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Climate, Fire, and Carbon Cycle Sciences

The Climate, Fire and Carbon Cycle Sciences staff develops a sound scientific basis and appropriate tools for making local to international resource management, human health/safety, and policy decisions in response to climate change, fire, air pollution, and other threats to people, forests, and watersheds. By connecting climate change and fire research to societal values, we foster innovative management solutions to sustain forests and forest-based values, and improve our quality of life.

Through our research, we:

• Provide new information on the effects of atmosphere-ecosystem interactions on ecosystem processes and functions.
• Develop new predictive fire-fuel-atmosphere interaction tools and models that can be incorporated into the next-generation physics-based fire modeling and global fire danger assessment systems.
• Assess sensitivity of forest ecosystems, markets, and forest-based communities to climate change.
• Determine how to adapt forest management to climate change-related needs (e.g., carbon storage and the production of wood for biomass energy) while preserving ecosystem services.
• Monitor and map forest resources and maintain databases useful for climate impact assessment and greenhouse gas mitigation (e.g., forest carbon storage, and biomass energy feedstocks).
• Provide knowledge, improve awareness, educate, and inform policy on climate change and fire related threats to forests and people.
• Provide information and tools to aid in the development of policies and management strategies.

More Information

This site is under development as the Forest Service brings together the Northeastern and North Central Research Stations to form the Northern Research Station, serving the Northeast and Midwest. The links below will take you to pages of the old sites for the Forest Carbon Dynamics and Estimation for Sustainable Management, Belowground Processes that Sustain Productivity & Ecosystem Function in Northern Forests, Atmospheric-Ecosystem Interactions, Northern Global Change Research Program units that combined to form the Climate, Fire, and Carbon Cycle Sciences research work unit. Check back often as we expand our site to reflect our combined commitment to supporting the natural resources and people of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States.

 

Science Areas

Climate Research Topics

• U.S. Global Change Research Program
• Northern Research Station Global Change Research Program
• Climate variability research
• Atmospheric effects and watersheds
  • Chesapeake Bay watershed modeling
  • Landscape change and ozone pollution
• Climate research studies
  • Effects of increased carbon dioxide and ozone on northern forests
  • Forest carbon budgets
  • Development of guidelines for establishing and cultivating hybrid poplar plantations in the North Central United States

Fire Research

• Eastern Area Modeling Consortium
• Silas Little Experimental Forest
• Fire-Fuel-Atmosphere Interaction Research
• Regional climate and fire danger modeling
• Fire Consortia for Advanced Modeling of Meteorology and Smoke (FCAMMS)

Carbon Cycle Research

• North American Carbon Program
• Northern Institute of Applied Carbon Science
• Ameriflux Network
• Carbon management and belowground ecosystem processes
• Carbon tools