Biogeochemistry Objective BG-2.3

Determine land-climate feedback processes to improve climate model predictions

Biogeochemistry Objective BG-2.3 contributes to meeting CEH Science Strategy Challenge III (to improve predictions of climate change models by incorporating ecological, hydrological and biogeochemical processes) through improvement of model accuracy resulting from improved understanding of land-climate feedback processes at different scales.

BG-2.3 research aims to:

  • Quantify the contribution of wetlands to global and regional atmospheric methane concentration
  • Quantify the feedbacks between photosynthesis and climate via global CO2 cycle, including improved representation of radiation, ozone, soil moisture and temperature
  • Identify the feedback processes affecting regional climate via energy and water fluxes in Africa and other regions
  • Investigate the impact of increasing greenhouse gases on 21st century water, energy and carbon budgets and associated feedbacks using new climate and hydrological simulations for high-latitude northern hemisphere

Areas of research

BG-2.3 undertakes research which is supported by a wide range of stakeholders.

Collaborative research projects

Objective BG-2.3 participates in many collaborative projects. Examples include:

  • Amazonica – Amazon Integrated Carbon Analysis
  • AMMA – African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis
  • Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES)
  • NCEO – Earth Observation for Climate Programme
  • QUEST – Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System
  • Millennium – does the magnitude and rate of 20th Century climate change exceed the natural variability of European climate over the last millennium?
  • WATCH – analysing, quantifying and predicting the components of the current and future global water cycles