Skip to main content
Giant Sequoia Trees (Credit: Ioannis Daglis, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

BG Biogeosciences Division on Biogeosciences

EGU logo

European Geosciences Union

Division on Biogeosciences
bg.egu.eu

Division on Biogeosciences

President: Lisa Wingate (bg@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Cornelia Rumpel (cornelia.rumpel@inra.fr)

The Division on Biogeosciences integrates biological, chemical, and physical sciences dealing with processes and interactions within terrestrial and extraterrestrial realms through the current and earlier geological history of Earth and solar system in general. Its focus is beyond the established scientific approaches embracing multi- and interdisciplinary understandings of the biosphere functioning in space and time. In this division, we encourage the participation of scientists across different disciplines, including researchers from the field of applied biogeosciences as well as industrial professionals. Experimental, conceptual, and modelling approaches are welcome.

Recent awardees

Tom Battin

Tom Battin

  • 2023
  • Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Medal

The 2023 Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Medal is awarded to Tom Battin for fundamental contributions to the biogeosciences through studies linking biology, ecology, chemistry and hydrology to the functioning and of inland waters across scales.


Hana  Jurikova

Hana Jurikova

  • 2023
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2023 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Hana Jurikova for her exceptional scientific contribution to the biogeosciences, improving our understanding of the causes and consequences of historic perturbations in the marine carbon cycle.


Adina Paytan

Adina Paytan

  • 2022
  • Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Medal

The 2022 Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Medal is awarded to Adina Paytan for outstanding contributions to ocean biogeochemistry in the Earth’s present and past, and in particular, for leading the scientific community in linking the sulfur, phosphate and oxygen cycles.


Ana Bastos

Ana Bastos

  • 2022
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2022 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Ana Bastos for exceptional scientific contributions to the terrestrial biogeosciences, improving understanding of climate variability and land use change on the carbon uptake of terrestrial ecosystems.


Alexandra Pongracz

Alexandra Pongracz

  • 2022
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Alexandra Pongracz The impact of winter warming on arctic-boreal gas-exchange


Bridget Warren

Bridget Warren

  • 2022
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Bridget Warren Impacts of post-photosynthetic fractionation on the carbon isotopic composition of leaf wax n-alkanes under elevated CO2


Mercy Appiah

Mercy Appiah

  • 2022
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Mercy Appiah The impact of high quality field data on crop model calibration


Steve Kwatcho Kengdo

Steve Kwatcho Kengdo

  • 2022
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Steve Kwatcho Kengdo Long-term soil warming alters fine root dynamics and morphology, and their ectomycorrhizal fungal community in a temperate forest soil

Latest posts from the BG blog

What’s new at EGU 2023?

EGU2023 is back with longer talks, posters and PICO sessions! While EGU is always great to catch up with colleagues in classical sessions offered every year, here, we want to highlight some new sessions that will premier at EGU2023. We have selected a few from each Subdivision to show the broad range of topics covered. General Biogeosciences The PICO session “It’s all about migration!” focuses on migrating species, whether they migrate naturally or are forced to migrate by anthropogenic factors. …


The sedaDNA scientific society, a collaborative network of international researchers working with sedimentary ancient DNA

Emergence of the field of molecular paleoecology Sequencing DNA of organisms that died a long time ago sounds like the synopsis of the movie Jurassic Park (1993). Let’s make it clear right now, dinosaur DNA has never been collected by humans. To date, the oldest DNA recovered is more than one million years old and comes from mammoths. In addition to the DNA recovered from fossils, aquatic and terrestrial environments have rich deposits of DNA. These sedimentary DNA archives are …


The hidden importance of Amazon forests

Figure 1. Minirhizotron image acquisition in the field near Manaus, Brazil (photo credit Caroline Miron From different parts of continental Brazil, now working in different areas of Germany, we, three women scientists, share one more thing in common: our interest in making the hidden importance of the Amazon forest visible. In other words, we are root-nerds! Studying something that cannot immediately be seen is a challenge per se. When we add the remoteness of some study sites, the mosquitos, thunderstorms, …


Meet your BG team 2022/23

The Biogeosciences division is pleased to have substantially grown over the last year! In this blog post we’ll introduce you to our new representatives and detail how you can get involved in BG activities over the next year. President: Lisa Wingate (INRAE) Lisa (she/her) has been president of the BG division since 2020 and has been elected to serve until 2025. She works as a researcher for INRAE in Bordeaux France. She has a passion for the natural world and …

Current issue of the EGU newsletter

In the February newsletter, we hear of exceptional stories from extraordinary women and alternative career options for women in science. Women scientists also tell us the importance of being role models to the younger generation and how other young girls and women can embrace careers in science.

We have heard the expression ‘making a mountain of a molehill’. But most women cannot report a molehill, and most men do not think they are part of the problem. Ingrid Anell examines this complex web, the challenges that hinder gender equity and ways to keep women in academia.

This is your reminder that registrations are open for EGU23! Members of the media are eligible for free registration to the General Assembly, see more here. Stay tuned for our next monthly Update from our conference organiser Copernicus, arriving early March. We recommend subscribing to all Updates here until the upcoming General Assembly in April.

Find BG on

Subscribe to

Tweets by @EGU_BG