Microbiomes of the terrestrial surface and subsurface drive the formation and consumption of the greenhouse gases CO₂ and CH₄ and are thus key reagents of climate-induced feedbacks on our Earth surface capable both of accelerating and mitigating Global Change. My research group aims to constrain how microbial communities adapt to and drive climate and land-use change and to provide a framework for the implementation of microbes and their functions in process-based models. A specific focus of the group is on microbial carbon transformation and greenhouse gas production in organic rich soils and sediments using lab-scale microcosms and natural laboratories. Those natural labs span pristine and rewetted peatlands for example of the TERENO NE observatory, Arctic permafrost landscapes exposed to rapid and gradual thaw, but also laminated lake sediments. The group utilizes molecular techniques complemented with microbial process rate measurements and biogeochemical analyses building upon collaborations for example with the AWI Permafrost Research Section in Potsdam, the University of Hamburg, the CliSAP Cluster of Excellence on Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction, Universities of Rostock, Greifswald and Münster, the University of Fairbanks in Alaska, and the Arctic University of Norway.