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

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。森林、湿地和湖泊中二氧化碳（CO2）和甲烷（CH4）的源和汇显著地改变了化石燃料排放对大气温室效应的影响，这是未来气候变化预测的一个主要不确定性来源。虽然在过去的几十年里，人们对二氧化碳交换进行了广泛的研究，但对甲烷（一种强效温室效应气体）的研究却不那么详尽，尤其是在森林湿地景观中。CH4自然排放速率及其与CO2交换的关系仍存在很大的不确定性。本CAREER提案的目标是发起一项新的区域CH4交换研究，将其纳入美国中西部北部447米研究塔的现有区域二氧化碳研究中，并利用这些观测结果更好地模拟大气碳循环的景观控制。这些观测结果将用于研究碳循环对区域大气化学和全球气候的影响。该提案将有助于促进威斯康星大学（University of Wisconsin）研究甲烷和碳循环、环境微生物学和区域气候变化的研究社区的发展。除了支持一名新教师参与这项研究外，还将雇用一名博士生和一名技术人员，并对他们进行最先进的观察和建模技术的培训。大多数年份将提供暑期实习机会，以增加理科生的研究机会。该项目还需要购买最新开发的最先进的气体分析仪，以支持美国几家小型初创公司目前正在进行的持续技术创新，这些公司正在引领这些环境应用仪器的开发。最后，外展活动是本提案不可或缺的一部分，并将用于增加对这一新兴科学学科的曝光：1)通过为期12天的全球变化暑期项目，在梅诺米尼国家学院的美国原住民社区大学生；2)威斯康星州农村的高中生和公众通过在当地野外站进行实践活动和讲座；3)来自印度的国际本科生，这是威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校最近启动的学生实验室交流项目的一部分。

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.