Dr. Yiannis Moustakis

Carbon Dioxide Removal

My research is part of the CDRSynTra project led by LMU, and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). I am currently investigating the large-scale deployment of land- and ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) methods such as Afforestation/Reforestation, and Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement on the Earth System. Of particular interest are their effects on the coupled carbon, water, and energy fluxes, and the consequent changes in hydroclimatic variability and extremes. To do so, I use the state-of-the-art Max Planck Institutes’ Earth System Model. The first part of my research has recently been published in Nature Communications (see Moustakis et al. 2024), where we discuss whether ambitious afforestation/reforestation in the range of country pledges can mitigate a temperature overshoot trajectory.

At the same time, within the CDRSynTra project, I support the assessment and synthesis of various land- and ocean-based CDR methods, ranging from Bioenergy Crops with Carbon Capture and Storage, all the way to Artificial Photosynthesis! This work is based on the input of our partner projects within the wider CDRterra scientific community.

I also offer my expertise to the RESCUE project, focusing on modelling diverse CDR portfolios with Earth System Models, as well as the ClimTip project, focusing on studying the Amazon rainforest as a potential tipping element.

Hydroclimatic variability and terrestrial ecosystems

Previously I researched the dependency of rainfall extremes on ambient temperature (see Moustakis et al. 2020), which can offer valuable insights with respect to how future rainfall extremes could likely scale with increasing temperatures. I then further investigated the intensification of rainfall extremes under climate change as projected by high-resolution climate models (see Moustakis et al. 2021). Finally, I also researched the potential effects of projected future changes in rainfall across various terrestrial ecosystems (see Moustakis et al. 2022).

First-author publications:

Moustakis, Y., Nützel, T., Wey, HW., Bao, W., & Pongratz, J. (2024). Temperature overshoot responses to ambitious forestation in an Earth System Model. Nature Communications, 15(8235). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52508-x

Moustakis, Y., Fatichi, S., Onof, C.J., & Paschalis, A. (2022). Insensitivity of Ecosystem Productivity to Predicted Changes in Fine-Scale Rainfall Variability. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 127(2), e2021JG006735. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JG006735

Moustakis, Y., Papalexiou, S. M., Onof, C. J., & Paschalis, A. (2021). Seasonality, Intensity, and Duration of Rainfall Extremes Change in a Warmer Climate. Earth’s Future, 9(3), e2020EF001824. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001824

Moustakis, Y., Onof, C. J., & Paschalis, A. (2020). Atmospheric convection, dynamics and topography shape the scaling pattern of hourly rainfall extremes with temperature globally. Communications Earth & Environment, 1(11). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-0003-0

A detailed publication list can be found in my Google Scholar and Researchgate profiles

Since 2023 I have been the Lecturer for the course "Soil- Plant- Atmosphere continuum". This is a course within the Masters' program "Environmental Systems and Sustainability" offered by the Department of Geography of LMU.

I graduated from the school of Civil Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens in 2017, having obtained a specialization in engineering hydrology.

In 2022 I obtained my PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London, focusing on rainfall extremes, and the impact of climate change on the coupled terrestrial ecosystem water, energy, and carbon fluxes across various biomes.

Since April 2022 I have been working at LMU, researching the large-scale deployment of land- and ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Removal methods, by employing Earth System Models.