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

Project description

Estimates of plant respiration to predict tree carbon use efficiency in changing climate

Forests’ wood production and net carbon uptake are dependent on tree carbon use efficiency (CUE), which is determined by gross primary production and respiration. However, scientists are unsure how future climate changes will affect CUE since it is unknown how plant respiration will respond to more severe temperature rises. The drivers of change in CUE therefore need to be identified and CUE increased to enhance wood production and carbon stocks under future climatic conditions. The EU-funded iCUE-Forest project will develop novel data-driven estimates of plant respiration, net primary production and tree CUE covering the entire northern hemisphere boreal and temperate forests. It will also detect tree species-dependent spatial relationships between CUE and climate variables and use a dynamic global vegetation model to predict the changes in CUE in response to future climate.

Objective

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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Topic(s)

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

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Coordinator

SENCKENBERG GESELLSCHAFT FUR NATURFORSCHUNG
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 162 806,40
Address
SENCKENBERGANLAGE 25
60325 FRANKFURT
Germany

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Region
Hessen Darmstadt Frankfurt am Main, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Other
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 162 806,40
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