Research Seminar by Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Thrust - Assessing Carbon Budgets in Agricultural and Forest Ecosystems Using the Eddy Covariance Technique

The biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchanges strongly affect the global climate. However, the carbon dynamics in various ecosystems can be altered under the changing climate, thus forming feedback between climate and ecosystem. As regional climate conditions are changing rapidly in some regions of the globe, such as the inland Pacific Northwest (iPNW) region in the US and the boreal region in northern Sweden, there is a critical need to understand how the carbon balances of agricultural and forest ecosystems vary with the local climate and management practices in these regions. In this presentation, implications of agricultural management activities and climatic conditions on carbon dynamics will be first evaluated using the long-term eddy covariance data measured at five cropping systems in the iPNW region. Furthermore, findings of the boreal forest carbon balance in northern Sweden will be demonstrated based on the carbon flux measurements from the below-canopy and tall-tower eddy covariance towers to investigate the spatiotemporal variability of the landscape-scale carbon balance. Overall, this seminar will address an interdisciplinary research topic about the carbon cycle and global change, thus providing some insights into the potential mitigation and adaptation strategies for ensuring sustainable agriculture and forestry under the risks of regional climate change.