K. Gurney | Geology Reports

USGS2008

Research needs for finely resolved fossil carbon emissions

Scientific research on the global carbon cycle has emerged as a high priority in biogeochemistry, climate studies, and global change policy. The emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from fossil fuel combustion is a dominant driver of the current net carbon fluxes between the land, the oceans, and the atmosphere, and it is a key contributor to the rise in modern radiative forcing. Contrary to a commonly held perception, our quantitative knowledge about these emissions is insufficient to satisfy current scientific and policy needs. A more highly spatially and temporally resolved quantification of the social and economic drivers of fossil fuel combustion, and the resulting CO 2 emissions, is essential to supporting scientific and policy progress. In this article, a new community of emissions researchers called the CO 2 Fossil Fuel Emission Effort (CO 2 FFEE) outlines a research agenda to meet the need for improved fossil fuel CO 2 emissions information and solicits comment from the scientific community and research agencies.

Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union↗

USGS2008

Model-data fusion in studies of the terrestrial carbon sink

Current uncertainty in quantifying the global carbon budget remains a major contributing source of uncertainty in reliably projecting future climate change. Furthermore, quantifying the global carbon budget and characterising uncertainties have emerged as critical to a successful implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. Beyond fundamental quantification, attribution of the processes responsible for the so-called ‘residual terrestrial uptake’ is important to the carbon cycle communities' ability to simulate the future response of the terrestrial biosphere to climate change and intentional sequestration activities. The objective of this chapter is to describe the approaches to model-data fusion enabling continued advances in quantifying carbon cycling and the terrestrial mechanisms at work. The major impediments to advances in this field include accounting for climate variability and uncertainties in model outcomes. One proposed solution to overcome these obstacles is the use of data from the FLUXNET network to characterise the relative strength of climate impact on plant productivity and respiration. Other solutions involve the use of atmospheric CO 2 concentration measurements for model validation and the use of remote sensing data.

Book chapter↗

USGS2006

Model-data fusion in the studies of terrestrial carbon sink

Current uncertainty in quantifying the global carbon budget remains a major contributing source of uncertainty in reliably projecting future climate change. Furthermore, quantifying the global carbon budget and characterizing uncertainties have emerged as critical to a successful implementation of United National Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. Beyond fundamental quantification, attribution of the processes responsible for the so-called ‘residual terrestrial uptake’ is important to the carbon cycle communities’ ability to simulated the future response of the terrestrial biosphere to climate change and intentional sequestration activities. This paper’s objective is to describe the efforts of the workshop participants and their approaches to model-data fusion enabling continued advances in the solution of quantifying carbon cycling and the terrestrial mechanisms at work.

Conference Paper↗