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Carbon Digest #9: Carbon Research, Open Science Meeting, Informing Implementation + Decisions
March/April 2021
Happy #EarthDay! I hope that you have all been well and healthy. It’s been a busy spring. As you know, today, the Leaders Summit on Climate Change is highlighting the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help vulnerable countries cope with unavoidable climate impacts, as well as the economic benefits of climate action. Related to this need, our interagency team continues to plan and implement activities in support of our mission to coordinate and facilitate federally funded carbon cycle research, and provide leadership to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) on carbon cycle science priorities. For instance, in the last issue of our periodic newsletter, Carbon Digest #8: Open Science Meeting, Informing Decisions and Strategic Planning, we highlighted what informs the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Strategic Planning process and how carbon cycle research can inform decisions. Pertinent topics, opportunities and major scientific updates from you populate this current issue, Carbon Digest #9, and were also reflected during conversations at the 7th Open Science Meeting of the North American Carbon Program (NACP) last month, which we discuss below. If you’re interested in submitting future updates to us, please see the end of the newsletter. We look forward to your continued participation, input and collaborations!
Wishing you the best of health,
Gyami Shrestha, Ph.D. , Director, U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Office, Washington, D.C. (i.e., the ancestral lands of the Anacostans, Piscataway, Pamunkey, Nentego, Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Monacan, Powhatan peoples)
In this Carbon Digest:
Who are we? Find our scientists, program managers and stakeholders
Who are we? Know more about our interagency team: Hank Margolis (NASA HQ)
Federal Carbon Removal Data Call , U.S. 2030 Emission Target (NDC)
Conclusion of Biennial Open Science Meeting of North American Carbon Program
Science Implementation Plan of the North American Carbon Program
USDA Seeking Public Input on Executive Order
New Annual U.S. GHG Inventory
Forest Dynamics in the Anthropocene Workshop Summary
Ecoinformatics Seminar: A U.S. History of Federal Collaborations around Carbon
Reflecting Sunlight Could Cool Earth, But Ecological Impacts Are Highly Uncertain
U.S. Carbon Monitor
Compilation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) data
Upcoming events and opportunities
Who are we? Find our scientists, program managers and stakeholders!
Our community of science data collectors, modelers, producers, interpreters, managers, users, communicators, conveners, integrators, decision-makers and supporters are integral to all that we do. It was an honor to interact directly with hundreds and indirectly with thousands of colleagues and stakeholders during the NACP Open Science Meeting last month. Thank you.
Can you find yourself or someone you know in this visual compilation? See more in the16 hours of recordings online!
Again, who are we? Know more about our interagency team: Spotlight on Dr. Hank Margolis (NASA HQ)
We feature members of our interagency team in each issue of the Carbon Digest. In this issue, we are featuring Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (CCIWG) member, Dr. Hank Margolis, who is the Program Manager for Terrestrial Ecology in the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. He serves as the Program Scientist for the GEDI mission to the International Space Station, for the Earth Ventures Instruments 6 (EVI-6) solicitation and for the Oak Ridge Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC) for Biogeochemical Dynamics. For several decades, Hank was a professor of forest ecophysiology at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada. He played a leadership role in NASA’s Boreal Ecosystem – Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) from 1992 to 1996. He also served as Program Leader and Scientific Director of the Fluxnet-Canada and Canadian Carbon Program research networks from 2002 to 2011. A little known fact, Dr. Margolis also served as Peace Corp community forestry volunteer in the Himalayan region (Nepal) in the early part of his career during which time, he trekked well over 3,000 miles.
Federal Carbon Removal Data Call
Last year, we launched the first U.S. federal data call seeking information on federal or federally funded research activities related to or informing carbon removal, including carbon dioxide removal or CDR practices and strategies. If you are a U.S. Government employee interested in participating in this data call, please contact us.
The United States’ Nationally Determined Contribution Reducing Greenhouse Gases in the United States: A 2030 Emissions Target
U.S. submission on April 21, 2021- First Nationally Determined Contribution or NDC (After rejoining the Paris Agreement) - 'This submission communicates the United States’ nationally determined contribution (NDC) in line with Article 4 of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement establishes a goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2oC above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature to 1.5oC.....The United States is setting an economy-wide target of reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent below 2005 levels in 2030....The United States is expected to have met and surpassed its 2020 target of net economy-wide emissions reductions in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels and is broadly on track to achieve 26-28 percent emissions reductions below 2005 levels in 2025. The 2030 target represents increased ambition made possible in part through advances in technology and resulting market responses....A whole-of-government approach on climate action at the federal level will play an important role in achieving our target in 2030, building upon and benefiting from a long history of leadership on climate ambition and innovation from state, local, and tribal governments. Strong and predictable policy frameworks support private investment in innovation and deployment of carbon pollution-free technology and infrastructure, spurring markets that drive continued progress. All levels of government and the private sector will partner to drive and implement this NDC and create a more equitable, resilient, zero carbon future for the American people....’ More here.
Conclusion of Biennial Open Science Meeting of North American Carbon Program
On March 26, 2021, we concluded the 7th Open Science Meeting of the North American Carbon Program (NACP). With 528 registered participants and over 1700 total views throughout 4 consecutive Fridays in March 2021, we were successful in reaching a much larger and much more diverse participation than prior biennial open science meetings. Despite last minute cancellations of the in-person meeting due to the COVID19 pandemic last year, the extraordinary efforts of the Planning Committee (copied) made this virtual meeting a highly successful and inclusive reality. A summary and links to each day's live recording and links to the meeting page here: Open Science Meeting of the North American Carbon Program - Completion and Recordings. Sincere thanks to the entire planning team and the major meeting funders, NASA, USDA NIFA and the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group. Related follow-up actions include the DEI survey report, science communication article and meeting report.
Science Implementation Plan of the North American Carbon Program
The North American Carbon Program (NACP) Science Implementation Plan (NSIP) Draft is now available for public input. Deadline: May 2021.
USDA Seeking Public Input on Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad’
Through the Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is being asked to seek public input regarding USDA's climate strategy. Part II Section 216(b) of this Executive Order directs the Secretary of Agriculture to, “collect input from Tribes, farmers, ranchers, forest owners, conservation groups, firefighters, and other stakeholders on how to best use Department of Agriculture programs, funding and financing capacities, and other authorities, and how to encourage the voluntary adoption of climate-smart agricultural and forestry practices that decrease wildfire risk fueled by climate change and result in additional, measurable, and verifiable carbon reductions and sequestration and that source sustainable bioproducts and fuels.” This public input will be considered as USDA prepares recommendations to expand climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices and systems. The feedback requested through this Executive Order is far-reaching; it encompasses the best use of USDA programs, funding and financing capabilities, authorities, and encouragement of voluntary conservation adoption. Deadline: 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time April 29, 2021. Details here.
New Annual U.S. GHG Inventory (2021)
 
The 28th annual Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks presents a national-level overview of annual greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2019. Net U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 5,769 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, a 1.7 percent decrease in emissions between 2018 and 2019. While many long-term and short-term factors influence annual greenhouse gas emissions in recent years, the downward GHG emissions trend can be largely attributed to falling emissions in the electric power sector. See related USGCRP Terrestrial Carbon indicator and EPA GHG Data Explorer.
Forest Dynamics in the Anthropocene: Reconciling Satellite and Model-Based Estimates of Forest Carbon Mitigation Potentials
By Ben Poulter, Lara Kueppers, Martin Bonzi
The U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Office participated in the Aspen Global Change Institute Workshop in April 2021. The interdisciplinary workshop assessed the state of forest science in natural climate solutions, reconciling remote sensing and land-surface model estimates of the climate mitigation potential of forests. Reforestation and afforestation have been proposed as part of a broader portfolio of natural climate solutions, and a wide range of estimates have been made to understand how much carbon could be removed through forest regrowth. In addition, there is concern that reforestation and afforestation will affect biodiversity, food security, hydrology, and energy feedbacks, each incorporating various environmental justice issues. The workshop discussed 1) the range of reforestation and afforestation estimates provided by remote-sensing based approaches, dynamic global vegetation models and integrated assessment models, and from the use of forest inventory, 2) why the estimates vary, considering carbon cycle uncertainties and socio-economic scenarios, and 3) how to reconcile the uncertainties using new demographic models and space-based lidar and radar remote-sensing observations. For more information contact Benjamin Poulter and Lara Kueppers. More here. Presentations here.
NAU Ecoinformatics seminar: "A U.S. History of Federal Collaborations around Carbon”
- By Shelby Sundquist, Katharyn Duffy, and Andrew Richardson, Northern Arizona University (NAU)
In March, U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Office Director Dr. Gyami Shrestha gave a presentation, "A U.S. History of Federal Collaborations around Carbon - Sustaining and Assessing Impactful Climate Change Research”, in the weekly Ecoinformatics Seminar organized by the Ecological Informatics program in Northern Arizona University’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems. The talk, given via Zoom, attracted a virtual audience of 40 students, postdocs and faculty from a range of departments and schools on campus. Dr. Shrestha described the evolution of federally-funded carbon cycle research in the U.S. over the last 30 years and the specific role that the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program has played in coordinating and facilitating interagency efforts. The talk included real-time audience surveys, conducted via Slido, and concluded with an overview of federally-funded grants and fellowships for students and early career scientists. Shelby Sundquist, a first-year PhD student, commented, ""It's valuable for students like us to learn more about scientific collaboration outside academia, how it can inform federal policy, and how we may participate." Dr. Katharyn Duffy commented that "as an early career scientist who entered the carbon cycle science field around the 2013 NACP meeting, the presentation was fascinating because it filled out the foundation of work that I now myself contribute to." This Ecoinformatics Seminar is a core component of our PhD program in Ecological Informatics, which is funded by an NRT grant from NSF. The goal of this PhD program is to "Train students to independently and collaboratively leverage cutting-edge informatics tools with skills and knowledge of ecology and related environmental science disciplines to address the most pressing environmental issues facing societies today."
Editorial note: It was an honor to speak about the important historical role of our interagency program with NAU students, staff and faculty. Thank you for the opportunity!
New: Reflecting Sunlight Could Cool Earth, But Ecological Impacts Are Highly Uncertain
By Forrest Hoffman, Oak Ridge National Lab
Solar radiation modification (SRM) is a climate intervention or geoengineering approach that relies on reflecting a portion of incoming solar radiation by increasing Earth’s albedo. While SRM strategies, like stratospheric aerosol intervention (SAI), could mitigate some or all of the projected surface temperature increases expected under continuing climate change, other consequences of rising atmospheric CO2, including ocean acidification and vegetation physiological responses, would not be reduced and may lead to unexpected outcomes. In a recent PNAS perspective paper, Forrest Hoffman, Cheng-En Yang, and their collaborators in the Climate Intervention Biology Working Group highlight the importance of investigating potential impacts that SAI would have on terrestrial and marine ecological systems and the global carbon cycle. They describe complex interactions between Earth’s climate system, living systems, and implications for land and ocean carbon sinks; and they advocate for a collaborative research agenda that engages ecologists and climate scientists.
New: U.S. Carbon Monitor
- Steve Davis, University of California Irvine
Assimilating a range of activity data, the new U.S. Carbon Monitor provides daily, state-level, and sector-specific estimates of fossil fuel CO2 emissions beginning in January 2019 and updated approximately monthly going forward. You should also feel free to use the monitor or refer to the press release here.
New: Compilation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) data obtained from global ocean observations from 1994 to 2020
This compilation consists of measurements of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and other chemical and hydrographic parameters obtained during the global ocean observations from 1994-01-01 to 2019-12-31. Measurements of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the open ocean have increased greatly since the late 1980's, spurred by the growth in scientific interest directed at the ocean carbon cycle. DOM data generated by many laboratories around the world are typically made available in diverse, regional data archives, making them less available than necessary for the data value to be maximized. The effort here was to make ship-collected bottle data accessible more directly and in uniform format. The emphasis was on spatial coverage of the global ocean, so the well-known and ongoing time-series data (such as the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study and Hawaiian Ocean Time-series) are not included; nor are coastal waters well represented in this first version. While the focus of this compilation is largely on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), we extended coverage to include the less frequently determined DOM isotopes (13C, 14C), select wavelengths and a single spectral slope of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and DOM composition (i.e., dissolved combined neutral sugars). To the extent possible, the DOM data have been complemented with hydrographic data (e.g., temperature and salinity), other biogeochemical variables (e.g., oxygen, nutrients), the inorganic carbon system [e.g., dissolved inorganic carbon (with isotopes when available), pH, and total alkalinity], and anthropogenic (chlorofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, carbon tetrachloride) and natural tracers (neon, helium, tritium). A very few data are included for biological variables such as bacterial abundance and chlorophyll a concentrations. These data, from approximately 14000 stations (map below), are from taken from 230 cruises, providing 94324 measures of DOC (full water column where available) and 29113 measures of TDN (limited to the surface 250 m). Citation: Hansell, Dennis A.; Carlson, Craig A.; Amon, Rainer M. W.; Álvarez-Salgado, X. Antón; Yamashita, Youhei; Romera-Castillo, Cristina; Bif, Mariana B. (2021). Compilation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) data obtained from the global ocean surveys from 1994 to 2020 (NCEI Accession 0227166). [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. doi.org/10.25921/s4f4-ye35. Accessed [date].
Additional news, upcoming events and opportunities
NOAA GeoXO Atmospheric Composition Town Hall on April 29, 2021
NOAA is planning for the next generation of NOAA geostationary satellites (GOES-R follow on), to be launched in the 2030-2050 time frame. Atmospheric composition is part of that plan, with one instrument similar to TEMPO, and others potentially with complementary capabilities all part of the constellation. See NOAA assessment report on potential atmospheric composition capabilities from a geostationary platform.
USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment
The Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), currently in the early stages of development, will analyze the impacts of global change in the United States.
...advises the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) on how best to meet its mandate in light of climate change impacts happening today and projected into the future.
NASEM Report ‘Reflecting Sunlight: Recommendations for Solar Geoengineering Research and Research Governance’
Efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts through solar geoengineering as well as needs to enhance policymakers’ understanding of climate response options...
The Global Monitoring Laboratory will again be holding a virtual conference for the 2021 Global Monitoring Annual Conference. The 2021 virtual GMAC (eGMAC) will be held on five consecutive days: Monday, May 24th through Friday, May 28th, 2021.
The registration for the annual meeting of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program is now open and it is 100% virtual. Please see below for details. FYI: ‘The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) program was established in 2006 as one of the major activities of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program.... OCB’s overarching goal is to explore the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle and the response of marine ecosystems to environmental changes of the past (paleo), present, and future (prediction).’
Register for NASA 18th Earth Science Technology Forum (ESTF2021)
ESTF2021 will consist of eight virtual sessions, to be held on Thursday afternoons from May through early July. Organized around science themes, the sessions will include presentations on emerging technologies and panel discussions with senior NASA scientists.
Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) Webinar Series
Tropical Pacific Observing Needs Workshop, 24 - 26 May 2021, Virtual Meeting (Registration Deadline: May 17, 2021)
2nd Eddy Cross Disciplinary Symposium, 7 - 10 June 2021 (Poster Abstract Submission Deadline: April 23, 2021; Registration Deadline: May 26, 2021)
G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative
Register for any of the sessions here.
Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative Webinar on Soil biodiversity and the stabilisation of carbon in soil
White House Leaders Summit
Carbon Digest #8: Open Science Meeting, Informing Decisions and Strategic Planning
More news and funding/job announcements
Some recent and relevant publications/tools
Despite pandemic shutdowns, carbon dioxide and methane surged in 2020 (NOAA)
Greenhouse gas emissions and removals from forest land, woodlands, and urban trees in the United States, 1990–2019 (USDA Forest Service)
Annual mixed layer carbon budget for the West Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf: insights from year-round mooring measurements
The gaps in environmental networks across Latin America
The future of the carbon cycle in a changing climate
If you would like to submit items for future Carbon Digests, please email us a short blurb. Please see prior Carbon Digests for examples of external submissions pertinent to the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program. For instance, we are interested in blurbs or summaries of activities (publications, workshops, research campaigns, networks, information systems, databases etc.) supported, facilitated or co-produced by our Program/the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group, and in how you are using our high-level products, such as the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report in your research, communications, education, policy-informing, policy-making/decision-making and related activities.
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