The global climate is changing due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, primarily due to anthropogenic activity. The dominant GHG is CO₂ which originates from combustion of fossil fuels, land use change and management. The terrestrial biosphere is a key driver of climate and biogeochemical cycles at regional and global scales. Furthermore, the response of the Earth system to future drivers of climate change will depend on feedbacks between biogeochemistry and climate. Therefore, understanding these processes requires a mechanistic approach in any model simulation framework. However ecosystem processes are complex and nonlinear and consequently models need to be validated against observations at multiple spatial scales. In this thesis the weather research and forecasting model (WRF) has been coupled to the mechanistic terrestrial ecosystem model soil-plant-atmosphere (SPA), creating WRF-SPA. The thesis is split into three main chapters: i. WRF-SPA model development and validation at multiple spatial scales, scaling from surface fluxes of CO₂ and energy to aircraft profiles and tall tower observations of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. ii. Investigation of ecosystem contributions to observations of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations made at tall tower Angus, Dundee, Scotland using ecosystem specific CO₂ tracers at seasonal and interannual time scales. iii. An assessment of detectability of a policy relevant national scale afforestation by observations made at a tall tower. Detectability of changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations was assessed through a comparison of a control simulation, using current day forest extent, and an experimentally afforested simulation using WRF-SPA. WRF-SPA performs well at both site and regional scales, accurately simulating aircraft profiles of CO₂ concentration magnitudes (error <+- 4 ppm), indicating appropriate source sink distribution and realistic atmospheric transport. Hourly observations made at tall tower Angus were also well simulated by WRF-SPA (R² = 0.67, RMSE = 3.5 ppm, bias = 0.58 ppm). Analysis of CO₂ tracers at tall tower Angus show an increase in the seasonal error between WRF-SPA simulated atmospheric CO₂ and observations, which coincides with simulated cropland harvest. WRF-SPA does not simulate uncultivated land associated with agriculture, which in Scotland represents 36 % of agricultural holdings. Therefore, uncultivated land components may provide an explanation for the increase in model-data error. Interannual variation in weather is indicated to have a greater impact on ecosystem specific contributions to atmospheric CO₂ concentrations at Angus than variation in surface activity. In a model experiment, afforestation of Scotland was simulated to test the impact on Scotland’s carbon balance. The changes were shown to be potentially detectable by observations made at tall tower Angus. Afforestation results in a reduction in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations by up to 0.6 ppm at seasonal time scales at tall tower Angus. Detection of changes in forest surface net CO₂ uptake flux due to afforestation was improved through the use of a network of tall towers (R² = 0.83) compared to tall tower Angus alone (R² = 0.75).

An analysis of the air temperature and precipitation for historical and future experiments of regional climate models from Euro-CORDEX activity is presented. A validation of models was performed for the time period 1989 - 2005 using the comparison of model results with E-OBS dataset which represents real values. For this period results show good agreement for temperature, much worse agreement appears for precipitation where their overestimation is more typical. The future evaluation based on the scenarios of greenhouse gases RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 was investigated for periods 2021 - 2050 and 2071 - 2100 in comparison with the period 1971 - 2000 as reference. For the simulations of the future climate we can notice an approximately linear increase of temperatures which is most significant in the northeast Europe. For precipitation models predict their increase in the north Europe and decrease in the south Europe.

The master thesis concentrates on the problematics of the regional development in connection with the educational structure of the Czech Republic. The main goal of this working paper is to evaluate, whether the level of the education reached has an impact on the regional development. For purpose of the analysis, NUTS 3 regions of the Czech Republic have been used. The regional development has been defined with five economic indicators, namely GDP per capita, average monthly gross salary, long term unemployment, foreign direct investments and employment in the primary sector. Nowadays education on the university degree is gaining importance and that is why university degree of the working population has been set as independent variable. For the proof of the dependence between university degree and dependent economic indicators of regional development, linear regression analysis has been used. In order to analyze the development of the dependence in time, for each economic indicators regression analysis of two years has been compared.

This paper employs a spatial Durbin model for analyzing the impact of human capital on regional productivity using for 198 NUTS-2 European regions for the sample period from 1995 to 2004. The study provides evidence for the existence of spatial externalities and interactions of the sort as emphasized by new growth theory. To interpret results meaningfully, we calculate summary measures that account for the simultaneous feedback nature of the underlying model. By sampling from the parameter distribution we present measures of dispersion, revealing that it is relative regional advantages in human capital that matter most for productivity growth. (authors' abstract)

The aim of my thesis is the construction of estimates of interregional commodity flows for the regions of the Czech Republic, by using a gravity model. Gravity model is based on Newton's law of gravitation. Gravity models can be used in two different information contexts. The first is an information context, when the spatial interaction flows are known a priori, and the model is used to explain the trade flows' behaviour. And the second is an information context in which these interactions are totally unknown a priori and the flows must be estimated. This paper is focused on the second information context. When we estimating commodity flows we need to know the value of exports and imports for individual regions. Estimated interregional commodity flows are the results of this work. Estimated interregional flows are put into the regional input-output tables compiled by the Department of Economic Statistics. Regional input-output tables are arranged so as to reached the equality of resources and use. On the basis of the resulting tables for all regions, I conducted a input-output analysis. Input-output analysis examines the impact of model changes to investment on selected commodities, to estimated interregional flows and selected macroeconomic indicators.

The main objective of the doctorate thesis was to explore the causes of the current state of relations between the EU and Russia and to provide substantiation for future effective cooperation. The main analytical assumption of the thesis is that deeper regional economic cooperation creates positive effects for improvement of economic relations. Based on that assumption a complex exploratory framework with solid theoretical grounding was created in order to evaluate potential gains from trade liberalization scenarios between the EU and Russia. Main research is focused on the three following areas: historical background of economic relations, current developments and perspectives of the future cooperation in light of trade liberalization. Historical background of common economic relations stems from political and economic development on both sides, legal and institutional framework and problematic areas. Current development of trade and economic relations is based on analysis of trade flows in goods, trade in services and capital flows. Analysis of the future development is based on three liberalization scenarios: - Accession of Russia to the World Trade Organization (WTO), - Free trade agreement (FTA) -- scrapping customs tariffs between the EU and Russia, - Comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA+) -- reduction of non-tariff barriers to trade, liberalization of trade in services and capital flows, regulatory harmonization. Meta-analysis of different computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling is used to evaluate the liberalization scenarios. Research results proved positive effects of trade liberalization for both sides. However, comprehensive free trade agreement seems to be the most effective form of trade liberalization with maximum economic welfare gains for the EU and the Russian Federation.

Screen level temperature is measured at 2 meters above the ground. It is one of the most used atmospheric characteristics in various applications in meteorology and other fields related to weather prediction. Essential is not only the knowledge of its current state, but also its prediction. It is forecasted by numerical weather prediction (NWP) models from the atmospheric current state. Its long-term characteristics can be obtained from the integration of climate models. This text discusses fundamental parametriza- tions, mostly related to temperature forecast, used in the NWP model ALADIN and the regional climate model RegCM. Physical processes which influence temperature are studied using ALADIN in several cases which include the presence of low cloudiness, gravity waves and inappropriate thermic coefficient. A detailed description of the most relevant parametrization schemes is given and the results are studied in a form of indi- vidual feedback loops. Most dominant processes are also found. However, the level of 2 meters above the ground is not the model level, so temperature at 2 meters is obtained by interpolation from the surface temperature and the lowest model level temperature. Using RegCM, two differently complex interpolation schemes are compared to each other. 1