Technische Universität München

Ingrid Kögel-Knabner received her Diploma in Geoecology in 1983 and was awarded her Ph.D. in Soil Science in 1987, both at University of Bayreuth, Germany. In 1992 she qualified as a professor (Habilitation) in Soil Science (topic: “Forest soil organic matter: structure and formation”) and was in the same year appointed Professor of Soil Science and Soil Ecology at the University of Bochum; since 1995 she is holding the Chair of Soil Science at the Life Sciences Centre of Technische Universität München in Freising-Weihenstephan. She was visiting scientist at the US Geological Survey/Reston and the Delft University of Technology. Prof. Kögel-Knabner is a member of various national and international academic advisory committees, the Senate and Joint Committee of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and serves in evaluation panels of the Wissenschaftsrat. She is member of the Editorial Board of several high-impact soil science journals.

2001 Member of Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina

2007 Member of Deutsche Akademie für Technikwissenschaften (acatech)

2008 Member of Kommission für Ökologie, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften

More publications are available here.

Chabbi A, Rumpel C, Kögel-Knabner I (2009) Stabilised carbon in subsoil horizons is located in spatially distinct parts of the soil profile. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 41, 256-261.

Eusterhues K, Rumpel C, Kögel-Knabner I (2005) Organo-mineral associations in sandy acid forest soils: importance of specific surface area, iron oxides and micropores. European Journal of Soil Science 56, 753-763.
Filimonova SV, Knicker H, Kögel-Knabner I (2006) Soil micro- and mesopores studied by N2 adsorption method and 129Xe NMR spectroscopy of adsorbed xenon. Geoderma 130, 218-228.

Kiem R, Kögel-Knabner I (2003) Contribution of lignin and polysaccharides to the refractory carbon pool as studied in C-depleted arable soils. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 35, 101-118.

Kögel I (1986) Estimation and decomposition pattern of lignin in forest humus layers. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 18, 589-594.

Kögel-Knabner I, Guggenberger G, Kleber M, Kandeler E, Kalbitz K, Scheu S, Eusterhues K, Leinweber P (2008) Organo-mineral associations in temperate soils: integrating biology, mineralogy and organic matter chemistry. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science 171, 61-82.

Kögel-Knabner I, Hatcher PG, Zech W (1991) Chemical structural studies of forest soil humic acids: aromatic carbon fraction. Soil Science Society of America Journal 55, 241-247.

Prietzel J, Tyufekchieva N, Eusterhues K., Kögel-Knabner I, Thieme J, Paterson D, McNulty I, De Jonge M, Eichert D, Salome M (2009) Anoxic versus oxic pretreatment: Effects on the speciation of sulphur and iron in well-aerated and wetland soils as assessed by X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES). Geoderma 153, 318-330.

Schmidt MWI, Skjemstad JO, Gehrt E, Kögel-Knabner I (1999) Charred organic carbon in German chernozemic soils. European Journal of Soil Science 50, 351-365.
Schöning I, Knicker H, Kögel-Knabner I (2005) Intimate associations between O/N-alkyl carbon and iron oxides in clay fractions of forest soils. Organic Geochemistry 36, 1378-1390.

During the biomass formation/decomposition cycle carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important climatic gas, is either released from soils or is stabilized as humic matter in soils, thereby forming soil structure and the biogeochemical soil interface by interaction of the organic matter with the soil mineral phase. Ingrid Kögel-Knabner’s work is dedicated to understanding the formation and properties of soil organic matter as a major component of soils (humus), and its central role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. The challenge to be coped with is the transition of methods which have been designed and developed for pure systems to extremely complex, often amorphous natural materials. By applying a wide spectrum of sophisticated techniques (solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy, chemolytic methods with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, stable isotopes, radiocarbon dating, scanning electron microscopy SEM and transmission electron microscopy TEM, X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure XANES) the elucidation of soil organic matter structure and turnover can be brought a step forward. Specifically NanoSIMS (secondary ion mass spectrometry at the nano scale) will help to unravel the heterogeneous composition and three-dimensional architecture of submicron-sized organo-mineral associations in soils.