C stocks in the next century

Meeting in Edinburgh, 10-12 June 2009

Objective

The goal of the meeting is to share ideas for modelling the impacts of climate, atmospheric changes (CO₂ and N deposition) and management on forest C stocks over the coming century, with a temperate/boreal focus. Invitees include experimental ecologists, soil scientists and forest/bgc modellers.

Key Question

The key question is "how can forest models assimilate longer term data on C cycling (chronosequences, tree rings, inventories, soil surveys, and also experimental manipulations), as a means to constrain the accumulation and turnover of wood and SOM".

Flux data don't help much with this problem and model parameterisations for growth and turnover of slow, large pools of C are relatively poor. We need to understand also about simulating stochastic events (disturbance), and how to properly quantify and propagate model uncertainty. The importance of stand age, species composition, and management must also be addressed.

Outputs

Our goal would be to produce a paper addressing the key question. We will also develop ideas for future research collaborations between modelling teams and experimental scientists, in order to drive down uncertainty in prediction of the future terrestrial C cycle.

Attendees

Marcel van Oijen (CEH), Federico Magnani (Bologna), John Grace (Edinburgh), Ross McMurtrie (UNSW), James Morison (Forest Research), Maurizio Mencucinni (Edinburgh), Andreas Heinemeyer (York), Phil Ineson (York), Bill Parton (Colorado State), Theresa Meacham (Edinburgh), Roddy Dewar (Canberra), Mathew Williams (Edinburgh), Paul Jarvis (Edinburgh), Jérôme Ogée, (INRA-Ephyse), Rossella Guerrieri (Forest Research), Lisa Wingate (Edinburgh), Saran Sohi (Edinburgh).

Location

Our meeting starts at 9 am on Wednesday 10 June.
Our venue is Room 304, Crew Bldg, Kings Buildings Campus, University of Edinburgh.
Hopefully this is within walking distance of your accommodation.
You can find a range of maps at this link
Crew Bldg is number 5 in the map here
If you have any problems you can call me at
0131 667 8631 (home), 0131 650 7776 (work) or 0775 360 3349 (mobile).
You can find travel information here If you are arriving at the airport you may want to take a taxi to your hotel/b&b.

Expense claims

The CarbonFusion project (www.carbonfusion.org) can cover all your reasonable costs for the meeting.

Please keep all receipts, then fill in the expense claim form (click here) and return to:
Shaun Quegan
Centre for Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics (CTCD)
University of Sheffield
Hicks Building
Hounsfield Road
Sheffield S3 7RH, UK