Exploring the Climate Mitigation Potential of Afforestation in Europe using Species-Specific Modelling

Afforestation in the mid-latitudes exhibits uncertain climate benefits due to dominating biogeophysical effects. While forestation is an important carbon sink, the balance of increased albedo and evapotranspiration remains the primary factor dictating the net climate benefit of afforestation in the region. We aim to formulate optimal strategies for afforestation in Europe and discover if a positive climate benefit can be achieved. We are performing idealised afforestation simulations with ICON-ESM while incorporating species-specific information into the included JSBACH land-surface model. This has been gathered through a tree species data inventory, resulting in the parameterisation of the following variables for eight European tree species: Vegetation Height, Maximum LAI, Maximum Surface Roughness, Maximum Woody Carbon, and Albedo (VIS/NIR). By incorporating this information into existing JSBACH PFTs, we create new species-specific PFTs with which to simulate the effects of monospecific afforestation. This idealised afforestation will be carried out for each species across Europe. The local climate effects will then be compared on a cell-by-cell basis to determine the most beneficial species for afforestation in each region. This focus on the comparison of inter-species differences will elicit the trees species locally best-suited for climate mitigation, allowing optimized afforestation strategies to be developed. Results from these experiments will be presented and initial conclusions drawn regarding such strategies.