Regional Variability in Carbon and Energy Fluxes: Towards a Global Synthesis

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ABSTRACT OPP-9732105 OECHEL, WALTER SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY The project will utilize satellite, aircraft and ground-based measurements to examine gas and energy fluxes resulting from the interaction of global climate and arctic tundra systems. The contribution of arctic tundra to global atmospheric carbon dioxide gas concentration will be determined in order to understand the role of arctic regions in global change. Previous studies have shown that tundra can be either a source or sink of carbon dioxide in different seasons and different years. This study will expand the earlier results from a single watershed to a circumpolar scale in order to understand the large-scale processes controlling carbon dioxide emission or uptake in the Arctic. Knowledge of the processes is crucial to predicting whether the Arctic tundra regions will release more greenhouse gases if climate warms or if more carbon will be sequestered. The field measurements and modeling results of this project will be used in combination with other land-atmosphere-ice interaction projects to determine the regional impacts of global change on or by terrestrial systems in the Arctic.