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

Moderators Dr. Sheila Wachiye and Mr Ilja Vuorinne

12.30 Coffee and snacks
13.00 Opening
15.00 Coffee break
17.00 End of the show
 

Speakers Themes

Petri Pellikka, University of Helsinki: Opening and review
Kai Nordlund, University of Helsinki: Greetings
Markku Kulmala, University of Helsinki: For the only planet we have
Iris Starck, University of Helsinki: Climate change and forest microclimate from Fennoscandia to Amazonia
Wolfram Mauser, University of Munich, Germany: Regional climate change - are early scenarios becoming reality
Andrew Friend, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom: Will deforestation and climate change push the Amazon region across a tipping point this century?
Janne Heiskanen, University of Helsinki: Remote sensing of land cover and vegetation dynamics in the Taita Hills, Kenya
Chemuku Wekesa, Kenya Forestry Research Institute, Kenya: Changing climate, changing forests: tree species distribution in Kenya’s coastal and rangeland landscapes
Alemu Gonsamo, McMaster University, Canada: High-resolution mapping of forest biomass dynamics: tracking change for a sustainable future
Jing Chen, University of Toronto; Canada / Fujian University, China: Global mapping of leaf chlorophyll content and leaf photosynthetic capacity
Pengfeng Xiao, Nanjing University, China: Snow-covered forest albedo changes and their impacts in the northern hemisphere
Jouni Pulliainen, Finnish Meteorological Institute: Assessment of cryosphere processes from satellite image data with relations to carbon cycle
Miska Luoto, University of Helsinki: Climate change impacts on vegetation in northern Fennoscandia
Temesgen Abera, University of Marburg, Germany: Impacts of deforestation on cloud water interception capacity of montane forests in Africa
Atte Korhola, University of Helsinki: Socio-economic metabolism of our human-dominated planet
Water and Landscape. Movie filmed in Taita Taveta, Kenya, by Toni Laine and written by Petri Pellikka
 

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