International Postdoctoral Fellows Program: Rapid Atmospheric CO2 Variations and Ocean Circulation

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9509247 Figge The International Junior Investigator and Postdoctoral Fellows Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Regina A. Figge to work with Dr. Thomas F. Stocker at the University of Bern in Switzerland. The objective of this research is to improve understanding of the Earth's carbon cycle dynamics using the Bern 2D coupled ocean-atmosphere model. It is important to understand the processes that control the cycling of carbon to be able to assess future climate change associated with past and continuing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is one of the major "greenhouse" gases. The Bern model's strength in studying the cycling of carbon by the ocean is its computational efficiency combined with its ability to resolve the global features of the ocean thermohaline circulation which may be a critical driving mechanism behind the Earth's natural atmospheric CO2 concentration, especially on brief time scales. Dr. Figge will help to modify the Bern model by adding an organic carbon cycle to the ocean's existing inorganic component. She will use this version of the model to investigate the important features and processes involved in the Earth's natural carbon cycle as observed in the geological record. And she will measure stable carbon isotopes on a peat core to be collected from a Swiss peat bog to verify a new method for reconstructing atmospheric CO2 concentration. ***