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Project Description-
In a recent report, the National Academy of
Sciences (NAS, 2001) concluded that “progress in reducing the large uncertainties in projections of future climate will require addressing a number of fundamental scientific questions relating to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the behavior of the climate system.” It then went on to identify sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases as critical to reducing this uncertainty. The North American Carbon Program (NACP) was established to respond to this need. It seeks a scientific understanding of sources and sinks for carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide, as well as carbon stocks (the aggregate sums of carbon stored on land and in the oceans) in North America and adjacent ocean basins.
Determining California’s Carbon Budget is a major interdisciplinary study funded as part of the NACP. It seeks to better quantify and understand California’s carbon budget, and focuses on six issues: How much carbon is released and taken up by California? How much confidence should we have in our carbon budgets? How do these results compare with previous budgets? How much, and why, does California’s carbon balance vary from year to year? What processes control the CO2 concentration of air leaving California? And where do California’s CO2 emissions go?
• California provides an important model for developing a national carbon budget because it is complex and spatially heterogeneous, with a number of processes that contribute significantly to carbon exchange, a wide range of land-cover types, and a wide range of natural ecosystems. California’s carbon budget includes a mix of combustion sources and ecosystem sinks that broadly parallels the mix for the entire country, as does its mix of developed land, forestland, rangeland, cropland, shrubland, and grassland.
Principal Investigators-
Michael Goulden, University of California, Irvine
Jim Randerson, University of California, Irvine
Sue Trumbore, University of California, Irvine
Dar Roberts, University of California, Santa Barbara
Bill Riley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Phillip Dennison, University of Utah
NACP Sponsors-
U.S. Global Change Research Program
Department of Energy (DOE)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Science Foundation
U.S. Geological Survey of the Department of Interior
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