The large (25 million NOK) project Biogeochemical processes governing boreal carbon cycling (BioGov) got top scores and is now financed by the Norwegian Research Council and University of Oslo in concert. The first two planning meeting have been held by the project team of biologists, chemists and climate scientists, and the first three PhD positions are advertised (check new positions at this site). More will come. We foresee five active years that will provide a deeper understanding of the boreal carbon cycle.
Positive climate feedbacks can undermine all policy efforts to minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Biogov focuses on the high risk of mobilization of soil organic carbon (C) in the boreal biome as a consequence of warming and changes in precipitation, growing forest biomass (greening), and thawing of permafrost.
BioGov will address processes and fluxes from micro- to macroscale and provide inputs to state-of-the art Land Surface Models (LSM) and Earth System Models (ESM). The main goals are to 1) Understand and predict changes in production and uptake of CO2 and CH4 (methane)in boreal areas under different climatic scenarios, and 2) generate data for improved performance of climate models at regional and global scale. As stated, a proper understanding of self reinforcing feedback cycles is crucial in this context.
By use of field studies, lab experiments and models, BioGov will achieve a strongly improved understanding of transport of carbon compounds between ecosystem components (atmosphere, land, aquatic systems) on different spatial and temporal scales, and thus make us better equipped to understand the complex, boreal C-cycle and thus predict future climate drivers and responses.