Dr. Axel Kleidon

	Office:	LeFrak 1159
	Telephone:	01 301 405 3203
	FAX:	01 301 314 9299
	Email:
	Website:	www.glue.umd.edu/~akleidon

 
Education

	PhD	Geosciences, University of Hamburg, Germany, 1998
	MSc	Physics, Purdue University, Indiana, 1994
	BA	Physics, Mathematics, Meteorology, University of Hamburg, 1992

Research Interests

	Atmosphere-biosphere interactions
	Earth systems science
	Biodiversity
	Gaia Hypothesis
	Non-equilibrium thermodynamics/Maximum Entropy Production
	Numerical simulation models
	My research aims at understanding interactions within the Earth system, with particular emphasis on the role of life. Just understanding the physical and biological processes that occur on Earth is not enough to understand what we see, because processes interact, leading to emergent behaviour that you would not expect from looking at the processes on their own. In particular, I am interested in understanding the interactions between terrestrial vegetation and the physical climate system. A crucial part of my research consists of the development and application of numerical simulation models to investigate these interactions. Since the atmosphere is a truly, globally interconnected component of the Earth system, my studies usually focus at the global scale.

Research Projects

	Individual-based modeling of plant biodiversity
	Entropy production in the climate system
	Optimality in terrestrial vegetation

Representative Papers

	A Kleidon, 2004. “Beyond Gaia: Thermodynamics of Life and Earth System Functioning” Climatic Change, 66, 271-319.
	A Kleidon, R D Lorenz(eds.), 2004. “Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics and the Production of Entropy Life, Earth and Beyond”. Understanding Complex Systems, Springer Verlag.
	A Kleidon, K Fraedrich, T Kunz, F Lunkeit, 2003. “The atmospheric circulation and states of maximum entropy production”. Geophysical Research Letters, 30, 2223.
	A Kleidon, H A Mooney, 2000. “A global distribution of biodiversity inferred from climatic constraints: results from a process-based modelling study”. Global Change Biology, 6, 507-523.
	A Kleidon and M Heimann, 2000. “Assessing the role of deep rooted vegetation in the climate system with model simulations: mechanism, comparison to observations and implications for Amazonian deforestation”. Climate Dynamics, 16(2/3), 183-199.