News — Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

More than 500 million people might face increasing water scarcity

10/08/2013 - Both freshwater availability for many millions of people and the stability of ecosystems such as the Siberian tundra or Indian grasslands are put at risk by climate change. Even if global warming is limited to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, 500 million people could be subject to increased water scarcity – while this number would grow by a further 50 percent if greenhouse-gas emissions are not cut soon. At 5 degrees global warming almost all ice-free land might be affected by ecosystem change. This is shown by complementary studies now published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Carbon Dioxide Removal: Assessing potentials - and risks

06/24/2013 - With global greenhouse-gas emissions continuing to rise and a possibility that international cooperation in climate policy will continue to be delayed, a number of large-scale technical approaches have been suggested to counter strong climate change. Direct carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere is a measure that two groups of scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research (PIK) are now looking into. Theoretically, it could make ambitious mitigation economically more feasible, increase the likelihood of achieving the 2-degrees warming threshold agreed by the international community, or lower atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the future to partially compensate for lack of mitigation today. The PIK projects are part of a programme financed by Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft on climate engineering that is starting this month.

Permafrost soil thawing accelerates climate change despite more abundant vegetation

2013/03/13 - Global warming affects permafrost soils, for instance in Siberia, in two opposing ways. Their thawing accelerates decomposition processes in the soil, leading to higher CO2 emissions. On the other hand, enhanced vegetation growth due to higher temperatures leads to carbon intake by the plants, and consequently storage in the soil. However, the – often neglected – second effect in the long run cannot counter the first one, reveals a study now published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

"Qatar could become a powerful change agent"

07/18/2012 - A high-level delegation from Qatar visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) to discuss future cooperation initiatives, the next climate conference in Doha (COP18) and to learn about PIK´s latest findings in the fields of climate research and sustainable solutions. One specific point of interest was the future of water management for agricultural needs.

Climate scientist writes for children, and other new books

12/30/2011 – Several intriguing books have been published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this year. The probably most unusual one is by Stefan Rahmstorf, co-chair of the Earth System Analysis research domain: He wrote a book on climate and weather for children. Other books cover topics ranging from extreme events to China to religion – to name just a few.

Researchers put new spin on world´s water cycle

10/13/2011 - The final report of the Water and Global Change programme (WATCH), an extensive analysis of the world’s water resources, is made available today, significantly expanding the understanding of climate change and land use impacts on the global hydrological cycle. A total of 25 institutions from 14 European countries participated in this project, including scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Climate change: A risk for plants and animals worldwide

10/07/2011 - Climate change entails a risk for ecosystems on all continents. Scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have now identified the scale of danger for animals and plants in a worldwide analysis. For that purpose, they developed a novel measure that for the first time systematically quantifies the impacts of changes in CO2 concentration in the air as well as in temperature and rainfall on terrestrial ecosystems. Computer simulations show that global warming could lead to an expansion of the Kazakh steppe but also lets forests grow in the presently treeless tundra. If global mean temperature rises more than two to three degrees, the impacts in many regions can be drastically amplified.

Energy from biomass pays even with forest protection in the long term

08/18/2011 - Forest protection – safeguarding woodland from being cleared and converted to fields for energy crops – reduces the global economic potential of bioenergy only in the short term. If less additional land is available for cultivation, this can be compensated by higher rates of yield-raising investments. This is shown by a new study. However, following this scenario global food production prices could rise considerably.

Graduate School on land use scores well in competition for excellence

03/03/2011 - In the competition for excellence of the German Research Foundation the graduate school 'FutureLand' qualified for the finals. About 80 PhD students shall do research on issues such as climate change, agriculture, deforestation or loss of biodiversity. The project has been developed mainly by scientists from Berlin an Potsdam, led by the Humboldt Universität (HU). The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is one of the significant contributors, among other independent research institutes.

Harvest and save water to increase crop yields, say researchers

10/09/2009 - On-farm water management could increase global crop production by about one fifth, a modelling study by German and Swedish researchers indicates. However, even intensive water management on present cropland will not be sufficient to accommodate the food demands of a growing population in a warming world, the scientists report in the current edition of the “Environmental Research Letters”.

Better water use could reduce future food crises

05/05/2009 - If the overall water resources in river basins were acknowledged and managed better, future food crises could be significantly reduced, say researchers from Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, Stockholm Environment Institute and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Why so much water runs down the rivers

10/22/2008 - Humans are increasingly altering the amount of water that runs from the land to the sea or inland waters. Calculations with a global vegetation and hydrology model indicate that precipitation had the largest impact on global river discharge over the 20th century. Regionally, however, discharge varied according to factors such as land use change and irrigation practices, temperature, and the concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) report in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters”. The impact of these mainly anthropogenically driven factors on discharge and the availability of water for human use is expected to grow in the future.

Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system

02/05/2008 - Anthropogenic forcing could push the Earth’s climate system past critical thresholds, so that important components may “tip” into qualitatively different modes of operation. In the renowned magazine PNAS (online-edition) an international team of researchers describes, where small changes can have large long-term consequences on human and ecological systems.