Earth System Dynamics

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) is a central topic in global change research. It is a high priority to improve the fundamental understanding of LULCC interactions with human, bio-geochemical, and bio-geophysical dynamics, and of LULCC impacts on the regional and planetary climate system, as well as on the functioning of our socio-economic system. This special issue aims to synthesize existing research, new findings, and to provide a roadmap for future research.

Examples of questions that can be addressed in submitted papers:

• What are the relationships between land-use activities and land cover changes, past, present, and expected for the future?
• How do rates of land-use change depend on land-cover and climate?
• What has been the rate, magnitude and type of LULCC over the past thousand years?
• How well do climate models simulate the impact of LULCC on trace gas and energy exchanges between biosphere and atmosphere? How well do land-surface models capture the different sensitivities of land-use system to climate forcing?
• Is there evidence of LULCC being an important forcing agent of the climate in the past?
• Which types of LULCC feedbacks within the climate and socioeconomic system are important?
• What are the plausible options to manage the future LULCC to mitigate and adapt to climate variability (incl. extremes) and longer term change?
• What is the role of LUCLCC in air quality and atmospheric chemistry, e.g., through affecting boundary layer exchanges of reactive compounds and aerosols?
• How can we better represent the land system including LULCC in Earth system models?
• How can we improve models of the global land system by representing human behavioural and decisional processes?