SPRUCE (Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change) is in the news following a meeting and tele-interview earlier this month.The Star Tribune is a newpaper in the Minnesotta area where the peat bogs being studied as part of this project are located.  Read the entire story on the Star Tribune site.

CCSI is hosting the following seminar:

Peter Hjolt Lauritzen (Research Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research) - NCAR Efforts on Transport in Global Climate Models. February 28, 2012; 1:30pm, Building 5700, Room L204 (Jointly hosted with the Computing and Computational Sciences Division)

Science has released its 2010 most notable events affecting the global research community. The annual research conducted by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) on greenhouse gas emissions was selected as one of these events and was listed in the December 23, 2011 edition of Science. Every year the CDIAC produces time series estimating releases of carbon from fossil-fuel use and cement production on global and national scales. The results for 2010 (published in November 2010) noted that greenhouse gas emissions jumped 6%, far more than IPCC projections. (See previous story on this report.)

CCSI has released its first Annual Report in which we highlight several research activities and celebrate our staff and their research accomplishments.

In this recently published ISME Journal Commentary, the international group of scientists describe the potential impact of microbes transforming soil organic matter (SOM) released from thawing permafrost in high-latitude ecosystems. Microbial communities degrade SOM in the active layer, controlling the quantities and mixtures of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) produced and their feedback on climate change. Thawing may lead to changes in community composition and enzyme production, as well as increased rates of SOM turnover. These changes could alter temperature sensitivities of carbon cycle processes in land models. Systems biology (e.g., metagenomics adn metaproteomics) can measure microbial responses to environmental change, help infer the quality of SOM, and improve climate prediction through process understanding.

Objectives: Quantify the effect on surface temperature from spatial patterns of land use in the present climate.

Objective

Every year the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory produces time series estimating releases of carbon from fossil-fuel use and cement production on global and national scales.  The primary objective is to quantity the major anthropogenic source of carbon in the global carbon cycle budget.  Secondary objectives of the annual activity are to understand national trends in fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions, produce gridded products needed for modeling activities (e.g., IPCC AR5), and provide benchmark data for mitigation efforts and policy discussions.

Tom Boden and former CCSI Member, Gregg Marland, were quoted in a recent Associated Press article, "Biggest jump ever seen in global warming gases," as a result of their report on annual CO₂ emissions. Each year, CDIAC puts together an annual global and national estimate from data assembled by the United Nations in New York. Click to see the article.