Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar

Accurate quantification of northern hemisphere carbon exchange has been an elusive goal since the 1980s. Northern ecosystems drive most of the seasonal cycle in the atmospheric CO2 mole fraction, and long-term increases in the amplitude of the annual cycle provide evidence that carbon cycling is responding to global change. Here, I will discuss drivers of northern hemisphere carbon exchange over a range of timescales, from diurnal drawdown to multi-decadal trends. I will leverage information from in situ and remote sensing CO2 observations across these timescales to relate diagnostic quantification of land-atmosphere carbon exchange with its underlying mechanisms.