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The Global Carbon Cycle
Overview
Recent
Accomplishments
Near-Term Plans
Archived News
Postings [June 2000 - July 2005]
Related
Sites
Calls
for Proposals
CCSP / USGCRP Carbon Cycle Working Group Members
For long term plans, see
Carbon Cycle
chapter
of the Strategic Plan for the Climate
Change Science Program (2003) posted
on CCSP web site |
Carbon
Cycle Science Home Page
The
Carbon Cycle. Basic background information from NASA's Earth
Observatory Reference section.
Human Interactions with the Carbon
Cycle. Summary of a Workshop.
By Paul C. Stern for the National Research Council, Committee
on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, Division of Behavioral and
Social Sciences (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2002). |
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Increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 are major drivers of climate change. The global carbon cycle element of the CCSP seeks to better quantify and understand the dynamics of the global carbon cycle that determine CO2 and CH4 fluxes and carbon storage in terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems. Carbon cycle processes depend on climate, thus linking carbon cycle and climate change analyses is critical. Carbon cycle research involves multiple disciplines and extends over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. Major multi-agency activities include the North American Carbon Program (NACP), an effort to describe and reduce uncertainties about the North American carbon budget and underlying processes, and the Ocean Carbon and Climate Change (OCCC) Program, a research effort aimed at determining how climate change will affect the future behavior of the oceanic carbon sink. In FY 2008, the NACP will address key gaps and uncertainties in the carbon syntheses developed previously, and aspects of the OCCC and NACP will be coordinated to better quantify and understand the roles of adjacent ocean basins in the North American carbon budget. NASA will launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) to provide, for the first time, consistent atmospheric carbon observations globally from space, and carbon data assimilation systems will begin to derive estimates of carbon sources and sinks from these measurements. |
See the Carbon
Cycle Science Plan
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Strategic Research Questions
7.1.
What are the magnitudes and distributions of North American carbon
sources and sinks on seasonal to centennial time scales, and what are
the processes controlling their dynamics?
7.2. What
are the magnitudes and distributions of ocean carbon sources and sinks
on seasonal to centennial time scales, and what are the processes controlling
their dynamics?
7.3. What
are the effects on carbon sources and sinks of past, present, and future
land-use change and resource management practices at local, regional,
and global scales?
7.4. How
do global terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric carbon sources and
sinks change on seasonal to centennial timescales, and how can this
knowledge be integrated to quantify and explain annual global carbon
budgets?
7.5. What
will be the future atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane,
and other carbon-containing greenhouse gases, and how will terrestrial
and marine carbon sources and sinks change in the future?
7.6. How
will the Earth system, and its different components, respond to various
options for managing carbon in the environment, and what scientific
information is needed for evaluating these options?
See Strategic
Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Chapter
7, for detailed discussion of these research questions. |
For additional information on the Carbon Cycle Initiative, contact the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group's Program Office |
The U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program is clarifying the changes, magnitudes, and distributions of carbon sources and sinks; the fluxes between the major terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric carbon reservoirs; and the underlying mechanisms involved including human activities, fossil-fuel emissions, land use, and climate. Program
scientists are now beginning to reveal and quantify some of the intricate complexities of and interactions between the Earth's carbon reservoirs and climate.
The Carbon Cycle Science Program engages many
science disciplines and extends over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. Many Federal
agencies coordinate and support the activities included under the North American Carbon Program (NACP) and the Ocean Carbon and Climate Change (OCCC) program. In FY 2008, the integration of the terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric investigations will be critical and will continue
as a priority of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program. Assimilation of carbon data into models is developing at scales from regional to global as an important means of incorporating observations into carbon cycle analyses. The goal is to develop
increasingly realistic, fully coupled carbon cycle-climate models to provide insight into potential feedbacks between and drivers of these major Earth systems.
THE NORTH AMERICAN CARBON PROGRAM
The North American Carbon Program (NACP) is designed to address Strategic Research Question 7.1 in Chapter 7 of the CCSP Strategic Plan. It will quantify the magnitudes and
distributions of terrestrial, freshwater, oceanic, and atmospheric carbon sources and sinks for North America and adjacent oceans; enhance understanding of the processes controlling source and sink dynamics; and produce consistent analyses of North America's carbon budget that explain regional and
continental contributions and year-to-year variability. This program is committed to reducing uncertainties related to the increase of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere and the amount of carbon–including the fraction of fossil-fuel carbon–being taken up by North America's ecosystems and adjacent oceans. |
THE OCEAN CARBON AND CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAM
The Ocean Carbon and Climate Change (OCCC) program is designed to address Strategic Research Question 7.2 in Chapter 7 of the CCSP Strategic Plan. It will focus on oceanic monitoring and research aimed at determining how much atmospheric carbon dioxide is being taken up by the ocean at the present time and how climate change will affect the future behavior of the oceanic carbon sink. The terrestrial and ocean carbon programs are synergistic, integrating program activities in addressing carbon dynamics on the coastal shelves adjacent to North America, where carbon changes in the terrestrial system greatly influence carbon processes in the coastal ocean.
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U.S. CARBON CYCLE SCIENCE PROGRAM
The U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program contributes to all CCSP goals, focusing particularly on Goal 2: Improved
quantification of the forces bringing about changes in the Earth's climate and related systems. It addresses directly the six carbon cycle questions of Chapter 7 of the CCSP Strategic Plan. The research element is synergistic with the Ecosystems, Global Water Cycle, Climate Variability and Change, Atmospheric Composition, Land-Use/Land-Cover Change, and Human Contributions and Responses research elements. The agencies responsible for carbon cycle research are DOE, NASA, NOAA, NSF, USDA, and USGS. Together, they have planned and are coordinating a multidisciplinary research strategy to integrate the broad range of needed infrastructure and resources, scientific expertise, and stakeholder input essential for program success and improved decision processes.
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A major accomplishment for this research element involves publication of The First State of the Carbon Cycle Report on the North American Carbon Budget and Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle (CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Product 2.2). It synthesizes current knowledge and uncertainties about carbon in North America relevant to the United States and the rest of the world, and provides baseline information to support decisionmaking on key issues related to U.S. carbon management and policy. In FY 2008, the NACP will address key gaps and uncertainties identified in the synthesis. Other planned activities will focus on integrating carbon cycle research, increasing observational and network capabilities, measuring carbon fluxes and stocks, conducting manipulative experiments, modeling the carbon cycle for predictive analyses, and coupling carbon models with other Earth component models for Earth system analyses. Successful completion will provide, and be measured by, integrated and accessible observational databases, quantified carbon budgets, more precise estimates of changes occurring or likely to occur, and more accurate
carbon sink and source estimates.
Looking beyond FY 2008, the research element will extend its observation and network systems to high latitudes and other undersampled regions of the world. The anticipated emphasis on high-latitude research will provide critical scientific information on the carbon dynamics of the undersampled regions of North America and adjacent oceans, Antarctica, and the Southern Ocean as high-latitude warming changes system dynamics. Collaborations with Canada and Mexico under the Joint NACP (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) cooperative will be well underway. Efforts are also underway to
initiate stronger international collaborations with the European Union and its research program under the CarboEurope and CarboOcean Programs. Other international
initiatives and collaborations are also expected to address regional to global issues, interactions between carbon cycle dynamics and global climate change, linkages between and feedbacks within Earth systems, and the uncertainties associated with continental and oceanic carbon sources and sinks.
See also:
Carbon Cycle [also available:
PDF Version]. Chapter 7
from the Strategic Plan for the
Climate Change Science Program (July 2003). See also the draft
white paper,
Carbon Cycle [PDF].
Carbon Cycle. Presentation from Breakout Session 4 of the US
Climate Change Science Program: Planning Workshop for Scientists and
Stakeholders, 3-5 December 2002, Washington, DC.
Carbon Cycle -- Ecosystems -- Land Use/Land Cover. Presentation
from Breakout Session 20 of the US Climate Change Science Program:
Planning Workshop for Scientists and Stakeholders, 3-5 December
2002, Washington, DC. |
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