Modelling Arctic vegetation for better climate projections

During her PhD studies, Anna Kirchner worked on improving the representation of Arctic vegetation in climate models. Arctic ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle and climate change feedbacks. However, this role is often poorly represented in climate models. In her research, Anna Kirchner included different types of Arctic shrubs in a global land surface model (ORCHIDEE). The work explores how to navigate the complexity of Arctic ecosystems, the simplifications needed in modelling, and limitations of observational data. The research contributes an important piece to the complex puzzle of modelling the Earth system to make accurate climate projections.

The PhD study was completed at Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Friday, 21 August 2026 at 10:00
Place: Building 112, H. H. Koch Auditorium, Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde
Title of PhD thesis: How to model shrubs? Data-driven advances in high-latitude vegetation dynamics and carbon cycle representation in ORCHIDEE
Contact information: Anna Kirchner, e-mail: anki@envs.au.dk, tel.: +45 55234347
Members of the assessment committee:
Associate Professor Guy Schurgers, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Senior Lecturer Anne Björkman, Department of Biological & Environmental Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Professor Matthias Ketzel (chair), Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
Main supervisor: Senior Researcher Anne Sofie Lansø, Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
Co-supervisor: Researcher Efrén López-Blanco, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Denmark
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Technical Sciences/GSTS, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, 8000 Aarhus C.