Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics under Climate Change - From ecosystem processes to global carbon budgets

The four talks together explore how terrestrial ecosystems regulate greenhouse gas fluxes under climate change, from local processes to global budgets. They combine high‑resolution measurements from peatlands and wetlands, ecosystem and Earth system modelling, Earth observation, and biodiversity research to examine how hydrology, temperature, vegetation, and functional diversity shape carbon dynamics, ecosystem resilience, and our ability to quantify and project the global carbon cycle.

Online attendance via Zoom - link will be published soon. 

Coffee/fika will be served during the seminar. 

Welcome to listen to three more talks!

The Global Carbon Budget assessment and application of Earth Observation to improve regional budgets

By Professor Stephen Sitch 

The terrestrial biosphere plays a major role in the global carbon cycle, and there is a recognised need for regularly updated estimates of land-atmosphere exchange at regional and global scales.  Here I will give an overview of the annual Global Carbon Budget (GCB) assessment with focus on the land components (land-use and natural land sink). I will then elaborate recent work on the application of remote-sensing to improve regional carbon budgets.

Read more about Professor Stephen Sitch - exeter.ac.uk

Estimating wetland greenhouse gas budgets– modelling complex ecosystems with simple models

By Associate Professor Guy Schurgers

Wetlands are key players in the global budgets of CO2, CH4 and N2O, and the exchange of these greenhouse gases depends on hydrological conditions. These conditions are affected by climate variability and climate change, and moreover by the ongoing restoration and rewetting of formerly drained wetlands.

In the Global Wetland Center, we address these budgets at site, catchment and regional/global scales with a range of models. By combining process-based models and data-driven approaches, and by integrating Earth observation data in these, we want to provide tools that can project impacts of climate change and that can support wetland management.  

Read more about Associate Professor Guy Schurgers - ku.dk

Supporting function of biodiversity for forest resilience under future climate change

By PD Dr. Kirsten Thonicke

Biodiversity consists of genetic, functional and structural diversity. Biodiverse ecosystems have a higher resilience and contribute to the maintenance of important ecosystem functions such as carbon storage, i.e. biomass. How functional and structural diversity change their supporting role under climate change is largely unknown. It also demands Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) - which were once developed to inform about climate-induced changes in the global carbon cycle - to evolve into Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function models. In my talk, I explain how we implemented a flexible-trait approach into an existing DGVM and showcase some studies that also helped to advance hypotheses on functional diversity. 

Read more about PD Dr. Kirsten Thonicke - pik-potsdam.de

The first talk will be given on April 27 at 13.15

• Drivers of northern peatland CO2 fluxes revisited: interacting water level-temperature dependency, by Mana Gharun

More information about the talk - mgeo.lu.se

Public defence of doctoral dissertation in Environmental Science: Rafikul Islam

In addition, you are welcome to attend the public defence of doctoral dissertation in Environmental Science on April 28 at 13:00. Rafikul Islam will defend his thesis Boreal forest recovery in a changing climate: Case studies following clear-cutting and wildfire in Sweden. 

The opponent is Professor Stephen Sitch from the University of Exeter.  
Stephen Sitch | About | University of Exeter

More information about the dissertation - mgeo.lu.se

The four talks are organised by the LU profile area Nature-based future solutions in collaboration with the strategic research areas MERGE and BECC. 
Nature-based futures solutions - lu.se
MERGE - lu.se
BECC - lu.se