OptiCForest - Optimizing climate change mitigation of afforestation on agricultural land

The full climate change mitigation potential of afforestation remains insufficiently understood. While carbon dynamics are increasingly well constrained, key interactions among CO₂ exchange, other greenhouse gases (GHGs), evapotranspiration, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), aerosols, cloud formation, precipitation, and surface albedo remain under-explored.

Emerging evidence suggests these coupled processes may exert stronger climate forcing than the carbon sink alone, creating major uncertainties for land-use change and ecosystem management for climate mitigation across Europe.

The OptiCForest project integrates novel instrumentation, new and existing reference data, and advanced ecosystem and atmospheric modelling to resolve these interactions and enable evidence-based afforestation strategies for optimal climate mitigation while safeguarding biodiversity and vital ecosystem services.