Australian project simulates effects of runaway climate change

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/14/australia-runaway-climate-change?intcmp=122

The Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment's extensive facilities in Richmond, New South Wales, are dedicated to researching the impact of climate change

An Australian university has embarked upon an ambitious project – hailed as the first of its kind in the world – to simulate how the environment would cope with runaway climate change.

The decade-long study, at the University of Western Sydney's Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, will subject Australian bushland to heightened CO2 levels and altered rainfall patterns consistent with a "business as usual" global increase in greenhouse gases.

The centrepiece of the study is the Eucalyptus Free Air CO2 Enrichment experiment, which has involved the construction of six fibre glass and steel ring structures 28 metres high and 25 metres in diameter in native woodland in Richmond, New South Wales. The structures contain an array of sensors that will deliver a concentration of CO2 to the trees within the rings.

This, scientists say, will recreate an atmosphere where CO2 is at 550 ppm – about 40% higher than current levels – to see how the environment would change for living things, including humans.