The Principal Investigator in this project was Prof Ian Woodward from University of Sheffield, with 11 co-investigators at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), the Forestry Commission’s Forest Research, the Agriculture and the Environment Division at Rothamsted Research, and the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Leeds, York, Oxford and Southampton.

QUERCC addressed land surface processes over timescales from days to centuries, with particular emphasis on the carbon cycle. Some processes are already well represented and validated in Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs), while others that are known to impact on the carbon cycle are not. Independent carbon and vegetation data sets were compared against DVGMs to assess their current state, and further key modules were developed for nutrient cycling, which exerts a major feedback on carbon exchange, and for a greater resolution of plant processes. A global map of plant functional types that exert significant impacts on the carbon cycle was also developed.