Over the past 130 years since the beginning of the industrial revolution the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been increasing as a result of the use we have been making of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas. The concentration has risen from ca 270 µmol mol^-1 (parts per million) to 365 µmol mol^-1 and is continuing to rise at an increasing rate which is at present about 1.5 µmol mol^-1 per year. With the current increasing use of fossil fuels, it is estimated that the concentration will reach 700 µmol mol^-1 by the middle of the 21st Century. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is the basic substrate of photosynthesis by plants which absorb carbon dioxide from the air around to grow. This investigation has been concerned with evaluating the effects of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration from the present value to the expected, future value of 700 µmol mol^-1 in the next century on the growth and physiology of young trees. The responses of trees are of particular significance in this regard because the forests of the world contribute in an effective way at the present time to the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the storage of carbon in wood and its transfer to the soil.
The ECOCRAFT project has been in progress since 1991, first in EPOCH, then in Framework III and now in Framework IV. In these three programmes there have been approximately 12 Partners throughout and they are listed at the end. The main aim of the project in Framework IV has been to test the hypothesis that a doubling of the global atmospheric CO₂ concentration, and associated, more local changes in climate predicted from General Circulation Models (GCMs) to occur across Europe over the next 100 years, will not be detrimental to European forests. The subsidiary hypotheses to be tested are as follows:
- impacts of elevated CO₂ and temperature will be limited by availability of nitrogen in northern temperate and boreal forests and by availability of water in Mediterranean forests, and
- a delicate balance between gains of carbon by CO₂ assimilation and losses by tree respiration and microbial oxidation of soil organic matter determine carbon sequestration in stands and may be tipped one way or the other by rising CO₂ and temperature.

Partner

• Prof. P.G. Jarvis, IERM, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Prof. B. Saugier, Université de Paris-Sud, FRANCE
• Dr. M.B. Murray, ITE, Penicuik, UK
• Prof. G. Scarascia-Mugnozza, University of Tuscia, ITALY
• Dr. P. Freer-Smith, Forest Research Station, Farnham, UK
• Dr. Eric Laitat, Université de Gembloux, BELGIUM
• Prof. R. Ceulemans, University of Antwerpen, BELGIUM
• Prof. S. Linder, Swedish University, Uppsala, SWEDEN
• Prof. S. Kellomäki, University of Joensuu, FINLAND
• Prof. R. McMurtrie, UNSW, AUSTRALIA
• Prof. M. Marek, Academy of Sciences, CZECH REPUBLIC