World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Michael W. I. Schmidt

Michael W. I. Schmidt

D-Index & Metrics

Chemistry

D-Index
69
Citations
25941
World Ranking
6075
National Ranking
126

Environmental Sciences

D-Index
66
Citations
25035
World Ranking
2033
National Ranking
57

Overview

Michael W. I. Schmidt is affiliated with the University of Zurich in Switzerland and conducts research primarily in the fields of Environmental Science and Agricultural and Biological Sciences. Their scientific focus encompasses key subfields such as Ecology, Soil Science, Global and Planetary Change, Atmospheric Science, and Nature and Landscape Conservation.

The main topics of their research cover Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics, Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology, Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology, Climate Change and Permafrost, Fire Effects on Ecosystems, Coastal Wetland Ecosystem Dynamics, and Fish Ecology and Management Studies.

Recent research outputs include the following publications: "Microbial carbon use efficiency promotes global soil carbon storage" (2023, Nature), "Five years of whole-soil warming led to loss of subsoil carbon stocks and increased CO2 efflux" (2021, Science Advances), "A Critical Evaluation of the Relationship Between the Effective Cation Exchange Capacity and Soil Organic Carbon Content in Swiss Forest Soils" (2020, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change), "Warming promotes loss of subsoil carbon through accelerated degradation of plant-derived organic matter" (2021, Soil Biology and Biochemistry), and "Rapid loss of complex polymers and pyrogenic carbon in subsoils under whole-soil warming" (2023, Nature Geoscience).

Frequent co-authors in their research collaborations include Nicholas O. E. Ofiti, Guido L. B. Wiesenberg, Margaret Torn, Cyrill Zosso, and Serita D. Frey.

The scientist frequently publishes in venues such as OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information), Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), SSRN Electronic Journal, SOIL, and Nature.

Best Publications

  • Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property

    Michael W. I. Schmidt;Margaret S. Torn;Margaret S. Torn;Samuel Abiven;Thorsten Dittmar;Thorsten Dittmar

  • Black carbon in soils and sediments: Analysis, distribution, implications, and current challenges

    Michael W. I. Schmidt;Angela G. Noack

  • How relevant is recalcitrance for the stabilization of organic matter in soils

    Bernd Marschner;Sonja Brodowski;Alexander Dreves;Gerd Gleixner

  • Black (pyrogenic) carbon: a synthesis of current knowledge and uncertainties with special consideration of boreal regions

    C M Preston;Michael W I Schmidt

  • Comparison of quantification methods to measure fire-derived (black/elemental) carbon in soils and sediments using reference materials from soil, water, sediment and the atmosphere

    Karen Hammes;Michael W.I. Schmidt;Ronald J. Smernik;Lloyd A. Currie

  • Microbial carbon use efficiency promotes global soil carbon storage

    Unknown

  • Measured soil organic matter fractions can be related to pools in the RothC model

    M. Zimmermann;J. Leifeld;M. W. I. Schmidt;P. Smith

  • Dissolved carbon leaching from soil is a crucial component of the net ecosystem carbon balance

    Reimo Kindler;Reimo Kindler;Jan Siemens;Jan Siemens;Klaus Kaiser;David Christopher Walmsley

  • Charred organic carbon in German chernozemic soils

    M. W. I. Schmidt;J. O. Skjemstad;E. Gehrt;I. Kögel-Knabner

  • Comparative analysis of black carbon in soils

    Michael W. I. Schmidt;Jan O. Skjemstad;Claudia I. Czimczik;Bruno Glaser

  • Improvement of 13C and 15N CPMAS NMR spectra of bulk soils, particle size fractions and organic material by treatment with 10% hydrofluoric acid

    M. W. I. Schmidt;Heike Knicker;Heike Knicker;Patrick G. Hatcher;I. Kögel-Knabner

  • π Bond Strengths in the Second and Third Periods

    Michael W. Schmidt;Phi N. Truong;Mark S. Gordon

  • Microplasmas, an emerging field of low-temperature plasma science and technology

    R. Foest;M. Schmidt;K. Becker

  • Effects of charring on mass, organic carbon, and stable carbon isotope composition of wood

    Claudia I. Czimczik;Caroline M. Preston;Michael W.I. Schmidt;Roland A. Werner

  • Aromaticity and degree of aromatic condensation of char

    Daniel B. Wiedemeier;Samuel Abiven;William C. Hockaday;Marco Keiluweit

  • Main Group Effective Nuclear Charges for Spin-Orbit Calculations

    Shiro Koseki;Mark S. Gordon;Michael W. Schmidt;Nikita Matsunaga

  • Centennial black carbon turnover observed in a Russian steppe soil

    K. Hammes;M. S. Torn;A. G. Lapenas;M. W. I. Schmidt

  • Synthesis and characterisation of laboratory-charred grass straw (Oryza sativa) and chestnut wood (Castanea sativa) as reference materials for black carbon quantification

    Karen Hammes;Ronald J. Smernik;Jan O. Skjemstad;Andreas Herzog

  • Evaluation of an ultrasonic dispersion procedure to isolate primary organomineral complexes from soils

    M. W. I. Schmidt;C. Rumpel;I. Kögel-Knabner

  • Ab initio vibrational state calculations with a quartic force field: applications to H2CO, C2H4, CH3OH, CH3CCH, and C6H6.

    Kiyoshi Yagi;Kimihiko Hirao;Tetsuya Taketsugu;Michael W. Schmidt

  • Five years of whole-soil warming led to loss of subsoil carbon stocks and increased CO2 efflux.

    Jennifer L. Soong;Cristina Castanha;Caitlin E. Hicks Pries;Nicholas Ofiti

  • Carbon isotope geochemistry and nanomorphology of soil black carbon: Black chernozemic soils in central Europe originate from ancient biomass burning

    Michael W. I. Schmidt;Michael W. I. Schmidt;Michael W. I. Schmidt;Jan O. Skjemstad;Cornelia Jäger

Frequent Co-Authors

Samuel Abiven
Samuel Abiven University of Zurich
Margaret S. Torn
Margaret S. Torn Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Guido L. B. Wiesenberg
Guido L. B. Wiesenberg University of Zurich
Mark S. Gordon
Mark S. Gordon Iowa State University
Frank Hagedorn
Frank Hagedorn Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Ingrid Kögel-Knabner
Ingrid Kögel-Knabner Technical University of Munich
Heike Knicker
Heike Knicker Spanish National Research Council
Jan O. Skjemstad
Jan O. Skjemstad Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Walter Schnelle
Walter Schnelle Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids

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