The interactions among the climate systems, ecosystems, and atmospheric chemistry are central to understanding Earth system dynamics in the Anthropocene. Climate regulates ecosystem structure and function through changes in temperature, precipitation, and extreme events, while ecosystems alter climate via biogeochemical (e.g., the carbon cycle) and biogeophysical (e.g., vegetation-induced albedo change) processes. For this climate–ecosystem coupling, atmospheric chemistry serves as a crucial bridge. Specifically, ecosystem emissions (e.g., wildfire plumes, biogenic emissions) affect cloud condensation nuclei and surface radiation balance, thereby influencing climate from regional to global scales. Meanwhile, air pollutants (e.g., ozone, aerosols) affect plant physiology (e.g., photosynthesis, stomatal conductance) and land-atmosphere energy and water exchanges, further modifying the climate system. Deliberate manipulation of atmospheric aerosols could be employed as a climate intervention strategy (e.g., solar geoengineering). Yet, current research faces two major limitations: (1) difficulties in observing multi-scale nonlinear processes, and (2) inadequate parameterizations in coupled models.
This session will bring together progress in observations, modeling, and applications to advance understanding of climate-ecosystems-atmospheric chemistry interactions. Topics include, but are not limited to:
• Observations: Integrating multi-source data (e.g., field measurements, remote sensing, flux networks, atmospheric monitoring) with controlled experiments (e.g., FACE, warming experiments) to identify key interactions;
• Modeling: Improving the multi-scale representations in Earth system models, developing high-resolution regional coupled models, and optimizing parameterizations of key processes such as biogenic emissions and biogeochemical feedbacks;
• Applications: Assessing how interactions between atmospheric aerosols/pollutants and ecosystems influence climate change mitigation and carbon neutrality goals, and quantifying the strength of the ecosystem-climate feedbacks to air quality under different scenarios, and evaluating the effectiveness and risks of aerosol/cloud-based geoengineering.
By addressing these topics, the session aims to advance understanding of coupled climate–ecosystem–chemistry processes, enhance predictive capability, and provide a stronger scientific foundation for climate adaptation and sustainable development.