Adele Zaini

BG Biogeosciences

The 2024 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Adele Zaini for the poster/PICO entitled:

Exploring the biogeophysical and biogeochemical impacts of an Arctic poleward expansion of the boreal forest (Zaini, A.; Blichner, S. M.; Tang, J.; Fisher, R. A.; Lund, M. T.; Berntsen, T. K.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Adele Zaini is a PhD fellow at CICERO - Center for International Climate Research and is affiliated with the Department of Geosciences at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research focuses on land-climate interactions, specifically aiming for a holistic assessment of the biogeophysical and biogeochemical impacts of nature-based solutions, land use, and land cover changes, using Earth System modeling. She places particular emphasis on investigating global-scale processes related to biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) and their effects on atmospheric chemistry, secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, and consequently, on clouds and the radiative balance.

In her work presented at EGU24, Adele uses the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) to explore the climatic impacts of the expected poleward migration of the boreal forest in the Arctic due to rising global temperatures. The study focuses on evaluating the radiative impact of the vegetation-BVOC-SOA-cloud feedback in comparison to the effects of surface albedo changes. While initial expectations suggested counterbalancing effects - cooling and warming the climate respectively - the first findings of this study reveal a weak but unexpected positive radiative forcing related to the impact of BVOC emission changes on clouds.