Investigating the Carbon Cycle in Terrestrial Ecosystems (ICCTE) Scott Ollinger * -PI, Jana Albrecktova †, Bobby Braswell *, Rita Freuder *, Mary Martin *, Annette Schloss *, Sarah Silverberg * * University of New Hampshire, New Hampshire, USA † Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic NACP related activities for students: Ecological measurements related to plant biomass, nutrient status and growth rate. A simple ecosystem computer model designed to allow students to use their own measurements to estimate a C budget for their field site. A remote sensing toolkit that allows students to use GLOBE data to estimate C budgets at local and continental spatial scales. A set of exercises involving data from FLUXNET that will introduce advance technological methods and improve quantitative skills. Exercises that lead students to connect rates of carbon cycling within ecosystems with rates of carbon emissions associated with various human activities. How will YOU measure carbon? Why is carbon important? Deep ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland have shown that fluctuations in CO 2 lead to corresponding fluctuations in temperature throughout history. Atmospheric CO 2 has been measured in Hawaii since 1958 and has shown a global increase, above and beyond natural variability. Scientists have concluded this is primarily due to human causes such as fossil fuel burning and global deforestation. Atmospheric CO 2 (ppmv) Understanding carbon is necessary to understand climate change and how it will affect our global ecosystems. Carbon dioxide is a primary greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Without CO 2 and other greenhouse gases our planet would be too cold to support life as we know it. What is the carbon cycle? Carbon is the most abundant element in living things and accounts for approximately 50% of the total mass of plants and animals. Carbon is also present in the Earth’s land, atmosphere and oceans and, over time, is cycled between all of these components of the environment. Carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is released to the atmosphere through respiration from plants, animals and decay of dead material, but is taken back out of the atmosphere by plants through photosynthesis then incorporated into organisms, increasing their mass (carbon storage). Globally these two processes have a net CO 2 flux of zero. Fossil fuel burning releases additional CO 2 that either accumulates in the atmosphere or is taken up by plants. Wind direction Turbulent eddies Flux towers have sensors that measure the CO 2 concentration of the air that is going into and out of the forest canopy. In order to understand whole ecosystem carbon exchange. Remote sensing of leaf traits such as foliar nitrogen, chlorophyll and leaf area index allow scientists to map ecosystem productivity, thus carbon, across large landscapes. Intensive Measurements: CO2 flux from the soil for validation of tower measurements Dead leaf matter and branch collection for calculation of carbon by mass Tree biometry (use diameter at breast height to calculate total biomass) Live leaf collection to validate remote sensing methods Soil core analysis for carbon storage The ALTA will be used to estimate leaf chlorophyll and nitrogen concentrations instead of expensive laboratory techniques. Example of an ecosystem model interface, where students could enter their site information and field measured variables. How do scientists measure carbon? In an effort to understand carbon cycling globally the FLUXNET project was developed. This is a global network of flux towers that are used to measure CO 2 exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere. Many of these sites also include measurements on vegetation, soils, hydrology and meteorology, providing information to both researchers and the public. To build on this network the North American Carbon Program (NACP) was designed specifically to quantify and understand the components of the carbon cycle in order to inform policy and management decisions. To do this they have broken down land measurements into 4 categories of intensity. Land measurement categories: Level 1: flux tower sites Level 2: intensive small scale field sampling Level 3: extensive field sampling (data collected over decades) Level 4: mapping and remote sensing