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Dr. Silvia Caldararu

Assistant Professor (Botany)
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Silvia Caldararu

Assistant Professor (Botany)

 caldaras@tcd.ie

 


Silvia studies how plants are affected by climate change and how this in turn impacts the world's carbon cycle and feeds back to the climate. She uses land surface models to understand current plant and ecosystem observations and make predictions about the future. Silvia completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2013, where she built a global model of leaf phenology. After that, she spent 2 years at Microsoft Research Cambridge in the Computational Ecology lab, looking at general models of crop growth. From 2015 to 2022 she was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, where she contributed to the QUINCY model and started looking at ecosystem nutrient limitation and effects of elevated CO2 on plant physiology. She joined the college in summer 2022.
Project Title
 Climate+
From
January 2024
To
Summary
Funding Agency
SFI
Programme
Climate co-centre

Details Date
Reviewer for multiple scientific journals (including Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, Earth Futures, Biogeosciences, New Phytologist, Journal of Ecology) ongoing
Associate Editor for Journal of Advances in Modelling Earth Systems (JAMES) 2022-present
External examiner for masters by research thesis for the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork 2025
Steering committee member for DAFM-funded CALMS project 2025-present
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
German Basic Basic Basic
Romanian Fluent Fluent Fluent
Spanish Fluent Medium Medium
Sophia G.,Caldararu S.,Stocker B., Zaehle S., Dynamic nitrogen resorption improves predictions of nitrogen cycling responses to global change in a next generation ecosystem model, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, (18), 2026, pe2025MS005181 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Seitz, J., Yajima, M., Zhu, Y., Joseph, L. S. K., Yang, J., Lacroix, F., Luo, Y., Schaumberger, A.. Bahn, M., Zaehle, S. and Caldararu, S., A general physiologically driven representation of leaf turnover in grasslands in the QUINCY land surface model (revision: 974a6b7f), EGUsphere, 2026, 2026, p1--49 , Journal Article, SUBMITTED  DOI
Thum, T., Miinalainen, T., Seppala, O., Croft, H., Rogers, C., Staebler, R., Caldararu, S., Zaehle, S., Modelling decadal trends and the impact of extreme events on carbon fluxes in a deciduous temperate forest using the QUINCY model, Biogeosciences, (22), 2025, p1781-1807 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Miinalainen, T., Ojasalo, A., Croft, H., Aurela, M., Peltoniemi, M., Caldararu, S. , Zaehle, S., Thum, T., Evaluating the carbon and nitrogen cycles of the QUINCY terrestrial biosphere model using space-born optical remotely-sensed data, Biogeosciences, 22, (22), 2025, p6937--6962 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Yajima, M., Seitz, J., Matthaeus, W.J., Girish Nair, G., Daly, L., Caldararu, S., Phenological benchmarking with a land surface model: an in-silico experiment for temperate forests, Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences, 2025, Journal Article, SUBMITTED  DOI  URL
Abramowitz G., Ukkola A., Hobeichi S., Cranko P. J., Lipson M., De Kauwe M., Green S., Brenner C., Frame J., Nearing G., Clark, M., Best, M., Anthoni, P., Arduini, G., Boussetta, S., Caldararu, S., Cho, K., Cuntz, M., Fairbairn, D., Ferguson, C. R., Kim, H., Kim, Y., Knauer, J., Lawrence, D., Luo, X., Malyshev, S., Nitta, T., Ogee, J., Oleson, K., Ottlé, C., Peylin, P., de Rosnay, P., Rumbold, H., Su, B., Vuichard, N., Walker, A. P., Wang-Faivre, X., Wang, Y., Zeng, Y, On the predictability of turbulent fluxes from land: PLUMBER2 MIP experimental description and preliminary results, Biogeosciences, 2024, (21), 2024, p5517-5538 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Thurner M. A., Caldararu S., Engel J., Rammig A., Zaehle S., Modelled forest ecosystem carbon-nitrogen dynamics with integrated mycorrhizal processes under elevated CO 2, Biogeosciences, 21, 2024, p1391"1410 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Nair R., Luo Y., El-Madany T. S., Rolo V., Pacheco-Labrador J., Caldararu S., Morris K. A., Schrumpf M., Carrara A., Moreno G., Reichstein M., Migliavacca M., Nitrogen availability and summer drought, but not N: P imbalance drive carbon use efficiency of a mediterranean tree-grass ecosystem, Global Change Biology, (30), 2024, pe17486 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Sophia, G., Caldararu, S., Stocker, B. D., Zaehle, S., Leaf habit drives leaf nutrient resorption globally alongside nutrientavailability and climate, Biogeosciences, 21, (18), 2024, p4169--4193 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Ecosystem experiments as a window to future carbon, water, and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, (2023), Karin Rebel, Teresa Gimeno, Sönke Zaehle, Silvia Caldararu, Richard Nair, Victor Rolo, Benjamin Stocker, [Guest editor], Notes: [Special issue in the journal Biogeosciences], Journal, PUBLISHED
  

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Street L.E., Caldararu S., Why are Arctic shrubs becoming more nitrogen limited?, New Phytologist, 233, (2), 2022, p585--587 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED

  


My research focuses on process based mathematical models of terrestrial ecosystems, which are a component of the Earth System Models used to create future climate predictions. My specific interest is in including more ecological and physiological realism in such models, while still keeping the implementation simple enough that it is computationally tractable at global scales and usable in a world of limited data. Such ecologically realistic models reduce the uncertainty in the future carbon cycle and potentially allows us to predict linkages between ecosystem carbon storage and terrestrial biodiversity. I am one of the main developers of the QUINCY model which was built with the specific aim to allow such new, more realistic process representation to be easily built and tested. QUINCY is now used successfully across research teams in four countries, with various scientific focuses ranging from Arctic ecosystems to impacts of extreme events. QUINCY is incorporated into the ICON Earth System Model and will produce simulations for the next IPCC report.