Christian Folberth

Senior Research Scholar

Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Research Group

Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program

Biography

Christian Folberth joined IIASA's Ecosystem Services and Management Program as a Research Scholar in November 2013. He received his BSc in Horticultural Sciences and MSc in Environmental Planning and Engineering Ecology from Technical University of Munich. For the latter, he investigated factors influencing the degradation of pesticides in soil samples under laboratory conditions and a method for estimating the bioavailability of pesticides in soils.

Subsequently, he conducted a PhD research project at the Swiss Federal institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) and ETH Zurich. The thesis dealt with large-scale modeling of climate change impacts on global crop yields, regionalization of the crop model for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and the assessment of different management practices for elevating yields and adapting to climate change in SSA. Additional research projects included climate change impacts on biofuel production in the USA, unbalanced fertilizer application in SSA, and the participation in the Intersectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP).

Dr. Folberth's research interests include bio-physical agricultural modeling, climate change impacts on agricultural production, and environmental quality related to agricultural production.

Last update: 19 NOV 2013

Publications

Balkovič, J. , Madaras, M., Skalský, R. , Folberth, C. , Smatanová, M., Schmid, E., van der Velde, M., Kraxner, F., & Obersteiner, M. (2020). Verifiable soil organic carbon modelling to facilitate regional reporting of cropland carbon change: A test case in the Czech Republic. Journal of Environmental Management 274 e111206. 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111206.

Flach, R., Fader, M., Folberth, C. , Skalský, R. , & Jantke, K. (2020). The effects of cropping intensity and cropland expansion of Brazilian soybean production on green water flows. Environmental Research Communications 2 (7) e071001. 10.1088/2515-7620/ab9d04.

Flach, R., Skalsky, R. , Folberth, C. , Balkovic, J. , Jantke, K., & Schneider, U.A. (2020). Water productivity and footprint of major Brazilian rainfed crops – A spatially explicit analysis of crop management scenarios. Agricultural Water Management 233 e105996. 10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105996.

Folberth, C. , Khabarov, N. , Balkovic, J. , Skalsky, R. , Visconti, P., Ciais, P., Janssens, I., Peñuelas, J., & Obersteiner, M. (2020). The global cropland sparing potential of high-yield farming. Nature Sustainability 3 281-289. 10.1038/s41893-020-0505-x.

Jägermeyr, J., Robock, A., Elliott, J., Müller, C., Xia, L., Khabarov, N. , Folberth, C. , Schmid, E., Liu, W., Zabel, F., Rabin, S.S., Puma, M.J., Heslin, A.C., Franke, J., Foster, I., Asseng, S., Bardeen, C.G., Toon, O.B., & Rosenzweig, C. (2020). A regional nuclear conflict would compromise global food security. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10.1073/pnas.1919049117.