Dr. Marco Lehmann

Function

Scientific staff member

Forest Soils and Biogeochemistry

Forest Dynamics

Ecosystem Ecology

Biogeochemistry

Contact

marco.lehmann(at)wslto make life hard for spam bots.ch

+41 44 739 21 99+41 44 739 21 99

Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf

Site

Birmensdorf Bi HL D 35

Research Interests

As a ecophysiologist and biogeochemist I am interested how carbon, water and nutrients move through a plant, how environmental changes drive plant physiological and metabolic responses, and how information about this processes can be derived from the stable isotopic composition of plant material. I like to combine experimental plant studies with research tools from various disciplines such as compound-specific isotope analyses (LC- & GC-IRMS, IRIS & CRDS), plant physiological measurements (gas-exchange & leaf traits), plant molecular biology (plant mutants), and biochemical approaches (enzyme activities, compound concentrations).

Recently, I lead a SNF Ambizione research project (TreeCarbo) focusing on carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic composition of carbohydrates (sugars, starch, tree-rings) to better understand how information about plant functions and climatic conditions are laid down into tree-ring archives. Besides, I develop a new compound-specific nitrogen isotope method to study wood decomposer food webs (IsoWeb).

My social media accounts:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marco_Lehmann

https://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=zNwNJSUAAAAJ&hl=en

Scientific Career

SNF-Ambizione Group Leader, Swiss Federal Institute WSL, "Triple isotope analysis of carbohydrates: From assimilates to tree-rings (TreeCarbo)", 05/2019 - today
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Swiss Federal Institute WSL,"Analysing temporal and spatial changes in wood decomposer food-webs using novel stable isotope techniques (Isoweb)",10/2018 - 04/2019
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Swiss Federal Institute WSL, "Oxygen isotope fractionations among plant assimilates", 01/2017 - 10/2018
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Paul-Scherrer Institute, "Developing new methods for oxygen isotope analysis", 08/2014 - 12/2016
Ph.D. (Dr. sc.),ETH Zurich, "Carbon isotopic composition of leaf dark-respired CO₂: Influence of different substrates and environmental drivers", 02/2011 - 07/2014
Diplom (eq. M. sc.) Molecularbiology, Saarland University, "Characterization of genetic factors in the network of metal homeostasis in Arabidopsis thaliana", 04/2004 - 09/2010

FURTHER INFORMATION

Publications WSL

Scientific publication article peer reviewed

Schuler, P.; Vitali, V.; Saurer, M.; Gessler, A.; Buchmann, N.; Lehmann, M.M., 2023: Hydrogen isotope fractionation in carbohydrates of leaves and xylem tissues follows distinct phylogenetic patterns: a common garden experiment with 73 tree and shrub species. New Phytologist, doi: 10.1111/nph.18976

Wang, A.; Bose, A.K.; Lehmann, M.M.; Rigling, A.; Gessler, A.; Yu, L.; Li, M., 2023: Water status and macronutrient concentrations, but not carbon status, of Viscum album ssp. album are determined by its hosts: a study across nine mistletoe-host pairs in central Switzerland. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14: 1142760 (13 pp.). doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1142760

Li, Y.; Eugster, W.; Riedl, A.; Lehmann, M.M.; Aemisegger, F.; Buchmann, N., 2023: Dew benefits on alpine grasslands are cancelled out by combined heatwave and drought stress. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14: 1136037 (17 pp.). doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1136037

Vitali, V.; Peters, R.L.; Lehmann, M.M.; Leuenberger, M.; Treydte, K.; Büntgen, U.; Schuler, P.; Saurer, M., 2023: Tree-ring isotopes from the Swiss Alps reveal non-climatic fingerprints of cyclic insect population outbreaks over the past 700 years. Tree Physiology, doi: 10.1093/treephys/tpad014

Zhang, Y.; Yang, Y.; Saurer, M.; Schaub, M.; Gessler, A.; Lehmann, M.M.; Rigling, A.; Walser, M.; Stierli, B.; Hajjar, N.; Christen, D.; Li, M., 2023: Sugar infusion into trees: a novel method to study tree carbon relations and its regulations. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14: 1142595 (11 pp.). doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1142595

Show all

Further Publications (peer-reviewed)

Lehmann M.M., Fischer M., Blees J., Zech M., Siegwolf R.T.W., Saurer M. (2016). A novel methylation derivatization method for δ18O analysis of individual carbohydrates by gas chromatography/pyrolysis–isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 30, 221–229. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rcm.7431

Lehmann M.M., Wegener F., Barthel M., Maurino V.G., Siegwolf R.T.W., Buchmann N., Werner C., Werner R.A. (2016). Metabolic fate of the carboxyl groups of malate and pyruvate and their influence on δ13C of leaf respired CO2 during light enhanced dark-respiration. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7, doi: 10.3389/fpls.2016.00739. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2016.00739/full

Lehmann M.M., Wegener F., Werner R.A., Werner C. (2016). Diel variations in carbon isotopic composition and concentration of organic acids and their impact on plant dark respiration in different species. Plant Biology, 18, 776-784. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/plb.12464/abstract

Lehmann, M.M., Rinne, K.T., Blessing, C., Siegwolf, R.T.W., Buchmann, N., Werner, R.A. (2015). Malate as a key carbon source of leaf dark-respired CO2 across different environmental conditions in potato plants. Journal of Experimental Botany, 66, 5769–5781. academic.oup.com/jxb/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jxb/erv279

Projects

Diel C-fluxes within needles from conifer trees

The microC-flux project aims at elucidating the diel dynamics of carbon within foliage of conifer trees, assessing the C-enrichment within transient starch pools of needle tissues by means of nanoSIMS imaging and modelling the opposite radial transport of water and assimilates inside of needles

INSIghtForest: IN SItu tracking of water fluxes in Forest ecosystems

INSIghtForest will accompany the Cost Action WATSON "WATer isotopeS in the critical zONeproposes" by establishing a unique data set of high frequency in-situ measured water isotopes located in a long-term irrigation experiment Pfynwald in the naturally dry valley of Valais, Switzerland.