Dr Maria val Martin (University of Sheffield)

Quantifying air quality and indirect climate feedbacks of land-based greenhouse gas removal strategies

Speaker: Dr Maria val Martin

Title: Quantifying air quality and indirect climate feedbacks of land-based greenhouse gas removal strategies

Abstract: The 2021 IPCC Report concluded that drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and large-scale CO2 removal (CDR) are urgently required to mitigate climate change. Land-based CDR strategies include, for example, afforestation/reforestation (A/R) and enhanced rock weathering (ERW), but widespread implementation of these approaches will have consequences for air quality, and indirect climate feedbacks that have so far been overlooked.  In this seminar, I will present results from a series of Earth System modeling experiments with CESM2 and UKESM1 designed to quantify the potential air quality impacts with human and crop health consequences, if ERW and A/R were implemented at large-scale to help deliver net-zero. I will also briefly discuss implementations in CESM2 to simulate ERW applications with croplands and in UKESM1 and CESM2 to model a maximum potential A/R scenario.

Bio: Dr. Maria Val Martin is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Leverhulme Center for Climate Change Mitigation of University of Sheffield. She is an atmospheric scientist with a research interest in understanding the interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere and climate and the use of land-based CO2 removal strategies to mitigate climate change. Her research group works to address the pressing issues of air pollution, climate change and ecosystem degradation by better understanding the complex interactions between atmospheric chemistry, climate, land surface and biosphere. The group’s investigations combine high-performance Earth System modelling with observations from all scales (from field trials to satellite sensors).