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Researcher

Sara Vicca

  • Research Expertise:My research focuses on how different environmental factors influence carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and how changes in these ecosystems feed back to the climate system. Terrestrial ecosystems currently mitigate climate change by sequestering about 30% of human CO2 emissions, but this buffer against climate change is threatened by environmental changes such as warming and droughts. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly clear that, in addition to strong emission reductions, we will also need to extract extra CO2 from the atmosphere - we will need to realize negative emissions - in order to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees. Ecosystems offer many opportunities to achieve such negative emissions. Some of these are: (re)afforestation, addition of biochar to agricultural fields, bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), and accelerated weathering of silicate rocks (enhanced weathering). However, these nature-based solutions still require much research and development to identify their potential and to determine the most sustainable and effective way of implementation. Curr On the one hand, I have been studying the fundamental processes that determine carbon cycling in forests, grasslands and other ecosystems. Through experiments and database analyses, for example, we examine how warming, drought and other environmental factors influence plant growth. Currently, my main focus is on the carbon sequestration potential and feasibility of land-based negative emission technologies and especially on enhanced silicate weathering.
  • Keywords:FOREST ECOSYSTEMS, CARBON CYCLE, GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, TERRESTRIAL BIOSPHERE, NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY, CLIMATE WARMING, BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES, NITROGEN, Biology
  • Disciplines:Climate change, Other earth sciences, Terrestrial ecology, Biogeochemical cycli, Environmental science and management, Carbon sequestration science, Other environmental sciences
  • Research techniques:Experiments Database analyses
  • Users of research expertise:Education Foresters Ecosystem management Policy makers