Christian Folberth profile picture

Christian Folberth

Senior Research Scholar

Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Research Group

Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program

Biography

Chris Folberth is a senior researcher in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Research Group of the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program. The main focus of his research is process-based agro-ecosystem modeling to improve the understanding of the interactions between crop and soil management, climate impacts, and adaptation potentials. He also serves as the group’s liaison to community networks such as the Intersectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) and the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison (GGCMI) initiative.

Besides process-based modeling, he leads initiatives on data-driven and hybrid modeling to harness the combined advantages of both process-based and machine-learning methods. He also engages in transdisciplinary research that aligns methods and tools with stakeholder needs.

Prior to joining IIASA in 2013, he was a research assistant at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) and the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), where he also acquired a doctoral degree. In the years 2015-2016, he completed a research fellowship at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, focusing on geographies of substance flows in the agro-food system.


Last update: 21 MAY 2024

Publications

Keil, L., Folberth, C. , Jedelhauser, M., & Binder, C.R. (2017). Time-Continuous Phosphorus Flows in the Indian Agri-Food Sector: Long-Term Drivers and Management Options. Journal of Industrial Ecology 22 (2) 406-421. 10.1111/jiec.12560.

Schauberger, B., Archontoulis, S., Arneth, A., Balkovic, J. , Ciais, P., Deryng, D., Eliott, J., Folberth, C. , Khabarov, N. , Müller, C., Pugh, T.A.M., Rolinski, F., Schaphoff, S., Schmid, E., Wang, X., Schlenker, W., & Frieler, K. (2017). Consistent negative response of US crops to high temperatures in observations and crop models. Nature Communications 8 art.no.13931. 10.1038/ncomms13931.

Folberth, C. , Elliott, J., Müller, C., Balkovic, J. , Chryssanthacopoulos, J., Izaurralde, R.C., Jones, C.D., Khabarov, N. , Liu, W., Reddy, A., Schmid, E., Skalsky, R. , Yang, H., Arneth, A., Ciais, P., Deryng, D., Lawrence, P.J., Olin, S., Pugh, T.A.M., Ruane, A.C., & Wang, X. (2016). Uncertainties in global crop model frameworks: effects of cultivar distribution, crop management and soil handling on crop yield estimates. Biogeosciences Discussions 1-30. 10.5194/bg-2016-527. (Submitted)

Liu, B., Asseng, S., Müller, C., Ewert, F., Elliott, J., Lobell, D.B., Martre, P., Ruane, A.C., Wallach, D., Jones, J.W., Rosenzweig, C., Aggarwal, P.K., Alderman, P.D., Anothai, J., Basso, B., Biernath, C., Cammarano, D., Challinor, A., Deryng, D., Sanctis, G., Doltra, J., Fereres, E., Folberth, C. , Garcia-Vila, M., Gayler, S., Hoogenboom, G., Hunt, L.A., Izaurralde, R.C., Jabloun, M., Jones, C.D., Kersebaum, K.C., Kimball, B.A., Koehler, A.-K., Kumar, S.N., Nendel, C., O’Leary, G.J., Olesen, J.E., Ottman, M.J., Palosuo, T., Prasad, P.V.V., Priesack, E., Pugh, T.A.M., Reynolds, M., Rezaei, E.E., Rötter, R.P., Schmid, E., Semenov, M.A., Shcherbak, I., Stehfest, E., Stöckle, C.O., Stratonovitch, P., Streck, T., Supit, I., Tao, F., Thorburn, P., Waha, K., Wall, G.W., Wang, E., White, J.W., Wolf, J., Zhao, Z., & Zhu, Y. (2016). Similar estimates of temperature impacts on global wheat yield by three independent methods. Nature Climate Change 6 (12) 1130-1136. 10.1038/nclimate3115.

Pugh, T.A.M, Müller, C., Elliott, J., Deryng, D., Folberth, C. , Olin, S., Schmid, E., & Arneth, A. (2016). Climate analogues suggest limited potential for intensification of production on current croplands under climate change. Nature Communications 7 e12608. 10.1038/ncomms12608.