CAREER: Intra-Urban Variability in Carbon Deposition: Rates, Pathways, and Determinants

地理学空间科学（GSS）计划这个教师早期职业发展（职业生涯）奖将支持研究，将通过评估植被在捕获，循环和碳在城市环境中的命运贡献新的知识城市碳循环科学。 作为碳的主要来源和汇，城市地区是理解不断变化的环境和碳循环的前沿。 研究人员将研究城市树木作为城市空气过滤器的作用，从大气中捕获碳颗粒，然后将其沉积到土壤中进行长期储存。 由于碳？由于环境对大气辐射机制的强大影响，了解其去除和进入土壤的情况是制定和实施短期环境缓解战略的关键。 此外，了解有助于城市地区碳清除的因素有助于改善城市居民的空气质量。 该研究将在达拉斯-沃斯堡大都市区的边缘进行，并将量化碳颗粒的过滤。 该项目将为地理和教育专业的科学，技术工程和数学（STEM）开辟新的途径，并为本科生和研究生提供研究经验。 项目结果将通过提供机会来影响城市建筑和配置，同时了解驱动生物地球化学模式和过程的复杂城市形式，从而产生社会经济影响。研究人员将在一个代表世界半干旱地区许多城市地区的快速发展城市中，在精细空间尺度上量化碳沉积的速率，途径和决定因素。 研究者将探索三个核心问题的答案：（1）城市树冠上黑碳沉积速率的空间变异性是什么？ (2)穿透雨和凋落物在土壤碳通量中的作用是什么？ (3)控制黑碳沉积空间格局的城市形态成分是什么？ 将综合高分辨率光探测和测距数据、地理空间数据和实地测量的植被特征，以确定在过滤碳微粒方面造成空间变异的最重要因素。 将开发一个统计模型，以提供在城市规模的树木的碳去除的估计。 基于激光雷达的缩放方法具有潜在的变革性，因为它对不同生态系统中的一系列科学问题具有广泛的适用性。

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATIONGEOGRAPHY SPATIAL SCIENCES (GSS) PROGRAMABSTRACTThis Faculty Early-Career Development (CAREER) award will support research that will contribute new knowledge about urban carbon cycle science by assessing the role of vegetation in the capture, cycling, and fate of carbon in urban environments. As a major source and sink for carbon, urban areas are a frontier in understanding changing environments and the carbon cycle. The investigator will study the extent to which city trees function as urban air filters, capturing carbon particles from the atmosphere and then depositing them into soils for long-term storage. Because of carbon?s powerful influence on atmospheric radiative mechanisms, understanding its removal and input into the soil is key to developing and implementing short-term environmental mitigation strategies. In addition, understanding the factors that contribute to carbon removal in urban areas could help improve air quality for urban residents. The research will be conducted at the edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area and will quantify the filtration of carbon particulates. The project will open new pathways into science, technology engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for geography and education majors, and it provides research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students. Project results will have socioeconomic implications by providing opportunities to impact urban architecture and configuration while understanding the complex urban forms that drive biogeochemical patterns and processes.The investigator will quantify rates, pathways, and determinants of carbon deposition at fine spatial scales in a rapidly growing city that is representative of many urban areas in semi-arid regions of the world. The investigator will explore answers to three core questions: (1) What is the spatial variability in the deposition rates of black carbon on urban tree canopies? (2) What is the role of throughfall and litterfall in the flux of carbon to the soil? (3) What are the urban form components that control spatial patterns of black carbon deposition? High-resolution light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data, geospatial data, and field-measured vegetation characteristics will be integrated to determine the most important factors contributing to spatial variability in the filtering of carbon particulates. A statistical model will be developed to provide estimates of carbon removal by trees at the city scale. The LiDAR-based scaling approach is potentially transformative, because it has broad applicability to a range of scientific questions across diverse ecosystems.