In her doctoral thesis "Complex systems analysis of changing rainfall regimes in South America and their implications for the Amazon rainforest", Catrin Ciemer dealt with the effects of changes in the amount and frequency of precipitation in the Amazon and the future development of the rainforest under the conditions of climate change. By applying the concept of complex networks, she succeeded for the first time in accurately predicting droughts in the Amazon region up to one year in advance. Catrin Ciemer also investigated the resilience of vegetation in tropical South America. She was able to prove that, contrary to previous assessments, this is not constant, but can increase substantially in corresponding areas due to a long-term training effect of the annual differences in precipitation.
Weblink to the press release of the Leibniz Association:
https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/ueber-uns/neues/forschungsnachrichten/forschungsnachrichten-single/newsdetails/leibniz-promotionspreis-2019.html
