Chair: Rich Norby & Josep Penuelas

Workshop intro

Claus Beier, Risoe National Laboratory, DK
10 min. introduction to the workshop (confirmed).

Theory - water relations, processes and ecosystem responses

Christian Körner, Universität Basel, CH
Ecophysiology and hydrology (20 min).
How do plants regulate water, what determines drought resistance and sensitivity, reflections in the landscape, storage capacity, avoidance and tolerance. basics that drive the soil plant atmosphere continuum, the role of roots,  principles of environmental controls of plant water relations, hydraulic lift, species specific effects, root-root interaction, CO₂-driven water effects and atmospheric feedback and strategists in landscape water relations, gradual vs. abrupt (extreme) changes. (Confirmed)

Melany Fisk, Appalachian State University, US
Microbiology and belowground responses to precipitation change (20 min).
Plant/microbe interactions, adaptation and implications for biogeochemistry, what determines drought resistance and sensitivity, reflections in the landscape, avoidance and tolerance. (Confirmed)

Ecosystem and Landscape

Ron Neilson, USDA Forest Service, US
Bioclimate driven distributions (30 min).
Current climate distribution and future distributions. How can changes in precipitation change biogeographic ecotones? Can the models predict these changes? We can predict what the landscape should look like but systems are unlikely to change rapidly enough, creating lags in response. Where is water, temperature, or radiation the major regulator for ecosystem structure and function? (Confirmed)

History

Andreas Pauling, University of Bern/MeteoSwiss, CH
Recent Historical Climate Record (25 min)
Past climatological records. Changes in the past 100 years, going from global to regional focus, with emphasis on regional focus. What is an exceptional drought, how frequent and how continuous? Recent trends.

Future

Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen, Danish Meteorological Institute, DK
Future Global Change Projections (25 min)
Overview of future global change projections, going from global to regional focus, with an emphasis on regional focus. What are the projections for precipitation (amounts and timing) for different regions? What are the main determinators at the global scale and at the regional scale? Extremes and frequencies. (Confirmed)

Model experiment

Dieter Gerten, Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research, GE,
Yiqi Luo, University of Oklahoma, US &
Bill Parton, Colorado State University, US
30 minute description of model exercise, scenarios, brief description of models and data sets (confirmed)