NextGenCarbon: Next generation modelling of terrestrial carbon cycle
Context
The ability to evaluate EU's as well as Switzerland's climate and sustainability targets is currently limited by challenges in monitoring ecosystem greenhouse gas (GHG) exchanges and other services in an accurate and timely manner. Important knowledge gaps concerning processes and drivers of GHG exchanges persist, that further hamper our predictive capabilities. The absence of coherent approaches to collect, interpret and integrate data on terrestrial GHG stocks and processes into predictive models limits Europe’s ability to monitor ecosystem services and thus to reach its climate ambitions, including the Paris Agreement of Climate Convention and European Green Deal.
Project aims
The project NextGenC (Next generation modelling of terrestrial carbon cycle by assimilation of in-situ campaigns and Earth observations) aims to develop a novel framework for advancing our understanding of the European GHG budget.
To reach this goal, NextGenC will:
- improve and enrich existing measurements on ecosystems;
- assimilate these data into state-of-the-art modelling frameworks;
- create seamless scenario prediction systems; and
- provide guidance to policymakers on the magnitude, evolution of and future risks to GHG fluxes.
Objectives
Our group participates in WP2 In situ supersites and RS integration, focussing on in situ observations of agricultural ecosystems (grasslands and croplands), in particular at European flux sites, such as the Swiss FluxNet and ICOS RI. We will
- assess the impact of repeated drought stress on plant physiology, in particular, on intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE) based on δ13C measurements, and combine this info with greenhouse gas fluxes and plant growth.
- Foliage δ13C and δ15N will be upscaled to so-called isoscapes, i.e., spatially explicit plant performance in the footprint of the flux towers.
- Stable water isotopes in soils and xylem will be used to determine plant water uptake depths across land use management types, providing additional constraints for models on drought sensitivity of relevant European ecosystem types.