Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-06-10

Fluxes of energy, water and carbon over disturbed savanna ecosystems, andtheir application as indicators of sustainability and carbon sequestration

Objective

The main objectives are defined as follows :
* To establish a coherent picture of the pattern of variation in structure and biodiversity of savannahs in S America, and to establish an e-mail network of savannah experts.
* To link structure and biodiversity to function, by measuring and modelling fluxes of energy, water, CO2 and trace gases over the range of savannah types. These measurements will be made with a mobile eddy covariance system.
* To determine the capacity of these systems to sequester carbon following disturbance, and to explore the link between carbon sequestering capacity and (i) biodiversity and (ii) sustainability.
Expected Outcome

There will be an improvement in the knowledge base on the biological and biophysical properties of savannah ecosystems, with a view to managing savannahs sustainably. We expect to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the fundamental nature of sustainability. Carbon inventory data (stocks and fluxes) will be obtained for different stages of regrowth, to enable examination of the role of savannahs in the regional carbon balance; also to explore the possible participation of savannah farmers as role-players in the global sequestration of carbon. We will obtain data on the surface characteristics of the landscape such as the short wave reflectance and surface resistance, to assist modellers and interpret remotely sensed imagery. There will be an enhancement of appropriate training to maintain this sort of activity when the project has ended.
The key activities involve :
* Construction of two mobile flux-measuring systems to measure CO2, H2O and energy fluxes over intact and disturbed savannahs in Brazil and Venezuela. To build a related system to measure gaseous fluxes from the soil.
* Comparison of sites on a wide geographical scale, their carbon stocks, structure, leaf area index, seasonality and species composition. The use of models which represent these features and enables the simulation of the fluxes of carbon; the development of these models to study the dynamic changes in carbon stocks on a large scale as a result of different management practices.
* Selection of criteria for verification that particular management practices are sustainable; the production of indicators and indices of sustainability.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

Data not available

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
EU contribution
No data
Address
Darwin Building, King's Building, Mayfield Road
EH9 3JG Edinburgh
United Kingdom

See on map

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.

No data

Participants (2)

My booklet 0 0