Mountain soils under a changing climate and land-use

Conference and workshop

6^th to 8^th March 2008

Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

Mountain ecosystems are currently under threat through changes in both climate and land use. In comparison with lowlands, we know very little about mountain soils and how they will respond to these ongoing environmental changes. In the framework of the COST Action 639 BurnOut (Greenhouse gas budgets from soils under changing climate and land use), we are organizing a specific workshop on soils of mountainous regions, where we will address:

• Carbon and nutrient cycling in mountain soils
• Effects of climatic changes on soil processes
• Impact of land use changes on soil functioning

6^th March 2008

Plenary meeting with invited keynote lectures, oral and poster presentation.

Alpine ecosystem responses to a changing climate
Christian Körner

Carbon dynamics and ecosystem feedbacks in high altitude and latitude soils
Sofie Sjögersten

Carbon and nitrogen mineralization under extreme meterological conditions
Werner Borken

The final program will be done based on paper submissions

7^th March 2008

Workshop on:

• Potential effects of climate change on mountainous ecosystems - can we learn from altitudinal gradients?
  
• Climate change experiments in the field: potentials and limitations
• Effects of land use changes across European mountain systems on soil C and N pools and fluxes
• Key uncertainties for predicting responses of high altitude soils
• C and N export by soil erosion
• Are mountain soils hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions?

8^th March 2008

Snowshoe excursion to a subalpine catchment (Erlenbach)

Organizer

Frank Hagedorn
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland

• Registration Deadline 31.01.2008