U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program

About U.S. Carbon Cycle Science

Introduction

The U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program is clarifying the changes, magnitudes and distributions of carbon sources and sinks, the fluxes between the major terrestrial, oceanic and atmospheric carbon reservoirs, and the underlying mechanisms involved including humans, fossil fuel emissions, land use, and climate. Program scientists are now beginning to reveal and quantify some of the intricate complexities and interactions between the Earth’s carbon reservoirs and climate. The program engages numerous science disciplines and extends over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. Ten federal agencies coordinate and support the program activities, which include the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group, Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Group, North American Carbon Program, Ocean Carbon and Climate Change Program, and the State of the Carbon Cycle Report.

For more information, take a look at our recent poster.

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History

In 1989, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) began as a presidential initiative to monitor, understand, and predict climate change, drawing on a broad range of interdisciplinary science elements, including biogeochemical dynamics, ecological systems and dynamics, climate and hydrologic systems, human interactions, earth system history, solid earth processes, and solar influences. In 1990, the USGCRP was codified by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990.

In 1999, the National Research Council (NRC) report Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade specifically emphasized the need for a comprehensive carbon cycle research strategy. In response, the Carbon and Climate Working Group of USGCRP wrote A U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan (1999) to establish the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program.

From 2002-2008, USGCRP and the Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) were integrated under the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP). In 2003, the CCSP integrated the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program into its Strategic Plan (and updated in 2008).

The Carbon Cycle Science Program contributes to all of the goals outlined in the Strategic Plan and focuses particularly on Goal 2: Improved quantification of the forces bringing about changes in the Earth's climate and related systems. It directly addresses the global carbon cycle research element and questions and is synergistic with the ecosystems, global water cycle, climate variability and change, atmospheric composition, land use and land cover change, human contributions and responses, and observations research elements.

In 2007, the Global Carbon Project Scientific Steering Committee accepted Terms of Reference that recognized the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program as an Affiliated Office of the Global Carbon Project.

In 2008, a new planning effort began to update and revise the 1999 carbon cycle science plan. More information is available at Carbon Cycle Science Planning for the Next Decade.

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Mission and Vision

Carbon cycle science requires an unprecedented coordination among scientists and supporting government agencies. The nature of the carbon cycle demands this: carbon is exchanged among three major, active reservoirs (the ocean, the land, and the atmosphere) through a variety of physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms, and includes both organic and inorganic components. Because a large number of government agencies are involved in supporting research on the carbon cycle (ranging from data gathering to analysis and modeling), extraordinary value can be gained by coordinating research and encouraging disciplinary and organizational cross-fertilization through effective program integration. Thus the Carbon Cycle Science Program seeks to better understand past changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, deliver credible predictions of future atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and strengthen the scientific foundation for management decisions in numerous areas of great public interest.

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Research Strategy

The intent of the Carbon Cycle Science Program is to develop a strategic and optimal mix of essential components, including sustained operations, modeling, and innovative process studies. This design calls for coordinated, rigorous, interdisciplinary scientific research that is strategically prioritized to address societal needs.

There are two components to the Carbon Cycle Science Program research strategy:

  1. Developing a small number of potent new research initiatives that are feasible, cost-effective, and compelling, to improve understanding of carbon dynamics within and among carbon reservoirs
  2. Strengthening the broad research agendas of the agencies through better coordination, focus, conceptual and strategic framework, and articulation of goals

See A U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan (1999) for further discussion of these elements.

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Scientific Questions and Objectives

Overarching Questions

The Carbon Cycle Science Program has two overarching questions at its core. Each of these questions flows into specific long-term goals and implementation objectives. See A U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan (1999) for further discussion of these questions and objectives.

What has happened to the carbon dioxide that has already been emitted through human activities (i.e., anthropogenic carbon dioxide)?

Long term goals include:

Implementation objectives include:

What will be the future atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations resulting from both past and future emissions?

Long term goals include:

Implementation objectives include:

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Strategic Research Questions

In order to both improve scientific knowledge and understanding of the carbon cycle and support application of this scientific knowledge to societal needs, a number of strategic research questions are used to guide the efforts of the Carbon Cycle Science Program:

7.1 What are the magnitudes and distributions of North American carbon sources and sinks on seasonal to centennial time scales, and what are the processes controlling their dynamics?

7.2 What are the magnitudes and distributions of ocean carbon sources and sinks on seasonal to centennial time scales, and what are the processes controlling their dynamics?

7.3 What are the effects on carbon sources and sinks of past, present, and future land-use change and resource management practices at local, regional, and global scales?

7.4 How do global terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric carbon sources and sinks change on seasonal to centennial time scales, and how can this knowledge be integrated to quantify and explain annual global carbon budgets?

7.5 What will be the future atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and other carbon-containing greenhouse gases, and how will terrestrial and marine carbon sources and sinks change in the future?

7.6 How will the Earth system, and its different components, respond to various options for managing carbon in the environment, and what scientific information is needed for evaluating these options?

These questions are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 7 of the CCSP Strategic Plan.

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Recent Research

Each year the Carbon Cycle Science Program includes highlights of recent research and plans for future research in the Global Carbon Cycle chapter of Our Changing Planet. For a full list of links to Global Carbon Cycle chapters and full Our Changing Planet reports, please visit the "Our Changing Planet" section on the Documents page.

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This page last updated June 19, 2009 .