Quantification of the role of key terrestrial ecosystems in the carbon cycle and related climate effects
The main challenge of this topic is to develop an enhanced capacity to better characterise and reduce uncertainties of the carbon cycle related to key terrestrial European ecosystems as a function of anthropogenic emissions, environmental forcing conditions, and management practices. In order for this challenge to be met, actions should be performed at spatial resolutions required to represent the mechanisms by which human interventions necessary to move towards net-zero carbon balance, can be quantified. Further, the dynamics and response of vegetation to climate change, short- and long-term stress, natural dynamics (e.g. fire), and especially change in frequency, form and severity of extreme events, need to be better understood and quantified.
Proposals should address the above challenges through:
- Coordinated European effort to expand dedicated campaigns to collect in situ-data, including from citizen observations, on land cover, land use and related changes, and on the main processes caused by these, to support the modelling of these changes based on current and historical trends, and to develop empirically based scenarios connecting land use and land cover change to carbon emissions, and sequestration potential.
- Advances in land surface and carbon modelling supported by high-performance computing capacity, allowing models to be run at unprecedented resolutions, and accuracy, through improved data assimilation workflow from remotely sensed data and vegetation models. The emphasis should be on area wide effect of the ecosystem’s microbiome, and consistency across spatial and temporal resolution and with satellite observation processes.
- Extending and complementing satellite observations with elements linked to the LUCAS survey of Eurostat, to the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) initiatives on integrated soil monitoring systems, and to research infrastructure e.g. eLTER and ICOS, as well as through comparison with past data and through coordination with Earth observation efforts (spectral signature characterisation, biophysical and biogeochemical observations commensurate with satellite resolutions, aircraft / unmanned aerial vehicle campaigns).
- Specific efforts to develop carbon and land surface models consistent with specific variables or outputs that can be directly interfaced or compared with satellite observations e.g. above ground biomass, soil moisture, solar induced fluorescence, disturbance dynamics e.g. fire, and inclusion of additional key processes (coupling with Nitrogen and Phosphorus cycles and water, CO2 fertilisation, assimilation of photosynthesis rates from global observation for direct gross primary production estimation).
- A significant coordination effort and collaboration with the relevant activities of major international scientific groups (e.g. IPCC, Global Carbon Project), the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and the ESA Carbon Science Cluster[[https://eo4society.esa.int/communities/scientists/esa-carbon-science-cluster/]].
This topic is part of a coordination initiative between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the EC on Earth System Science. Under the EC-ESA Earth System Science Initiative, both institutions aim at coordinating efforts to support complementary collaborative projects, funded on the EC side through Horizon Europe, and on the ESA side through the ESA FutureEO programme as part of the ESA Carbon Science Cluster.
Proposals should address the collaboration with ongoing or future ESA projects, including those that will be funded through dedicated coordinated invitations to tender, and should towards this end include sufficient means and resources for effective coordination.
Applicants should ensure coordination with complementary projects funded under the ESA Carbon Science Cluster of the FutureEO programme including relevant ESA activities related to the use of the novel BIOMASS[[https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/missions/biomass]] and FLEX[[https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/missions/flex]] missions and potentially the Copernicus CO2M[[https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Copernicus_Sentinel_Expansion_missionshttps://www.eumetsat.int/copernicus-co2m-science-support]] mission in the future.