Historical influence of soil and water management on sediment and carbon budgets in the United States
[No abstract available]
Applied Geochemistry↗
Geology topics
E.T. Sundquist
Publications and source records attributed to E.T. Sundquist.
Comparison of two U.S. power-plant carbon dioxide emissions data sets
Estimates of fossil-fuel CO2 emissions are needed to address a variety of climate-change mitigation concerns over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. We compared two data sets that report power-plant CO 2 emissions in the conterminous U.S. for 2004, the most recent year reported in both data sets. The data sets were obtained from the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Environmental Protection Agency's eGRID database. Conterminous U.S. total emissions computed from the data sets differed by 3.5% for total plant emissions (electricity plus useful thermal output) and 2.3% for electricity generation only. These differences are well within previous estimates of uncertainty in annual U.S. fossil-fuel emissions. However, the corresponding average absolute differences between estimates of emissions from individual power plants were much larger, 16.9% and 25.3%, respectively. By statistical analysis, we identified several potential sources of differences between EIA and eGRID estimates for individual plants. Estimates that are based partly or entirely on monitoring of stack gases (reported by eGRID only) differed significantly from estimates based on fuel consumption (as reported by EIA). Differences in accounting methods appear to explain differences in estimates for emissions from electricity generation from combined heat and power plants, and for total and electricity generation emissions from plants that burn nonconventional fuels (e.g., biomass). Our analysis suggests the need for care in utilizing emissions data from individual power plants, and the need for transparency in documenting the accounting and monitoring methods used to estimate emissions.
Environmental Science & Technology↗
Effect of summer throughfall exclusion, summer drought, and winter snow cover on methane fluxes in a temperate forest soil
Soil moisture strongly controls the uptake of atmospheric methane by limiting the diffusion of methane into the soil, resulting in a negative correlation between soil moisture and methane uptake rates under most non-drought conditions. However, little is known about the effect of water stress on methane uptake in temperate forests during severe droughts. We simulated extreme summer droughts by exclusion of 168 mm (2001) and 344 mm (2002) throughfall using three translucent roofs in a mixed deciduous forest at the Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, USA. The treatment significantly increased CH4 uptake during the first weeks of throughfall exclusion in 2001 and during most of the 2002 treatment period. Low summertime CH4 uptake rates were found only briefly in both control and exclusion plots during a natural late summer drought, when water contents below 0.15 g cm-3 may have caused water stress of methanotrophs in the A horizon. Because these soils are well drained, the exclusion treatment had little effect on A horizon water content between wetting events, and the effect of water stress was smaller and more brief than was the overall treatment effect on methane diffusion. Methane consumption rates were highest in the A horizon and showed a parabolic relationship between gravimetric water content and CH4 consumption, with maximum rate at 0.23 g H2O g-1 soil. On average, about 74% of atmospheric CH4 was consumed in the top 4-5 cm of the mineral soil. By contrast, little or no CH4 consumption occurred in the O horizon. Snow cover significantly reduced the uptake rate from December to March. Removal of snow enhanced CH4 uptake by about 700-1000%, resulting in uptake rates similar to those measured during the growing season. Soil temperatures had little effect on CH4 uptake as long as the mineral soil was not frozen, indicating strong substrate limitation of methanotrophs throughout the year. Our results suggest that the extension of snow periods may affect the annual rate of CH4 oxidation and that summer droughts may increase the soil CH4 sink of temperate forest soils. ?? 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Soil Biology and Biochemistry↗
Mississippi Basin Carbon Project science plan
Understanding the carbon cycle is one of the most difficult challenges facing scientists who study the global environment. Lack of understanding of global carbon cycling is perhaps best illustrated by our inability to balance the present-day global CO 2 budget. The amount of CO 2 produced by burning fossil fuels and by deforestation appears to exceed the amount accumulating in the atmosphere and oceans. The carbon needed to balance the CO 2 budget (the so-called "missing" carbon) is probably absorbed by land plants and ultimately deposited in soils and sediments. Increasing evidence points toward the importance of these terrestrial processes in northern temperate latitudes. Thus, efforts to balance the global CO 2 budget focus particular attention on terrestrial carbon uptake in our own North American "backyard." The USGS Mississippi Basin Carbon Project conducts research on the carbon budget in soils and sediments of the Mississippi River basin. The project focuses on the effects of land-use change on carbon storage and transport, nutrient cycles, and erosion and sedimentation throughout the Mississippi River Basin. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the interactions among changes in erosion, sedimentation, and soil dynamics. The project includes spatial analysis of a wide variety of geographic data sets, estimation of whole-basin and sub-basin carbon and sediment budgets, development and implementation of terrestrial carbon-cycle models, and site-specific field studies of relevant processes. The USGS views this project as a "flagship" effort to demonstrate its capabilities to address the importance of the land surface to biogeochemical problems such as the global carbon budget.
Open-File Report↗
Winter CO2 fluxes in a boreal forest
We measured soil respiration during two winters in three different ecotypes of the BOREAS northern study area. The production of CO 2 was continuous throughout the winter and, when totaled for the winter of 1994–1995, was equivalent to the release of ∼40–55 g C/m 2 from the soil surface. As soils cooled in the early winter, the CO 2 production rate decreased in a manner that appeared to be exponentially related to shallow soil temperatures. This exponential relationship was not observed when soils began to warm, possibly indicating that there may be additional or different processes responsible for increased CO 2 production during winter warming events. We also measured CO 2 concentrations in soil gas and the Δ 14 C of the soil CO 2 . These measurements show that the CO 2 produced in winter is not simply the return to the atmosphere of the carbon fixed during the previous growing season. We suggest that the wintertime production of CO 2 originates, at least in part, from the decomposition of old organic carbon stored at depth in the soil.
Journal of Geophysical Research D: Atmospheres↗
Water, energy, and biogeochemical budget research at Sleepers River Research Watershed, Vermont
The U.S. Geological Survey has selected the Sleepers River Research Watershed (Sleepers River) near Danville, Vt., as one of five sites for the investigation of Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB). Sleepers River was chosen because it is a well-designed outdoor laboratory with a long history of hydrologic data collection and research, and also because it provides an ideal opportunity for collaboration among the U.S. Geological Survey, other Federal agencies, and universities at the site. The multiple subwatersheds at Sleepers River present a unique opportunity to investigate hydrologic, energy, and biogeochemical processes over a variety of spatial scales. This WEBB study builds on fundamental research on process mechanisms and rates at the plot scale (in this case, a hillslope). Results then are scaled up to interpret the hydrochemical response of first- and higher- order basins. Five research elements make up the Sleepers River WEBB project. Individually, each of the five elements is designed to investigate specific WEBB processes (such as CO2 efflux through a snowpack), address specific WEBB issues (such as scaling and flowpaths), or apply specific WEBB approaches (such as integrated chemical and physical study of a hillslope). The research elements overlap so that many of the processes investigated will be assessed in more than one way, thus allowing independent verification of research results. For example, flowpath information will be derived separately by use of isotopic tracers, conservative chemical solutes, and soil-moisture fluxes. Collectively, the five elements constitute an integrated approach to a comprehensive understanding of WEBB processes needed for the prediction of the effects of global change.
Open-File Report↗
The global carbon dioxide budget
The increase in atmospheric CO 2 levels during the last deglaciation was comparable in magnitude to the recent historical increase. However, global CO 2 budgets for these changes reflect fundamental differences in rates and in sources and sinks. The modern oceans are a rapid net CO 2 sink, whereas the oceans were a gradual source during the deglaciation. Unidentified terrestrial CO 2 sinks are important uncertainties in both the deglacial and recent CO 2 budgets. The deglacial CO 2 budget represents a complexity of long-term dynamic behavior that is not adequately addressed by current models used to forecast future atmospheric CO 2 levels.
Science↗
Revised budget for the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide
Tracer-calibrated models of the total uptake of anthropogenic CO 2 by the world's oceans give estimates of about 2 gigatonnes carbon per year 1 , significantly larger than a recent estimate 2 of 0.3-0.8 Gt C yr -1 for the synoptic air-to-sea CO 2 influx. Although both estimates require that the global CO 2 budget must be balanced by a large unknown terrestrial sink, the latter estimate implies a much larger terrestrial sink, and challenges the ocean model calculations on which previous CO 2 budgets were based. The discrepancy is due in part to the net flux of carbon to the ocean by rivers and rain, which must be added to the synoptic air-to-sea CO 2 flux to obtain the total oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO 2 . Here we estimate the magnitude of this correction and of several other recently proposed adjustments to the synoptic air-sea CO 2 exchange. These combined adjustments minimize the apparent inconsistency, and restore estimates of the terrestrial sink to values implied by the modelled oceanic uptake.
Nature↗
Dynamics of soil carbon during deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet
Deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America was accompanied by sequestration of organic carbon in newly exposed soils. The greatest rate of land exposure occurred around 12,000 to 8,000 years ago, and the greatest increase in the rate of carbon sequestration by soils occurred from 8,000 to 4,000 years ago. Sequestration of carbon in deglaciated peat lands continues today, and a steady state has not been reached. The natural rate of carbon sequestration in soils, however, is small relative to the rate of anthropogenic carbon dioxide production.
Science↗
Steady- and non-steady-state carbonate-silicate controls on atmospheric CO2
Two contrasting hypotheses have recently been proposed for the past long-term relation between atmospheric CO 2 and the carbonate-silicate geochemical cycle. One approach (Berner, 1990) suggests that CO 2 levels have varied in a manner that has maintained chemical weathering and carbonate sedimentation at a steady state with respect to tectonically controlled decarbonation reactions. A second approach (Raymo et al. , 1988), applied specificlly to the late Cenozoic, suggests a decrease in CO 2 caused by an uplift-induced increase in chemical weathering, without regard to the rate of decarbonation. According to the steady-state (first) hypothesis, increased weathering and carbonate sedimentation are generally associated with increasing atmospheric CO 2 , whereas the uplift (second) hypothesis implies decreasing CO 2 under the same conditions. An ocean-atmosphere-sediment model has been used to assess the response of atmospheric CO 2 and carbonate sedimentation to global perturbations in chemical weathering and decarbonation reactions. Although this assessment is theoretical and cannot yet be related to the geologic record, the model simulations compare steady-state and non-steady-state carbonate-silicate cycle response. The e-fold response time of the ‘CO 2 -weathering’ feedback mechanism is between 300 and 400 ka. The response of carbonate sedimentation is much more rapid. These response times provide a measure of the strength of steady-state assumptions, and imply that certain systematic relations are sustained throughout steady-state and non-steady-state scenarios for the carbonate-silicate cycle. The simulations suggest that feedbacks can maintain the system near a steady state, but that non-steady-state effects may contribute to long-term trends. The steady-state and uplift hypotheses are not necessarily incompatible over time scales of a few million years.
Quaternary Science Reviews↗
Information on selected climate and climate-change issues
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Open-File Report↗
The global carbon cycle and Quaternary paleoclimates.
Key evidence of ancient CO2 concentrations has come from studies of ice cores, marine sediments, ocean current patterns, and oceanic biochemistry and biota, but there are conflicting views about the role of the marine biological pump, especially as regards the deglacial increase in CO2.-from Author
Episodes↗
Carbon dioxide in the ocean surface: The homogeneous buffer factor
The amount of carbon dioxide that can be dissolved in surface seawater depends at least partially on the homogeneous buffer factor, which is a mathematical function of the chemical equilibrium conditions among the various dissolved inorganic species. Because these equilibria are well known, the homogeneous buffer factor is well known. Natural spatial variations depend very systematically on sea surface temperatures, and do not contribute significantly to uncertainties in the present or future carbon dioxide budget.
Science↗