iCUE-Forest | Improving tree carbon use efficiency for climate-adapted more productive forests

Summary
Wood production depends on how effectively trees convert atmospheric CO2 into wood. Moreover, forests mitigate climate change through their net carbon uptake from the atmosphere. Both these forest functions are crucially dependent on tree carbon use efficiency (CUE), which is determined by gross primary production (GPP, photosynthesis at large spatial scales) and respiration. Although GPP is so far stimulated under recent climate change conditions, the effect of future climate on CUE is unclear due to the unknown response of plant respiration to more severe increases in temperature. It is thus necessary to identify the drivers of changes in CUE and to increase CUE to enhance wood production and carbon stocks under future climatic conditions. In light of the typical rotation lengths, forest managers need to be informed already today on which species will be optimally adapted in certain regions to a changing climate.
Within this 2-year project, I will develop novel data-driven estimates of plant respiration, net primary production and tree CUE based on recent satellite-driven maps of tree living biomass, extensive databases of tree compartment respiration rates, and temperature datasets. Subsequently, I will detect spatial relationships between CUE and climate variables dependent on tree species in northern hemisphere boreal and temperate forests and predict the change in CUE in response to future climate by using a dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM) under different forest management scenarios.
I have recently derived remote sensing based forest biomass products that will be the basis for this research. Prof. Dr. Thomas Hickler and his research group at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) are experts in ecosystem modelling, thereby particularly using the LPJ-GUESS model, the DGVM that we will apply within this project. His connections to the modelling community and to forestry experts will facilitate the exploitation of our results.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/891402
Start date: 01-07-2020
End date: 31-12-2022
Total budget - Public funding: 162 806,40 Euro - 162 806,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

Wood production depends on how effectively trees convert atmospheric CO2 into wood. Moreover, forests mitigate climate change through their net carbon uptake from the atmosphere. Both these forest functions are crucially dependent on tree carbon use efficiency (CUE), which is determined by gross primary production (GPP, photosynthesis at large spatial scales) and respiration. Although GPP is so far stimulated under recent climate change conditions, the effect of future climate on CUE is unclear due to the unknown response of plant respiration to more severe increases in temperature. It is thus necessary to identify the drivers of changes in CUE and to increase CUE to enhance wood production and carbon stocks under future climatic conditions. In light of the typical rotation lengths, forest managers need to be informed already today on which species will be optimally adapted in certain regions to a changing climate.
Within this 2-year project, I will develop novel data-driven estimates of plant respiration, net primary production and tree CUE based on recent satellite-driven maps of tree living biomass, extensive databases of tree compartment respiration rates, and temperature datasets. Subsequently, I will detect spatial relationships between CUE and climate variables dependent on tree species in northern hemisphere boreal and temperate forests and predict the change in CUE in response to future climate by using a dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM) under different forest management scenarios.
I have recently derived remote sensing based forest biomass products that will be the basis for this research. Prof. Dr. Thomas Hickler and his research group at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) are experts in ecosystem modelling, thereby particularly using the LPJ-GUESS model, the DGVM that we will apply within this project. His connections to the modelling community and to forestry experts will facilitate the exploitation of our results.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

MSCA-IF-2019

Update Date

28-04-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.1. EXCELLENT SCIENCE
H2020-EU.1.3. EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
H2020-EU.1.3.2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
MSCA-IF-2019