Phd Climate Science and Impacts -Biosphere Processes and Climate

The terrestrial biosphere plays an important role in the Earth climate system. We are studying how climate and land-use change may affect terrestrial ecosystems and how such changes would feedback on the climate system. We use satellite remote sensing data, atmospheric trace gas observations, field measurements, and models to study these feedbacks between terrestrial ecosystems and climate.One important area of research aims to understand how land surfaces exchange energy, water, mass and momentum with the overlaying atmosphere. These fundamental exchange processes are profoundly influenced by functional and structural properties of terrestrial ecosystems, such as photosynthesis, leaf area and vegetation height. We are studying how these vegetation properties are being affected by global change and how these impact biosphere-atmosphere exchange processes.