Carbon Implications of Ecosystem Responses to North American Climate Change

This study will combine historic satellite records with recent higher resolution imagery and various in situ data sets to study the direction and magnitude of growth trends as well as their spatial variability and associated carbon exchange across a wide range of North American ecosystems, and account for a range of factors that may result in unexpected ecosystem responses to environmental change. It will resolve better the spatial patterns and variability of carbon sources and sinks at regional to continental scales, and will incorporate a dynamic understanding of the carbon cycle into well-established models. As a result it will help document the fate of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.