CAREER: Contrasting environmental controls on regional CO2 and CH4 biogeochemistry-Research and education for placing global change in a regional, local context

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in forests, wetlands, and lakes significantly alter the impact of fossil fuel emissions on the atmospheric greenhouse effect, leading to a major source of uncertainty for future climate change predictions. While CO2 exchanges have been extensively studied over the past several decades, research on CH4, a potent greenhouse warming gas, has been less exhaustive, especially across forestwetland landscapes. Significant uncertainty remains on the rates of natural CH4 emission and its relationship to CO2 exchange. The goal of this CAREER proposal is to initiate a novel study of regional CH4 exchange, incorporate it into an existing study of regional CO2 at a 447 m research tower in the upper Midwest, USA, and use these observations to better model landscape controls on atmospheric carbon cycling. These observations will be used to investigate the impacts of carbon cycling on regional atmospheric chemistry and global climate.The proposal will help catalyze a growing research community at University of Wisconsin studying methane and carbon cycling, environmental microbiology, and regional climate change. In addition to supporting a new faculty member engaging in this research, a Ph.D. student and a technician will be hired and trained in state-of-the-art observational and modeling techniques. A summer internship will be offered most years to enhance research opportunities for undergraduate science majors. The project will also require acquisition of state-of-the-art, recently developed gas analyzers, which supports continued technology innovation currently ongoing at several small U.S. start-up companies that are leading the development of these instruments for environmental applications. Finally, outreach activities are integral to this proposal and will be used to increase exposure of this emerging science discipline to: 1) Native American community college students at the College of Menominee Nation via a 12 day global change summer program; 2) high school students and the general public in rural Wisconsin via hands-on activities and talks at a local field station; and 3) international undergraduate visitors from India as part of a recently initiated student lab exchange program at UW-Madison.