Understanding and securing the resilience of forest-based climate change mitigation

Climate mitigation in forest systems is critical for limiting global warming and has important implications for biosphere functions such as freshwater and biodiversity.

However, there are major knowledge gaps with regard to the future resilience of forest-based interventions - i.e., their capacity to remain functional in delivering desirable water-climate-biodiversity functions despite natural and anthropogenic perturbations.

This project aims to generate knowledge on how to safeguard the biophysical and social-ecological resilience of forest-based climate change mitigation measures under shifting hydroclimatic conditions including ecological droughts.

We will (1) design forest-based mitigation scenarios in close collaboration with stakeholders, (2) quantify the resilience and sustainability of the biosphere integrity of forest-based climate mitigation measures, (3) analyze the local and remote effects of hydroclimatic adaptation, and (4) holistically assess the social-ecological resilience of forest-based climate change mitigation measures.

Both modeling and empirical analyses will be applied to comprehensively account for water-climate-forest dynamics, including the coupling of a state-of-the-art dynamic vegetation model with an Earth system model and an atmospheric moisture tracking tool.

The proposed project will help enhance both the biophysical and social-ecological resilience of water-climate-biodiversity functions from forest-based mitigation measures.