Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems
The Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Focus Area addresses the distribution and cycling of carbon among the land, ocean, and atmospheric reservoirs. Research projects in this area also examine how ecosystems change due to biogeochemistry, climate variations and human interaction. This research is needed to improve climate projections for the next 50-100 years by providing key inputs for climate models, such as projections of future atmospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations. These research projects further the understanding of key ecosystem and carbon cycle process controls on the climate system. The goals of this research are: to quantify global productivity, biomass, carbon fluxes, and changes in land cover; to document and understand how the global carbon cycle, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and land cover and land use are changing; and to provide useful projections of future changes in global carbon cycling and terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Some of the projections needed in the coming decades might include predicting the outbreak and spread of harmful algal blooms, predicting the occurrence and spread of invasive exotic species, or the predicting the productivity of forest and agricultural systems under different climate scenarios.
Research Groups
- Carbon Monitoring Systems (CMS)
- Plant Physiology
- Terrestrial Ecosystem and Carbon Simulation Modeling
- Coastal Ocean Biology
Focus Areas
Atmospheric Composition
The Atmospheric Composition focus area consists of research on the composition of Earth’s atmosphere, particularly of the troposphere and stratosphere, in relation to climate forcing, atmospheric ozone and aerosols, solar effects, air quality, and surface emissions of radiatively and chemically active source gases and particulates.
Weather
Our weather system includes the dynamics of the atmosphere and its interaction with the oceans and land and involves phenomena ranging from local or microphysical processes lasting minutes to global-scale events predictable up to two weeks prior.
Climate Variability and Change
NASA’s role in climate variability study is centered around providing the global scale observational data sets on oceans and ice, their forcings, and the interactions with the entire Earth system.
Water and Energy Cycle
The Water and Energy Cycle focus area studies the distribution, transport and transformation of water and energy within the Earth System, with the long-term goal to improve hurricane prediction, quantify tropical rainfall and eventually begin to balance the water budget at global and regional scales.
Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems
This Focus Area deals with the cycling of carbon in reservoirs and ecosystems as it changes naturally, is changed by humans, and is affected by climate change.
Earth Surface and Interior
NASA’s Earth Surface and Interior focus area supports research and analysis of solid-Earth processes and properties from crust to core. This includes providing the space geodetic observations and products foundational to many space missions.