Advancing carbon cycle understanding through cutting-edge research: the CONCERTO project

Global patterns of air temperature and precipitation are changing. According to the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2021) more frequent and severe droughts and intense storms are expected. In recent years, this was corroborated by extreme dry summers in 2018 and the devastating flooding in 2021 in central Europe, impacting the carbon (C), water and energy balance (Graf et al., 2020; Lindroth et al., 2020), and resulting in high economic and social costs. In this context, there is a growing need to monitor key land CC and driving variables which provide essential insights in heat exchanges and ecosystem productivity at high resolution (Balsamo et al., 2018). Thus, understanding ecosystem processes and responses to disturbances and extremes, in terms of carbon sequestration (Anderegg et al., 2020) and water cycling (Mastrotheodoros et al., 2020; Tague et al., 2019) is crucial for identifying approaches to mitigate and adapt for its consequences on society.

Against this background, the European Commission has recently granted funding to the newly launched Horizon Europe project: Improved CarbOn cycle represeNtation through multi-sCale models and Earth obseRvation for Terrestrial ecOsystems (CONCERTO), which officially started on 1^st January 2025.

The kick-off meeting was held in Milan, Italy on 21-22 January 2025. Over 35 participants attended the meeting in person, while several other colleagues joined online to shape the vision of CONCERTO’s aim for the upcoming four years to strengthen the European research ecosystem by creating an innovative scientific collaborative framework that enhances our understanding, monitoring, and modelling of the terrestrial cycle, and leads to reduced uncertainty and Earth system models convergence.

The Project

The key objectives of the CONCERTO project are:

• To enhance the understanding, monitoring, and modelling of the terrestrial carbon cycle, while reducing uncertainty, and enabling Earth System Model convergence.
• To utilise novel Earth Observation data to advance research and improve the representation of land cover, leaf area index, and management intensity through high-resolution maps.
• To integrate advanced Data Assimilation and Machine Learning techniques into modelling to deliver more accurate and reliable insights.
• To prepare for the incorporation of FLEX data into land surface models and leverage data to improve understanding of biogenic volatile organic compound emissions.

CONCERTO’s Consortium

The project brings together thirteen international partners from seven European countries, operating in various sectors, ultimately contributing with diverse expertise:

1. FONDAZIONE CENTRO EURO-MEDITERRANEOSUI CAMBIAMENTI CLIMATICI (CMCC), Italy;
2. METEOROLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH OBSERVATION SRL (MEEO), Italy;
3. SISTEMA GMBH (SIS), Austria;
4. EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR MEDIUM-RANGE WEATHER FORECASTS (ECMWF), United Kingdom;
5. BARCELONA SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER CENTRO NACIONAL DE SUPERCOMPUTACION (BSC), Spain;
6. UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN (UA), Belgium;
7. CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION ECOLOGICA Y APLICACIONES FORESTALES (CREAF), Spain;
8. UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE (UT), Netherlands;
9. INSTITUT ROYAL D’AERONOMIE SPATIALEDE BELGIQUE (BIRA), Belgium;
10. POLITECNICO DI TORINO (POLITO), Italy;
11. PENSOFT PUBLISHERS (PENSOFT), Bulgaria;
12. THE UNIVERSITY OF READING (UREAD), United Kingdom;
13. IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE (ICL), United Kingdom;

Over the coming months, the CONCERTO project will focus on creating innovative resources to support professionals in improving multi-scale models and Earth observation for terrestrial ecosystems.

The CONCERTO project website is coming soon!

In the meantime, make sure to follow the project’s progress by following our social media channels on BlueSky and LinkedIn.

Funded by the European Union under grant agreement No. 101185000, CONCERTO, (Improved CarbOn cycle represeNtation through multi-sCale models and Earth obseRvation for Terrestrial ecOsystems).

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the EU nor the CINEA can be held responsible for them.