2026 Sönke Zaehle: Environmental Sciences Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Environmental Sciences	106	244	227	15	14	348	65774
Biology and Biochemistry	104	1227	1095	78	72	474	61274

Research.com Recognitions

2026 - Research.com Biology and Biochemistry in Germany Leader Award
2023 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in Germany Leader Award

Overview

Sönke Zaehle is affiliated with the Max Planck Society in Germany and has an extensive body of research primarily in environmental and earth sciences. Their work spans various main fields of study, including Environmental Science and Earth and Planetary Sciences, with a notable focus on subfields such as Global and Planetary Change, Atmospheric Science, Ecology, Soil Science, and Plant Science.

The scientist's research topics cover a broad range of environmental and atmospheric dynamics. These include:

Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
Climate Variability and Models
Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
Plant Responses to Elevated CO₂

The publication record of Sönke Zaehle comprises papers in several reputable venues, with frequent appearances in:

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Biogeosciences
Global Change Biology
Nature
Geoscientific Model Development

They have coauthored numerous studies with collaborators including Stephen Sitch, Hanqin Tian, Pierre Friedlingstein, Atul K. Jain, and Sebastian Lienert. These partnerships have contributed to a significant body of work on environmental and climate sciences.

Recent notable papers authored or coauthored by Sönke Zaehle include:

Global Carbon Budget 2020, 2020, Earth system science data
A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks, 2020, Nature
Global Carbon Budget 2021, 2022, Earth system science data
Integrating the evidence for a terrestrial carbon sink caused by increasing atmospheric CO₂, 2020, New Phytologist
Direct and seasonal legacy effects of the 2018 heat wave and drought on European ecosystem productivity, 2020, Science Advances

Best Publications

Global Carbon Budget 2016

Corinne Le Quere;Robbie M. Andrew;Josep G. Canadell;Stephen Sitch

4532
Citations
Global Carbon Budget 2015

C. Le Quéré;R. Moriarty;R. M. Andrew;J. G. Canadell

3035
Citations
TRY - a global database of plant traits

J. Kattge;S. Díaz;S. Lavorel;I. C. Prentice

2885
Citations
Global carbon budget 2013

C. Le Quere;G.P. Peters;R.J. Andres;Robbie M Andrew

2739
Citations
Greening of the Earth and its drivers

Zaichun Zhu;Zaichun Zhu;Shilong Piao;Shilong Piao;Ranga B. Myneni;Mengtian Huang

2582
Citations
Global Carbon Budget 2018

Corinne Le Quéré;Robbie M. Andrew;Pierre Friedlingstein;Stephen Sitch

2446
Citations
Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply

Martin Jung;Markus Reichstein;Philippe Ciais;Sonia I. Seneviratne

2363
Citations
Global Carbon Budget 2020

Pierre Friedlingstein;Pierre Friedlingstein;Michael O'Sullivan;Matthew W. Jones;Robbie M. Andrew

2252
Citations
Ecosystem Service Supply and Vulnerability to Global Change in Europe

Dagmar Schröter;Wolfgang Cramer;Rik Leemans;I. Colin Prentice

2124
Citations
A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks

Hanquin Tian;Rongting Xu;Josep G. Canadell;Rona L. Thompson

1751
Citations
Global Carbon Budget 2019

Pierre Friedlingstein;Pierre Friedlingstein;Matthew W. Jones;Michael O'Sullivan;Robbie Andrew

1662
Citations
Global Carbon Budget 2021

Unknown

1586
Citations
Modelling the role of agriculture for the 20th century global terrestrial carbon balance

Alberte Bondeau;Pascalle C. Smith;Sönke Zaehle;Sibyll Schaphoff

1579
Citations
The dominant role of semi-arid ecosystems in the trend and variability of the land CO2 sink

Anders Ahlström;Anders Ahlström;Michael R. Raupach;Guy Schurgers;Benjamin Smith

1470
Citations
Global Carbon Budget 2017

Corinne Le Quere;Robbie M. Andrew;Pierre Friedlingstein;Stephen Sitch

1267
Citations
Recent trends and drivers of regional sources and sinks of carbon dioxide

S. Sitch;P. Friedlingstein;N. Gruber;S. D. Jones

930
Citations
Evaluation of terrestrial carbon cycle models for their response to climate variability and to CO2 trends.

Shilong Piao;Shilong Piao;Stephen Sitch;Philippe Ciais;Pierre Friedlingstein

816
Citations
Implications of incorporating N cycling and N limitations on primary production in an individual-based dynamic vegetation model

Benjamin Smith;David Wårlind;Almut Arneth;Thomas Hickler

781
Citations
The global carbon budget 1959-2011

C. Le Quere;R.J. Andres;T.A. Boden;T. Conway

717
Citations
Compensatory water effects link yearly global land CO2 sink changes to temperature

Martin Jung;Markus Reichstein;Christopher R. Schwalm;Christopher Huntingford

715
Citations
Changes in climate and land use have a larger direct impact than rising CO2 on global river runoff trends.

Shilong Piao;Pierre Friedlingstein;Philippe Ciais;Nathalie de Noblet-Ducoudré

696
Citations
Terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system

Almut Arneth;S. P. Harrison;S. P. Harrison;S. Zaehle;K. Tsigaridis;K. Tsigaridis

683
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Pierre Friedlingstein University of Exeter

Stephen Sitch University of Exeter

Belinda E. Medlyn Western Sydney University

Almut Arneth Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Atul K. Jain University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Anthony P. Walker Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Etsushi Kato Institute of Applied Energy

Benjamin Poulter Goddard Space Flight Center

Julia Pongratz Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Christian Rödenbeck Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry

External Links

Personal website of Sönke Zaehle

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