Progressive Systems at the “The Mathematics of Climate and the Environment” Forum

On the 2nd of December Beniamino Abis, Research and Support Engineer for the ESA RSS service operated by Progressive Systems, joined the Coupled Climate-Ecology-Economy Modeling and Model Hierarchies workshop to discuss the interactions between climate systems, ecosystems, financial systems and the economy. Hosted by the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris, the workshop was part of the wider initiative The Mathematics of Climate and the Environment Forum, a trimester of conferences to explore the latest developments in mathematics which will contribute the most in advancing climate and environmental sciences. The Forum is an important appointment for the experts of the sector and counted on the participation of luminaries in the field such as Professor Lars Peter Hansen, 2013 Nobel Laureate in Economics.

Beniamino presented his study on the boreal forest, an ecosystem of key importance in the Earth system which is being considerably affected by climate change. The boreal ecosystem is undergoing environmental changes more rapidly than any other region on Earth and its surface temperature is increasing twice as fast as the global average. More specifically, his presentation focused on: 1) a methodology to identify potential areas with alternative tree-cover states under the same environmental conditions of the boreal forest; 2) a conceptual model to understand if the competition among tree species with high functional diversity in the boreal forest can explain the observed multistability; 3) an investigation on how the multimodality and multistability of the boreal forest could evolve at high latitudes under different scenarios of anthropogenic climate change. Satellite data had a key role in this framework as they allowed to compare climate and tree-cover data from different regions and continents at the same time, providing a more global perspective.
The conceptual model elaborated raised the interest of the participants and an intense discussion followed the presentation with a focus on global coupled models, wildfires role and future scenarios.

More information on the workshop here.