLIM workshop, Merseburg, Germany. 27-29/04/2016
Mai, J., M. Shafii, M. Cuntz, B. Tolson. Multi-objective vs. single objective calibration of a hydrologic model exploring the benefit of hydrologic signatures. CMWR, Toronto, Canada. 20-24/06/2016

Poster Presentations

Please find a selection of my posters here.

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 +49 341 235-1281

Sindy Bleiholder
Phone +49 341 235-1250

Susanne Kühn
Phone +49 341 235-482533

sekces@ufz.de

Permoserstraße 15 | 04318 Leipzig

News / Press

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

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.