Welcome to ChEAS VIII

ChEAS meeting. June, 2005

Welcome to ChEAS VIII• Logistics. Introductions. Reimbursement. Meals. Transport.

Facilities –we must take care. Agenda – order of topics, field visit logistics.

• A brief history of the ChEAS• Brief review of projects, sites, goals• Meeting goals• Special issues

– AmeriFlux evaluation/DoE TCP review/NIGEC restructuring– New research projects– ChEAS and the North American Carbon Program midcontinental

intensive (NACP MCI)– Long-term ChEAS?

• ChEAS special issue update• ChEAS RCN update


ChEAS primer


A brief history of the ChEAS• Unknown date in pre-history, U. Wisconsin begins

forestry research in the Chequamegon National Forest.• 1990 or so, NOAA-CMDL starts instrumenting tall

towers for trace gas measurements.• December 1991, Davis and Bakwin start talking in

Boulder, due to Michael Trolier and the Chemrawn VII meeting in Baltimore.

• 1994. NIGEC funds Bakwin and Davis for eddy flux measurements at WLEF. NOAA-funded CO2 measurements start in 1994. Flux measurements start in 1995. AmeriFlux takes shape ~ 1996(?).


A brief history of ChEAS• 1997. Bolstad, Davis, Denning, Gower, Gutschick, and

Mackay (others?) all begin new projects in the Chequamegon region, all focused to some extent around the WLEF flux and mixing ratio measurements. Gower organizes a winter 1998 meeting at Kemp. ChEAS is born. Bakwin creates the acronym at this meeting.

• Past ChEAS meetings:– Kemp, February 1998.– St. Paul, May 1999.– St. Paul, June 2000.– Madison, June, 2001– Kemp, June 2002.– Kemp, June 2003.– St. Paul, June 2004.

• ChEAS RCN funded in early 2002.


The Chequamegon Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (ChEAS)

Research Collaboration Network (RCN)

• Funded by the NSF’s Biological Sciences Directorate.

• 5 year project, started ~ January 2002.• Proposal written by Eileen Carey and Bruce

Cook. Initiated at the suggestion of Jim Ehleringer, U.Utah, at the 4th ChEAS meeting, Madison, WI, June, 2001.


ChEAS RCN, Objectives• Education: Provide multidisciplinary training and

research opportunities to new scientists working across traditional boundaries in the fields of ecology, hydrology and atmospheric science.

• Research: Promote the development of integrative research projects building upon the ChEAS infrastructure, especially those focusing on bridging the gap between leaf- and canopy-scale flux measurements and the global CO2 flask sampling network and understanding the causes of seasonal to interannual variability in forest-atmosphere exchanges.

• Promote data sharing.• Guide the future direction of ChEAS research.


ChEAS RCN, structure and activities, proposed

• Steering group + about 20 “core participants” (= research group leaders with research interests matching the objectives of the RCN). Open to new members.

• Workshops. 2002, 2004, 2006. Funds to bring in guest scientists and participating students and scientists. 2 week duration.

• ChEAS meetings, each year. 1-2 days.• Laboratory exchanges. Up to 5 visits/year,

duration of 2 weeks to a few months.


ChEAS research goals

1. Quantify regional fluxes• Extrapolate (upscale) plot- and stand-level flux tower data across

space to estimate regionally aggregated fluxes, and reconcile these estimates with inversion-derived “top-down” flux estimates.

2. Determine the processes that govern regional fluxes• Using plot, stand, and atmospheric inversion flux measurements,

determine the processes that govern spatial variability in gross fluxes (gross ecosystem productivity, ecosystem respiration) and net fluxes (NEE) in the ChEAS region.

• Using plot, stand and atmospheric inversion flux measurements, determine the processes that govern temporal variability of gross and net fluxes across the region from diurnal to interannual timescales.


Projects, sites

• About 5-10 projects partly or wholly focused in the region have been ongoing since ~ 1997.

• NOAA, NIGEC, DoE TCP, NSF DEB, USDA and NSF/NCAR have provided funds.

• Research has often, but not always, focused around flux towers. 7 long term and 2?/5? portable systems are currently operating.

• http://cheas.psu.edu has lots of information. Project descriptions are very out of date.


Study sites within the ChEAS region


ChEAS long-term flux towersTower PIs Vegetation

TypeHeight of fluxes

Funding Start date

WLEF Bakwin, Bolstad, Davis

Mixed up/wet, decid/conif

30, 122 and 396m

DoE TCP.

Questionable 2005-2006.

1995

Willow Creek

Bolstad, Davis

Mature upland decid

30m NASA 1999

Lost Creek Bolstad, Davis

Deciduous wetland

10m NIGEC Midwest

2000

Sylvania Bolstad, Davis

Old growth upland

40m DoE TCP 2001

Bayfield A Chen Mature upland decid

30m NSF Ecosystems

2002

Bayfield B Chen Mature red pine

30m NSF Ecosystems

2002

UMBS Curtis, Schmid

Old aspen 40m? NIGEC Midwest

1997?


Theme PI Description Sites Funding

Atmospheric carbon cycle measurements and analysis, global, continental and regional.

Tans, Andrews and Hirsch, NOAA/CMDL

Tall tower CO2 and

trace gas measurements

Several across the U.S. including WLEF

NOAA OGP GCC

Tans, Andrews and Hirsch, NOAA/CMDL

Airborne CO2 and

trace gas profiling

Several across the U.S. including WLEF

NOAA OGP GCC

Paul Wennberg, CalTech

FTIR measurements of CO2 column

WLEF NASA

Kenneth Davis, PSU, and Scott Denning, CSU

Regional, seasonal atmospheric inversion study

ChEAS(2003) + an NACP study area (2004)

DoE TCP

Jim Ehleringer, Univ. Utah

Stable isotope observations, interpretation.

ChEAS, other BASIN sites around the globe.

GCTE

INTEX – N. America Airborne atmospheric chemistry project, 2004

ChEAS, east and west coast sites, continental transects

NASA

Steven Wofsy, Harvard

COBRA – airborne Lagrangian budgets

Many sites including WLEF

Multiple sources

Joe Berry, Carnegie Institute of Stanford

Regional carbon fluxes integrated by the ABL

Multiple sites. Focus on WLEF and ARM-CART towers.

NOAA


Ecosystem-atmosphere flux measurements and ecosystem processes.

Paul Bolstad, U. Minnesota and Kenneth Davis, PSU

WLEF fluxes and upscaling

WLEF tower and surrounding region

DoE – AmeriFlux

Bolstad, U. Minnesota and Davis, PSU

Old growth chamber, plot and eddy covariance fluxes

Sylvania/Helen Lake (UP of Michigan)

DoE TCP

Jiquan Chen, Univ. Toledo

Forest age, structure, and impact on carbon balance

Western district of the Chequamegon, UP of Michigan

NSF Biological Sciences

Bolstad, U. Minnesota and Davis, PSU

Wetland fluxes in ChEAS

Lost Creek, WLEF NIGEC Midwestern Region

Remote sensing, modeling of ecosystem processes

Scott Mackay, SUNY Buffalo and Brent Ewers, U. Wyoming

Sap fluxes, regional water flux modeling

WLEF/ChEAS NSF Hydrology


Publications

See http://cheas.psu.edu, link to publications

Searchable database.


Meeting goals


Goals of all ChEAS meetings

• Identify scientific opportunities and needs.

• Educate ourselves, especially grad students, about these opportunities and needs.

• Identify/introduce new collaborators who can enhance the ChEAS.

• Create action plans.

• See field sites/conduct experiments


Topics for ChEAS VIII (2005)

• Hypotheses, methods and results to date

• ChEAS and the NACP MCI

• Long-term plans for ChEAS


Charge to attendees• Report on your own hypotheses, methods, results

to date. Synthesize.• Speak up when you have something relevant to

contribute to the presenter. Papers, proposals, postdocs and coauthors are born here. Integrate across groups and disciplines. Report. Publish.

• Present or speak up when you see needs, contributions, opportunities, etc, relevant to the NACP intensive.

• Present or speak up when you see … relevant to the long-term plans for the ChEAS. Wither the ChEAS? Formulate hypotheses, plan of action.


Special issues


Special issues• DoE TCP/AmeriFlux review/NIGEC restructuring

– Purpose of the ChEAS isn’t clear to DoE TCP.– NIGEC is disappearing, and its future interest in flux measurements in waning.– All AmeriFlux sites are being evaluated by DoE TCP for potential long-term, facility-like support.

Evaluation is based on:• Site instrumentation and maintenance personnel• Site participation in synthesis activities• Site database reporting, data breadth and quality, responsiveness to data managers• Hargrove ecoregions analysis regarding ecological uniqueness. (Mixed forest)• No consideration to date of clusters, publication history.

– Does a cluster like the ChEAS have benefit that is greater than the sum of its individual study sites? Can we clearly articulate this message to program managers?

• New research projects– NASA carbon upscaling project. Bolstad, Davis, Kolka, Heinsch and Kubiske. Can we successfully

construct multi-tier upscaling of regional carbon fluxes?• The NACP MCI now includes the ChEAS.

– All of you are NACP regional intensive investigators.– This will/should bring new investigators to the ChEAS

• Ecosystem flux models: Invite new investigators to join in the upscaling experiment – apply their models to our database.

• Remote sensing: Invite help with land surface classifications that work for carbon upscaling• Inversions: Invite other groups to participate in a regional inversion intercomparison.

– Meetings: Winter PIs workshop. Merge with RCN regional flux methods grad/pdoc workshop? Fall AGU session on the NACP MCI likely.


NACP MCI Objectives– Provide “top-down” and “bottom-up” flux estimates for

MC Intensive study region

– Evaluate discrepancies between approaches and diagnose problems

– Incrementally improve estimates for both approaches through comparisons and mutual “learning”

– Work towards an optimization of field and atmospheric sampling schemes

– Provide mechanistic explanations for net flux patterns across seasonal to annual time spans

– Provide guidance to future Intensives


NACP MCI Task Force Members• Stephen Ogle (co-coord.) – ecosystem modeling

• Ken Davis (co-coord.) – tower measurements/upscaling

• Bob Cook – Data management support for Intensive

• Shashi Verma – EC Flux Towers in agricultural systems

• Arlyn Andrews – Long Term Atmospheric Monitoring (Tall Towers)

• Kevin Gurney – Atmospheric inversions and fossil fuel emissions

• Steve Wofsy – Aircraft measurements

• Tris West – ecosystem modeling

• Tim Parkin – EC Flux Towers in agricultural systems

• Jeff Morisette – Remote Sensing


Spatial Domain: Tall Tower Footprints



Structure - Nested spatial scales• Whole mid-continental region

– Annual to daily focus, high spatial resolution. Independent top-down and bottom-up approaches.

• Sub-regional intensive domains– Evaluate bottom-up approaches within coherent

MLRAs/ecoregions. Seasonal to daily focus, very high spatial resolution. Independent top-down fluxes.

– E.g. Bondville, Mead-NB, SMEX05/Iowa-USDA, ARM-CART

• Stand-level studies– Flux towers, ‘tier 3 and tier 2’ plots, etc. Used to calibrate

ecosystem models for up-scaling.– Annual to daily focus. Single points in space.


Special issues (continued)• Develop a science plan for the ChEAS in the long-

term. What is the logic of a cluster of sites?– Preliminary draft written, with major results to date.

– Needs: • Develop and refine this science plan.

• Communicate it to program managers. Secure support. Each measurement or model must support a hypothesis.

• Upcoming RFPs that might benefit the ChEAS– NSF LTREB call – July deadline

– NASA NACP call (?)

– DoE TCP – spring 2006

– Others?


Proposed ChEAS (carbon) hypotheses1. Simultaneous application of multiple top-down (atmospheric inversion) and bottom-up

(ecological modeling with flux tower, remote sensing, forest inventory and other biophysical inputs) methods will converge upon net CO2 fluxes for the region that are consistent to within 0.2 gC m-2 d-1 on both seasonal and annual time scales.

2. Joint measurements of CO2 fluxes and mixing ratios, when of sufficient precision, are complementary.

3. Climate variability drives interannual variability of gross and net carbon fluxes at any single site within the ChEAS region. The coherence of climate within the study area causes interannual variability to be coherent across multiple sites in the region. Thus, a single flux tower can be used to capture a large fraction of the interannual variability for the entire region.

4. Stand age, soil moisture status and species composition govern spatial variability in carbon fluxes across sites within the ChEAS region. Thus, characterization of the above ecosystem properties will enable ecosystem models to accurately estimate regional fluxes using a combination of flux tower data, forest inventory data, and vegetation cover maps as inputs.

5. We can determine the appropriate levels of map detail and ecosystem model complexity that are necessary to match these upscaled fluxes to regional-scale inversion results and tall tower fluxes. These upscaling methods will be exportable to other forested regions.

6. The simultaneous application of plot-level, stand-level and regional flux measurements will reveal the dominant processes governing regional fluxes and the temporal variability of those fluxes. This will enable models to predict the responses of the regional carbon budget to future climate and land-use change.


ChEAS special issue

• 13 papers being reviewed.• Results document created for the AmeriFlux

review is the basis for a summary paper for the special issue. Needs your contributions. What answers have we found, what puzzles remain? Discuss this today and tomorrow.

• ChEAS data base development – require that all published data are reported to Mercury?


ChEAS RCN issues

• Data-base development• Internet conferencing tools• Next workshop• Next meeting• Lab-to-lab travel requests• Summer help will work on database

development, internet conferencing tech, regional flux workshop planning.


ChEAS RCN budget

• Meetings substantially under budget. – Shorter duration than planned– Lower travel costs than planned– Participation about as planned

• Lab exchanges somewhat under budget– Fewer requests than planned– Shorter duration than planned– Similar costs to planning


Major ChEAS results• Analyses of WLEF multi-year flux record• Comparisons across ChEAS towers for one year• Convergence of regional upscaling, and top-down

carbon flux estimates for the growing season• (Cluster-wide interannual variability)• (Ecosystem, and coupled atmosphere-ecosystem

CO2 model evaluation)• (Regional inversion flux estimates)

Documents

Welcome to ChEAS VIII