Carbon Cycle Research
Global warming, or human-induced climate change, is one of the most prominent environmental issues of our time. It is generally accepted that increases in the atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping (greenhouse) gases, particularly carbon dioxide, may underlie any recent warming currently being documented and may contribute to subsequent global environmental change.
Carbon plays a fundamental role in regulating the climate of the Earth system. Yet much about how carbon cycles through the environment–particularly the terrestrial environment–remains poorly quantified. The USGS Earth Resources Observation & Science (EROS) is applying its expertise in satellite remote sensing, biogeochemical modeling, analysis of large spatial data sets, and geographic information systems applications to develop a quantitative understanding of the terrestrial carbon cycle. This understanding will be the basis for tools to help policy makers and resource managers evaluate the carbon consequences of land management options, including implications for climate change mitigation strategies.
This research focuses on three general areas in the U.S. and globally:
 | Assessing Carbon Stocks and Soil Attributes - determining the spatial distribution of carbon in the terrestrial environment in relation to historical natural and human processes and as a basis for initializing dynamic models
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 | Remote Sensing and Modeling Carbon Fluxes - developing estimates of gross primary productivity, respiration, and net ecosystem exchange at flux tower sites, and using remotely sensed data to extrapolate these carbon fluxes to ecoregions
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 | Carbon Biogeochemical Modeling - developing new, or using existing, carbon biogeochemical models to simulate carbon dynamics from sites to regions with measurements of uncertainty
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