CLIMASTEPPE

The project CLIMASTEPPE aims to comprehensively assess climate-smart agricultural management options for the Russian dry steppe regions. This question is of high relevance as many of these areas, that were abandoned after 1991 are now converted to cropland again and decision makers are in great need of advice on how to best manage crop and grazing areas, accounting for the potential trade-offs between agricultural productivity, climate adaptation and climate mitigation.

The PIK subproject will coordinate and conduct activities as model setup and evaluation, historical model simulations to understand current conditions (baseline) and different simulations for future projections and the analysis of results, including a trade-off analysis. The future projections will cover a broad range of land-use scenarios, climate scenarios and different management options for grasslands and cropland. These results will be the basis for the overall trade off analysis and the information that is passed on to the CLIMASTEPPE stakeholders, including Russian decision makers and Russian and international scientists on agronomy, biogeochemistry, soil sciences and climate action.