Claus Beier

Claus Beier is a Professor at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management within the Faculty of Science at the University of Copenhagen. His research concentrates on ecosystem responses to air pollution and climate change, with particular focus on impacts on ecosystem functioning and feedback to the atmosphere. He has extensive experience using ecosystem manipulation approaches to understand these complex interactions.

His primary research interests include biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, ecosystem functioning, climate change impacts on ecosystems, extreme events, and experimental design. Beier has made significant contributions to understanding how terrestrial ecosystems respond to multiple stressors including elevated CO₂, drought, and warming through long-term experimental studies.

Beier's research has evolved to focus increasingly on extreme climate events and their impacts on ecosystem functioning. His work often involves large-scale collaborative efforts, most notably through the VILLUM foundation Centre of Excellence CLIMAITE, where the University of Copenhagen, DTU, and AU collaborated to investigate multifactor climate change impacts on shrubland ecosystems.

• VILLUM foundation Centre of Excellence CLIMAITE
• Center for Skov og LAndskab (Chair since 2015)
• Geocenter Danmark (Member 2015-2020)
• COST action - ClimMani (Chair 2014-2018)

His publication record demonstrates a strong focus on climate change impacts across multiple ecosystem types, with recent work examining tree mortality in California forests using advanced remote sensing and deep learning techniques, drought impacts on grasslands and shrublands, and nutrient cycling responses to multifactor climate change.