Effect of climate change on flux of N and C: air-land-freshwater-marine links (CLUE)

Dep. of Plant and Environmental Sciences

Project leader: Arne O. Stuanes
Co-workers: Kari Austnes, Ståle Håland, Helge Lundekvam, Jan Mulder, Gunnhild Riise, Line Tau Strand, Live Semb Vestgarden (IPM); Kjetil Tørseth, Lars Hole (NILU); Heleen de Wit, Øyvind Kaste, Jarle Moldvær, John Rune Selvik, Richard F. Wright (NIVA); Anders Bryn (NIJOS); Dag Hongve (Norwegian Institute of Public Health)
Source of funding: The Research Council of Norway
Project period: 2003-2007

This project is an integrated, interdisciplinary project to quantify the effects of climate change on flux and deposition of nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) from terrestrial semi-natural ecosystems to aquatic ecosystems in Norway. The interaction of changed land-use and climate will also be studied. A 3-pronged approach will be applied involving analysis of existing data from monitoring programmes and previous experiments, new ecosystem-scale experiments with climate change, and development and application of process-oriented models to extrapolate and scale up the results in time and space to the river basin scale and to marine coastal ecosystems. Both the experimental and the monitoring parts of the project will be focused on mountains, heathlands and other semi-natural ecosystems. Climatic change can be expected to impose more marked changes in these systems compared to forests and cultivated land.

We will take an interdisciplinary approach and build upon previous strong collaboration between the scientists and institutes involved (UMB-IPM, NIVA, NILU, NIJOS, Folkehelseinstituttet). The results will be relevant to several important sectors in Norwegian society, including forestry, nature protection, fisheries, drinking water quality and water resources, and will supply important new information for development of adaptation strategies for effects of climate change.

Sub-goals:
1. Quantify the effect of climate change on deposition and flux of N and C from semi-natural terrestrial ecosystems to water.
2. Assess effects of climate change on N and C fluxes and concentrations at the river basin scale.
3. Assess the consequences of changes in fluxes of N and C on freshwater and marine water quality and biology.
4. Assess the implications for environmental policy and management of land and water resources (LTRAP, OSPAR, WFD).

For more information have a look at the project’s website clue

Updated: 27.03.06
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