Azad Nousratpour

Doktorand

Tel: 031-786 2531
Mobiltel: 0704 525733
E-post: azad.nousratpour@bioenv.gu.se
Fax: 031-786 2560

Research

Thesis subject
- Partitioning root and soil CO₂ emissions from well drained, forested, organic soils.
- Investigating biotic and abiotic controls CO₂ emissions from well drained, forested, organic soils.
- Develop new sub-model in the CoupModel that addresses root/soil respiration as well as root priming effect.
- Upscaling, using data from the sites studied, the Swedish National Forest Inventory and literature.

Background
The drained forest soils, and their function as sources for green house gases, are estimated to be of the same magnitude as the calculated sink in the undrained Swedish forest soils; i.e. the Swedish forest soils may not serve as sinks in international treaties. Large uncertanities remain on both the size of the sink and the forest management programs. Further, the emissions are dynamic over time and will therey be affected by the future climate, which according to climate models will differ substantially in different parts of sweden. To be able to calculate the future emissions from sites with different management programs, process-based simulation models linked to climate models are essential to develope.

Objectives
- To understand the environmental variables controlling the CO₂ fluxes from well drained organic forest soil and to separate the root and soil respiration.
- To evaluate trenching versus the use of stable isotope technique, in order to separate root and soil respiration.
- To manage and use collected data to test and develop root/soil respiration sub-models in CoupModel, and to study the response to environmental changes.