Download - New Zealand Society of Soil Science

Managing Climate Change (MC2) Conference and two workshops (Carbon workshop and
Modelling Workshop) (18-20 November 2009, Palmerston North, New Zealand).
Landcare Research in collaboration with AgResearch, NIWA, GNS, Massey University, MAF and
PGGRC, is organising the „Managing Climate Change‟ Conference and two workshops (Carbon
workshop and Modelling Workshop), between 18-20 November 2009. The aims of the conference and
the workshops are to begin a process of putting the information to manage greenhouse gas emissions
in the hands of those who can use it to mitigate the climate change problem. A brief description is
given below.
i) Carbon workshop (funded by RSNZ) a half day session to update on current research/policy
developments concerned with the carbon cycle at global and regional level. Topics will include
atmospheric and oceanic CO2 observations, land use and other terrestrial inventory data, regional and
global CO2 modelling, and an open discussion of approaches to integrate this information and
strengthen research collaborations across research institutes and with interested policy analysts. The
session has been sponsored by the Royal Society of New Zealand through the International
Geosphere-Biosphere (Global Change) Committee.
ii) Process-based models workshop (funded by LEARN/MAF) another half day LEARN/MAF funded
will focus on process-based models (such as Denitrification-Decomposition, DNDC; DayCent) that
simulate greenhouse gas fluxes from terrestrial ecosystems. This workshop aim is to train the
researchers on the use and application of such models, to assess the models based on site scale
validations with statistical tools for applications at regional or national scale, and to identify the
modelling issues and challenges. Discussion will include issues around the development, testing and
scaling-up of these models, building a standardised global database collected from experimental sites
for site scale model assessments The overall theme of the conference is Managing Climate Change
(MC2) with a focus on 'Processes, measurement, modelling and mitigation of greenhouse gases" as
outlined below.
The conference (with confirmed sponsorship from AgMardt) will highlight comprehensive
understanding of how land-use change and management affects emissions of these gases from the
land to the atmosphere at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Improving national inventories and
developing mitigation policies to curb GHG emissions requires the best possible quantitative
information (including uncertainties) on the processes controlling the exchanges of carbon dioxide
(CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) between the land and atmosphere. Effective
technologies and management practices to reduce GHG emissions are being devised, implemented
and refined. Process-based models are being developed to simulate of GHG emissions at a range of
scales up to national or global level, and to explore potential mitigation strategies. Key challenges
include building understanding that remains valid at the scale of processes (plant to paddock) as well
as national inventories, and remains relevant to emissions measured over hours or days as well as
soil carbon changes measured over decades.
About 70 conference presentations will cover the following themes:
1. Policy-Science Interface - Translating science into effective policies. Inventory methods.
Emissions “Carbon” trading and international issues.
2. GHG Emission processes and GHG Measurements - Global warming & atmospheric
processes. Understanding the underlying processes that lead to GHG emissions. Methods for
measuring GHG emissions from global to laboratory scale.
3. GHG Modelling - Process-based and empirical modelling methods from laboratory to global
scale.
4. Soil carbon dynamics - Controls on the storage and turnover of soil organic carbon.
Sustaining and enhancing soil carbon. Integrating soil carbon models with GHG emissions.
5. GHG Mitigation - Technologies and management practices that reduce GHG emissions and
minimise the loss of valuable resources.
Please visit the website for Registration, accommodation and related information.
www.mc2conference.com
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