7.01.05 – Impacts of air pollution and climate change on forest ecosystems – Modelling and risk assessment

This unit aims to understand processes underlying climate change and air pollution impacts on forest ecosystems. We aim to define research questions and identify modeling tools that could help answer these questions. In particular, we aim for our activities to be policy relevant, in so doing our activities would provide valuable scientific knowledge to underpin policy response but also would emphasise the importance of the provision of high quality measurement data to support modeling activities. Our efforts would see modeling and risk assessment activities providing a valuable tool for policy initiatives with respect to reductions in air pollution impacts that would also enhance C sequestration as well as other ecosystem services.

What are the current and projected direct and indirect effects of changing climate and air pollution on forest ecosystems in the across the globe? What are the possible air pollution and climate change effects on carbon sequestration? What kind of modeling methods may be appropriate to detect air pollution and climate change effects on forests? How could modeling be targeted to address particular research and policy questions that may vary by region and with different scales? How may the future change in respect to different emission trend projections? Could the drivers of these changes be in any way related to the expected supportive capacity of forests (e.g. population growth resulting in an increased demand for forest ecosystem services)?