Influence of air pollution and climate change on forest dynamics Conference Sessions
Session 1 – Air Pollution Effects on Mediterranean Ecosystems
Mediterranean Basin plant ecosystems, their unique biodiversity, and the key services they provide are currently at high risk due to air pollution, climate change and land use changes. In particular, the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region is expected to become a global climate change “hot spot” by 2100. Particularities of air pollution in this region include high ozone levels due to high air temperatures and solar radiation, the stability of air masses, and dominance of dry over wet nitrogen deposition. Moreover, the unique abiotic and biotic factors (e.g., climate, vegetation type, relevance of Saharan dust inputs) modulating the response of Mediterranean ecosystems at various spatio-temporal scales make it difficult to understand, and thus predict, the consequences of human activities causing air pollution in the Mediterranean Basin.
Session 1 aims to bring together people working on air pollution in Mediterranean ecosystems for quantifying current impacts and identify future challenges. Session 1 provides a platform to discuss how Mediterranean’s ecosystems respond to threats from air pollution for the benefit of researchers, students, and Agency.
This session summarizes the present knowledge about air pollution and climate threats to Mediterranean plant ecosystems, in particular ozone and nitrogen risk, climate-driven phenological and physiological alterations, elucidating how Mediterranean plant ecosystem health is challenged by traditional and new stress factors. Through a coordinated effort, the Mediterranean scientific community can reach a greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying the combined effects of air pollution and climate change in the Mediterranean Basin.
Session 2 - Urban greening: a win-win strategy for air quality, climate, biodiversity, and citizen well-being
Urban environments that are stressful for plant function and growth will become increasingly widespread in the future. Cities, where 56% of the world population lived in 2020, have to cope with rising poor air quality (e.g., ozone, particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide) and urban heat islands, affecting human health, quality of life, citizen well-being, and ecosystem services provided by urban forests.
Urban trees are the most important elements of urban ecosystems, and contribute to reduce air pollution in cities, increase carbon stock, mitigate the urban heat islands, provide cooling and shading, regulate water runoff, reduce noise as well as provide social and psychological benefits, enhancing citizens’ well-being and human health. Therefore, regreening the cities is seen as a win-win strategy co-benefitting air quality and climate, and a mitigation and adaptation strategy in the context of climate change. However, urban vegetation can enhance air pollution and allergenicity by increased emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds and pollens. Municipalities and city planners need a quantitative and concrete assessment of the role of urban vegetation in affecting air quality at city scale as well as guidelines for tree planting and maintenance strategy to maximize air quality and minimize disservices.
The main objectives of this session are to: i) focus on the effects of the main air pollutants on urban vegetation; and ii) estimate the climate change and air pollution mitigation potential of vegetation in urban and peri-urban environment.
Session 3 - Plant ecosystems in a changing world: monitoring, modeling, and risk assessment
New approaches (e.g., field experiments, Earth-Observation, epidemiological studies) and sophisticated modeling are under development to study plant ecosystems in a changing world. Based on observations, modeling approaches are emerging to develop coupled biogeochemical-ecological models, to predict the combined effects of climate change, air pollution, atmospheric deposition and other stressors on plant ecosystems functioning and diversity.
The main objective of this session is to discuss different approaches to bridge the knowledge gaps in different scientific domains (air pollution, atmospheric deposition, climate change, impacts in terms of growth, health, yield, distribution and biodiversity loss) in order to: i) translate observations and predictions into future scenarios, including socio-economic implications; ii) improve understanding of the interaction and feedbacks between climate change, air pollutants and effects upon plant ecosystems; iii) quantify the ecosystems responses to air pollution and changing climate conditions; and iv) provide risk maps for plant ecosystems at regional and local scale.
Session 4 - Tropospheric ozone: a threat to terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity
Ground-level ozone pollution continues to be a serious issue for terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity, in particular in Southeast Asia. For risk assessment, new monitoring approaches, epidemiological studies and sophisticated modeling are developing, for instance the Phytotoxic Ozone Dose. Ozone levels and deposition are affected by the vegetation type. This session will allow all experts in the interactions between ozone, forest ecosystems and biodiversity to meet and discuss the state of the art and the strategies for continuous improvements.
The main aim of this session is to evaluate strategies for maximizing productivity and other environmental services of forest ecosystems under ozone stress. The session will contribute to i) develop a better understanding of ozone impacts on terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity; ii) evaluate different metrics for forests protection; iii) provide best practices for sustainable forest management; and iv) guide management decisions and efficient policy recommendations toward increased health, sustainability, and productivity forest resilience worldwide.
Session 5 - Atmospheric deposition and radioactive contamination: consequences for forest ecosystems
Atmospheric deposition, particularly heavy metals, nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S), continues to impact aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems across the globe. In South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Japan, N and S deposition remain at high levels. In China, N and S deposition levels are the highest reported in the world, and studies of the ecological effects on atmospheric deposition are relatively recent, with much yet to be discovered regarding plant ecosystem responses. Nutrient limitations, and the effect of N deposition on carbon sequestration, are now recognized as important process information to be included in global carbon models. More research is needed to incorporate climate change and air pollution as interactive factors in developing critical loads models for forest ecosystems under conditions of multiple biotic and other environmental stressors.
Forests are complex ecosystems and occupy large territories, so decontamination is generally not suitable for forest land. There is an urgent need for developing specific guidelines and best practices for managing forests affected by radioactive contamination.
The main aims of this session focusses on how atmospheric deposition and radioactive contamination are impacting forest ecosystems and their function, and to integrate research findings so that solid management strategies can be developed for better environmental policies and adaptation of forest ecosystems that ensure sustainability.
Session 6 - Genetic, biochemical, and physiological mechanisms underlying stress responses of forest ecosystems
The main aim of this session focuses on discussing physiological, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms, and their inter-linkages, underlying forest responses to climate change and air pollution. As well, genetic variation in acclimation and adaptive phenological, physiological and anatomical traits will be addressed.
The session will: i) explore the current state of knowledge on climate change and air pollution stress on forest ecosystems; ii) examine the linkages between genetic responses and resulting physiological activities, i.e., genetic control of physiological responses; and iii) identify priorities and challenges of future research towards consolidating forest ecosystems health, productivity, sustainability, and ecosystem services worldwide.
Session 7 - Forest ecosystems under multiple stressors
Forests are suffering from multiple and interactive effects of air pollution (ozone, nitrogen oxides, excess nitrogen deposition), climate change (increase in CO2, temperature, extreme climatic events) and other stressors such as pest outbreaks, wildfires, and land use change. The main aim of this session is to evaluate strategies for maximizing productivity and other environmental services of trees under multiple stressors.
The main objective of this session is to highlight the effects of multiple stressors on forest ecosystems and ecosystem services, whether abiotic or biotic, at the intersection of different trophic levels, and at the stand to landscape level. The productivity of trees will be also discussed along with ecological processes in tree systems, including interactions between plant-plant, plant-herbivore, plant-insects, and pollination as well as associations with symbiotic organisms such as mycorrhizae in trees.