Most of the global land masses is covered with plants. Hence, vegetation plays an important role for the exchange of energy and matter between land and atmosphere. Especially because of the binding of CO2 during the process of photosynthesis, vegetation plays a major role for climate change, besides oceans and land ice.

To investigate the role of vegetation for the global climate in more detail, we developed the land and vegetation model JSBACH. Using this in global climate simulations we especially study the feedbacks between climate and the global carbon cycle.