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Changes of Land Cover and Land Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Northern Eurasia: Impacts on Human Adaptation and Quality of Life at Regional and Global Scales
Project Start Date
05/15/2009
Project End Date
05/14/2012
Grant Number
08-LCLUC08-2-0005
Project Call Name
Solicitation
default

Team Members:

Person Name Person role on project Affiliation
Qianlai Zhuang Principal Investigator Purdue University, West Lafayette, United States
Jerry Melillo Co-Investigator Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, United States
David Kicklighter Co-Investigator Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, United States
John Reilly Co-Investigator Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States
Abstract

This cooperative project, led by Purdue University with participation from MIT and the Marine Biological Laboratory, is investigating how patterns of land-use in Northern Eurasia may change in the future due to: 1) Economic pressures for providing food, fiber and fuel to a growing global population 2) Opportunities for expanding managed ecosystems into areas that experience a more favorable climate in the future and 3) Abandonment of managed ecosystems in other areas that experience a less favorable climate. MIT's contribution to the study involves the development of global economic scenarios of economic development, population growth, and climate policy that are driving forces for future food, fuel, and forest product demand as well as emissions of greenhouse gases. These scenarios are being developed using the Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model as linked together with the Terrestrial Ecosystems Model (TEM). The existing capabilities of these models, run together, will allow development of land use scenarios for Northern Eurasia as they are affected by economic growth, changes in demand for agriculture, forestry, and biofuels and as further impacted by climate change and other environmental forces. The scenario development will be a crucial component of the overall proposal that links satellite data and historical analysis with future projections to study the possible feedbacks to the climate system of emissions from land use and changes in natural systems from Northern Eurasia