Seminar

Physical climate, atmospheric chemistry and the biosphere form a highly coupled system, and their future evolution will have significant impacts on many aspects of our life including the air we breathe and the food we eat. A realistic assessment of such impacts is crucial for environmental sustainability. In this talk, we will show how a combination of observations and high-performance Earth system models enables us to examine various facets of atmosphere-biosphere interactions and inform relevant policy formulation. We will show that changes in climate, natural ecosystems and human land use, including the biogeochemical feedbacks among them, are all important drivers of atmospheric composition and air quality in the past and future century. We will also show that the future trends in climate and air pollution can greatly threaten global food security and worsen malnutrition in developing countries. These findings call for greater collaboration between air quality managers, farmers, agricultural planners and climate policy makers to achieve coordinated economic and public health goals.