This PhD course deals with the responses of plants (mostly crops and forests) to global environmental change factors such as rising CO2, warming, tropospheric ozone, and nitrogen deposition.
Ongoing environmental change has profound impacts on plants in terrestrial ecosystems around the world, with important implications for ecosystem services such as food security, forest production, biodiversity, livelihood in low-income regions, and the regulation of biogeochemical cycles, hydrology and climate. This course deals with the responses of plants (mostly crops and forests) to global environmental change factors such as rising CO2, warming, tropospheric ozone, and nitrogen deposition. Main emphasis is on ecophysiological plant responses and how they affect ecosystem processes such as productivity, carbon balance and water cycling. The representation of plants and vegetation in ecosystem and climate models will also be covered to some extent. The course content will suit PhD students with emphasis on plant ecology/ecophysiology as well as those with a broader interest in land-atmosphere interactions and modelling. The course is recommended to give 3 PhD student credits (equivalent to two weeks full-time work).