Anke Hildebrandt

Anke Hildebrandt is a joint professor of Terrestrial Ecohydrology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). Her research focuses on the mutual interactions between the terrestrial water cycle and vegetation, with a particular emphasis on canopy processes, soil-water dynamics, and root water uptake. She holds a PhD in Hydrology from MIT and previously led the Ecohydrology group at UFZ before establishing her academic position in 2010.

Education:

• 2000: Engineer for Water Resources Management, Technical University Dresden (Diploma thesis on salinization in the Murrumbidgee/Darling Basin)
• 2005: PhD in Hydrology, MIT (thesis on ecohydrology of a seasonal cloud forest in Oman)

Research Interests:

• Canopy-Soil Water Interactions
• Root Water Uptake Optimization
• Plant Diversity Effects on Ecosystem Functions
• Scale-Dependent Hydrological Modelling

Key Research Contributions:

• Quantification of throughfall spatial patterns and their influence on soil moisture dynamics
• Vegetation's role in shaping soil hydraulic properties and water redistribution
• Optimality principles in root water uptake strategies

Awards: None explicitly listed.

Advising & Grants: No specific grants or student advisees listed, though her work involves interdisciplinary collaborations across institutions.

Labs/Teams: Active in the Institute of Geoscience at University Jena and the Computational Hydrosystems Department at UFZ. Central to the Bode Hydrological Observatory and the Jena Biodiversity Experiment.