Climate change and forests seminar

Riparian woodland, Okavango Delta: Aquarap 2000

Yesterday, HOORC hosted a seminar by Dr Peter Eliasson of the Department of Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, about using simulated ecosystem responses to evaluate the impact of climate change on carbon and nitrogen cycles in Boreal forests. For this work, Dr Eliasson had developed three scenarios of increasing atmospheric [CO2], elevated temperature and increased nitrogen input to provide insight to the importance of feedback mechanisms in the northern forest system. Now he proposes to apply this method in the riparian woodlands of the Okavango, where process models can be used to explain ecosystem mechanisms that link plant productivity and water status. You can find Dr Eliasson's doctoral thesis, Impacts of climate change on carbon and nitrogen cycles in boreal forest ecosystems, in HOORC's Library.