CARBO-Extreme

It is well known that GHG emissions have and will further lead to significant changes in global climate. Average CO₂ concentrations will rise and it is almost certain that global air temperatures will have risen by several degrees by the end of the century. Such strong temperature shifts will influence climate variability and will increase weather extremes including not only temperatures but also changes in precipitation amount and seasonality. Heat waves have been shown to cause major carbon losses from terrestrial ecosystems - it is not clear how changes in precipitation regimes will affect the terrestrial biosphere.



Simplified model-data integration flow scheme of the CARBO-Extreme project (source CARBO-Extreme DOW) .

CARBO-Extreme will collect data from European ecosystem manipulation and long-term ecosystems observation sites to parameterise biological responses to climate variability and extremes in biogeochemical models. Simulations based on reanalysis data and future climate scenarios will quantify vulnerability of European carbon stocks in terrestrial ecosystems to changes in climate variability. These results will be translated into politically useful information enabling Europe to reassure climate change mitigation targets and adaptation options.

Participants:
CARBO-Extreme involves a European consortium of 26 research groups, which are coordinated by MPI-BGC, Jena, Germany.

Role:
Risø DTU contributes with data from two sites, the Sorø Beech forest research facility, where CO₂ fluxes and climate parameters have been measured continuously since 1996 and the CLIMAITE ecosystem manipulation site. CARBO-Extreme will use a suite of biogeochemical models to interpret these experimental data with respect to increased future variability in precipitation and temperatures.

The Danish contribution to CARBO-Extreme will particularly focus on three issues:

• Dynamic long-term (-100 to + 100 years) simulation of carbon and water cycling in the two Danish ecosystems research sites
• Sensitivity analysis of carbon stock changes in soil and vegetation to changes in precipitation variability and temperature extremes
• Critical investigation and improvement of biological process parameterisations in existing biogeochemical models to catch biological responses to weather extremes.

Resources:
EU-FP7 (Collaboration) funds part of a PhD project and contribution by senior staff.

Duration:
CARBO-Extreme is funded from 2009 to 2012

Web page:
http://www.carbo-extreme.eu/

Employees involved:
Andreas Ibrom (Project leader, Sorø beech forest data and modelling, turbulent flux data processing), Jian Wu (PhD student), Claus Beier (link to CLIMAITE and CLIMMANI), Leon Linden (dynamic ecosystem modelling, link to INCREASE), Teis Mikkelsen (Climaite field data), Kim Pilegaard (Link to IMECC, ICOS and COST Terrabyte).

Student projects:
A series of student projects are offered in connection to the project.

Facilities used:
Sorø
CLIMAITE site Brandbjerg