Introduction

European tundra and boreal forest ecosystems will experience one of the strongest impacts of climate change on the Earth. These habitats and northern temperate ecosystems will become disproportionately warmer compared with other global biomes according to the general averaged climate change scenarios. Because living organisms exhibit physiological optima for temperature and specific requirements for habitat quality, rapid shifts in vegetation and entire biomes pose the greatest challenges to cope with under global change. In the current epoch of unprecedentedly rapid climate change, further human interventions may offer both threats and opportunities to restore ecosystem services and mitigate ecological and economic damage. We, the humans, can actually control much of the greenhouse gas emissions related to land use shifts, agricultural and forestry practices by determining and implementing ‘climate-friendly’ ways of management and sustainable use of soil resources in agriculture and forestry from the global change perspective. In particular, due to their effect on both productivity and soil processes, certain land use and forest management practices can be helpful for promoting soil C storage. The project aims to to assess the effect of afforestation of tundra areas and agricultural land on greenhouse gases and to develop methods of afforestation that are optimal for both climate and production. The project provides a good overview of greenhouse gas emissions during climate change and proposes environmentally friendly solutions for land use change, which is inevitable due to urbanization and forestation of tundra areas.