Professor Lina Mercado
Professor in Ecosystems and Environmental Change
L.Mercado@exeter.ac.uk
5074
Laver Building 801a
Laver Building, University of Exeter, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE, UK
Overview
Biography
I work at the University of Exeter since June 2011 and since 2012 hold a 30% subcontract with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Wallingford, UK where I previously had a permanent job as a land surface modeller from 2004 till 2011. I have a close collaboration with the multidisciplinary team of JULES modellers at CEH. CEH holds expertise on hydrological modelling, land atmosphere interactions and ecological processes.
I did my PhD on modelling canopy photosynthesis in the Amazon Rainforest at the Max Planck Insitute of Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany (2000-2004, supervised by Jon Lloyd and Han Dolman) and obtained my PhD degree from the Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I did an MSc in Environmental Sciences at Lund University, Sweden (1998-1999, supervised by Sharon Cowling and Harald Sverdrup) with a dissertation on modelling the effects of deforestation on carbon and water dynamics within the Colombian Amazon rainforest. My undegraduate degree is in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellin, Colombia, my home country.
See my webpage with more information on my research
Qualifications
PhD Modelling Canopy photosynthesis in the Amazon Basin, Free University of Amsterdam
Msc Environmental Sciences, University of Lund, Sweden
Bsc in Chemical Engineering, National University of Colombia, Medellín
Research group links
Research
Research interests
I am a plant ecophysiologist & vegetation/biogeochemical modeller. I use observations and computer models to understand how plants respond to climate and in turn how cilmate is affected by vegetation. A current focus of my research is the response of plants to climate change, especially their response to increases in temperature.
Main areas of research include:
Carbon and H20 cycles, photosynthesis, transpiration, radiation interception, nutrient constraints on plant productivity, N and P cycles, plant responses to temperature both globally but also regionally. Current regional work has focus on Amazon, temperate and boreal ecosystems.
A primary aim of my work is to improve representation of plant physiological processes within earth system models (ESMs) in order to improve predictions of present and future land surface -climate interactions and climate. I have been working with the JULES land surface model of the UK ESM for the past ten years for which I am vegetation theme leader.
Fieldwork
I use data -collected by others but also by me- to improve process understanding and representation within models and for model evaluation. As part of various field & modelling projects, I have been involved in the design and execution of field campaigns in the tropics (Amazon: Peru, Ecuador - as part of the RAINFOR consortium; Brazil- as part of the AFEX project ), semi arid (Mali- as part of the AMMA project) and temperate regions (BIFOR -FACE Birmingham, as part of the elevated CO2 experiment http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/bifor/face/index.aspx, Wytham woods in Oxfordshire, Bangor - as part of the Surf to Turf project; and Wetzstein forest in Germany). This includes gas exchange measurements (photosynthesis & respiration) in the tropics (Manaus), and in the temperate forest (various sites in the UK), leaf and wood sampling for leaf mass per area, nutrient analysis, wood density in Amazon forest in Peru and Ecuador, soil respiration in girdled and non-girdled forest in Wetzstein, Thuringia-Germany, and stomatal conductance, soil moisture and surface temperature in semi arid ecosystems in West Africa (Hombori, Mali).
Advertising of current PhD and MSc by Research projects
PhD NERC Studentships for UK students
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/money/fundingsearch/awarddetails/?id=3686
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/money/fundingsearch/awarddetails/?id=3703
MSc by Research projects
http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/research/mbyres/topics/vegetation/#a0
http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/research/mbyres/
Research projects
CSSP BRAZIL-Vegetation, nutrient modelling (£125k Newton Fund, CSSP Brazi, PI 2023-2024). We are applying the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) with C,N and P cycles to the Amazon region to investigate spatial patterns in Amazon forest carbon dynamics and under ambient and elevated CO2.
Trop-Heat -Sensitivity of tropical forest to heat stress : (£800k NERC UK - PI, 2023-2026). This project will investiage the mechanisms of heat stress physiology in tropical forests and possible links to plant growth responses to warming which will inform how we understand and predict composition changes along elevation and climate gradients. We will use our experimental set up in the Colombian Andes and from our project parters in the Albertine Rift in Rwanda.
Analysing the Amazon Fertilisation Experiment and AmazonFACE : (£100k Newton Fund, CSSP Brazi, PI 2019-2020). We are developing a P-cycle model within the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) to investigate Amazon forest carbon dynamics under ambient and elevated CO2.
Quintus : Quinquennial (half-decadal) carbon and nutrient dynamics in temperate forests: Implications for carbon sequestration in a high carbon dioxide world (£1M NERC UK CoI, 2019-2024). QUINTUS will undertake an extensive programme of nutrient cycling measurements using the first whole-ecosystem, free-air carbon enrichment experiment ever in a mature temperate forest at the BIFOR experimental facility in Birmigham. We will determine whether mature trees in temperate forest can increase rates of nutrient uptake and/or use the nutrients they acquire more efficiently to produce more biomass under elevated CO2.
Analysis to inform South America’s carbon budget (Newton Fund CSSP Brazil, Co-I, £250 April 2019-March 2020).The aim of this project is to quantify the individual C flux terms (ELUC, EFIRE, SLAND) and their combination (the net land C sink, NBP), from pre-industrial to present-day, and quantify related uncertainties using a combination of land surface models, satellite observations, in country data, and CO and CO2 inversions.
BioResilience: Biodiversity resilience and ecosystem services in post-conflict socio- ecological systems in Colombia (£1.1M NERC UK CoI, 2018-2021).This project will examine the long-term resilience of Colombian forest ecosystems to environmental and climatic changes and improve understanding of the future implications of forest degradation for Colombian society.
South American Montane Forests in a Warming World. Pump priming for network of montane forest across South America. Funded by FAPESP-NERC IOF (£50k, CoI, 2018-2019).
MONTANE-ACCLIM -Can tropical Montane forest Acclimate to high temperatures? (£800k NERC UK - PI, 2017-2022). We have planted 1200 native tropical montane forest trees in the Colombian Andes to study thermal acclimation of key gas exchange processes and growth. Visit project web page for more details
TROP OZ -Ozone impacts on tropical vegetation: implications for forest productivity (£800k NERC UK CoI, 2018-2021)
AMAZON FACE Model intercomparisson project, participation with JULES-CN.
AFEX -Effects of soil fertility on the carbon cycle of tropical forests: A novel soil fertility manipulation experiment in Amazonia (£600k NERC-UK -CoI, 2014-2019). In this project we will use observations from this nutrient fertilization experiment to understand and model nutrient constraints on Amazon forest productivity. https://amazonfertilisationexperiment.wordpress.com/about/
SAMBBA - South American Biomass Burning Analysis (£5.58 M Consortium grant NERC UK funded - CoI, 2012-2017); our contribution to this project is the quantification of the role of air pollution including aerosols and near-surface ozone on carbon exchange in the Amazon forest. http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=NE%2FJ010073%2F1
Surf 2 Turf - The Multi-Scale Response of Water Quality, Biodiversity and Carbon Sequestration to Coupled Macronutrient Cycling from Source to Sea funded under the Coupled Macronutrient Cycles, (£3.3 M Consortium grant NERC UK funded, work with CEH Wallingford, CoI, 2012-2016). Our role is to use observations to improve modelling of C and H2O cycling in UK ecosystems. http://www.turf2surf.org/progress-and-outputs/river-level-data-conwy-catchment/
ECLAIRE -Effects of climate change and air pollution impacts and response strategies for European Ecosystems (€10 M Consortium grant EU funded, work with CEH Wallingford, CoI, 2011-2013). In this project we use leaf and plant data to improve the representation of O3 damage in the JULES land surface model aiming to quantify effects of trophospheric O3 on H20 and C cycling in European ecosytems. http://www.eclaire-fp7.eu
Publications
Journal articles
Conferences
Teaching
I teach in the following physical geography modules:Second year
GEO2334 - Research Design in Physical Geography
Third year
GEO3321/2 - Physical Geography BSc Dissertation
Modules
2023/24
Information not currently available
Supervision / Group
Postdoctoral researchers
- Anna Gardner Data Analysis of Montane-Acclim project
- Sebastian Gonzalez-Caro PDRA -Modelling photosynthesis of Andean tree species part of Montane-Acclim https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=KMcpuJYAAAAJ&hl=en https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sebastian-Gonzalez-Caro
- Andre Nakhavali Developing a P cycle for JULES
- Becky Oliver is a Land surface modeller at CEH Wallingford. Work includes using observations to improve physiological processes in JULES. Current focus of her work is on improving temperature responses of gas exchange on different ecosystems.
Postgraduate researchers
- Scott Barningham PhD student -A Multi-Satellite Approach to Track the Seasonal and Long-Term Variability in Photosynthetic Metabolism within theBrazilian Amazon
- Zorayda Restrepo Based at University of Antioquia, Colombia. Project : Montane-Acclim 'Thermal acclimation of growth of dominant Andean Species'.
Research Technicians
- Jefferson Goncalves De Souza 2023-2024 Jefferson is a Software Engineer working with JULES f unded by CSSP-Brazil and Quintus do do Amazon wide simulations incorporating the JULES-CNP model and simulations for the Quintus project at the Bifor site at the elevated CO2 facility in Birmingham
Alumni
- Kelly Andersen PDRA-Advice with Iain Hartley under AFEX project
- Alice Barratt 2014 MRes Dissertation title : 'A biome wide investigation into the response of photosynthesis and its subcomponents to temperature'
- Andrew Cox PhD 2023 -NERC GW4 funded. Project : Montane-Acclim: 'Thermal acclimation of photosynthesis of dominant Andean Species'.
- Andrew Cox 2023 PhD. NERC GW4. Project : Montane-Acclim: 'Thermal acclimation of photosynthesis of dominant Andean Species'.
- Laynara Figueiredo Lugli 2018. Co-Supervision with Iain Hartley as lead supervisorPhD Thesis : Dynamics and biological interactions of phosphorus cycling in central Amazonian forests
- Tilly Hancock 2022 MSc by research 'How Does PFT Diversity Affect the Resilience of Forest Function to Disturbance in the Amazon Basin'
- Felix Ike 2016 PhD Co-supervision with Luiz Aragao PhD thesis ' Evaluation of the impact of climate and human induced changes on the Nigerian forest using remote sensing'
- Chris Jones 2017 Phd Co-Supervision with Stephen Sitch Phd thesis 'Quantitative Carbon cycle modelling to inform Climate Mitigation Policy'
- Felix Leung 2018 Performing simulations with JULES CN for the Manaus K34 flux site for Amazon Face model intercomparison
- Florent Malavelle PDRA. Co-supervision with Jim Haywood under SAMBBA projectImpact of biomass burning on Amazon productivity https://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/acp-2018-924/
- Eric Mirindi Dusenge 2021 -2022 PDRA in Montane-Acclim in charge of project photosynthesis campaign
- Andre Nakhavali PDRA 2019 -2023 Projects : Modelling P cycle in Jules as part of AFEX, CSSP-BRAZIL, QUINTUS
- Freya Newman 2018 Undergraduate Student -Internship and dissertation project on Temperature independent nocturnal variabilityof foliar respiration
- Freya Newman 2020 MSc by research ' Quantifying the non-temperature dependency of night time leaf respiration'
- Thais Michele Rosan 2023 PhD. Co-supervision with Stephen Sitch and Pierre Friedlingstein. A comparative study of the contemporary carbon cycle and underlying processes in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes
- Chao Wu 2019 PhD Co- supervision and Stephen Sitch as lead supervisor in Exeter. Partnership with University of Tsinghua, China with Sergey Venevsky.
Office Hours:
Online office hours
Week 9 Wed 1430-1530 & Thu 1300-1400
Please contact me to book a 10 min slot in my office or virtually using my personal zoom link