Climatic impacts of land cover changes - impact of climate change on land cover

Population growth, especially in Africa, causes increasing pressure to convert land cover for food production and residential areas, which is typically carried out by clearing forests and shrublands.

As a consequence of land use change, vegetation will sequestrate less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store less carbon in woody material, resulting to have more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By increasing agricultural lands, soil carbon stocks decrease, and greenhouse gases are released to the atmosphere. The decreasing tree cover also raises land surface temperature and the air temperature and reduces evapotranspiration from vegetation. These processes warm the atmosphere, causing climate change.

At the same time, growing population needs food security, which makes the circumstances cumbersome. Some of the solutions are agroforestry and climate-smart regenerative agriculture.

With decreasing snow cover periods in the northern regions, more land areas are exposed for longer periods within the year. Climate change push the vegetation zones further to the north and to higher elevations, which in turn has an impact on the climate. Forestry as a land use causes climate change, too, but its effects can be reduced by continuous cover forest management.

The seminar speakers are top experts in their fields from Finland, Europe, Africa, Canada and China.

Seminar is organized by the Geosciences group of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters and Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science. Please register by Monday, November 17th. 

Programme

12.30 Coffee service
13.00 Opening, Petri Pellikka, professor, University of Helsinki
13.10 Greetings, Kai Nordlund, vice rector of the University of Helsinki
Seminar
15.00 Coffee break
Seminar
17.00 End of the show
Seminar is hosted by Sheila Wachiye and Ilja Vuorinne.
 

Speakers (list updating)

Atte Korhola, professor emeritus, University of Helsinki
Markku Kulmala, academician, University of Helsinki
Miska Luoto, professor, University of Helsinki
Alemu Gonsamo, professor, McMaster University, Canada
Pengfeng Xiao, professor, Nanjing University, China
Jouni Pulliainen, professor, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Wolfram Mauser, professor emeritus, University of Munich, Germany

Participants are also welcomed in the evening, from 18.30 to Tavastia club to take part in Prof. Petri Pellikka’s 60 years birthday party. Link to the invitation.

If you need more information about the seminar, please contact Emilia Lähde, emilia.lahde@acadsci.fi