CAREER: Experimental Warming, Permafrost Thawing, and the Loss of Old Carbon from Tundra: Radiocarbon Research and Education to Understand Ecosystem Feedbacks to Climate Change

职业：实验变暖、永久冻土融化和苔原旧碳的流失：放射性碳研究和教育，以了解生态系统对气候变化的反馈

• 批准号: 0747195
• 负责人: Edward Schuur
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-03-01 至 2014-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0747195&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Experimental; Warming; Permafrost; Thawing

Enough carbon is contained in soils and permafrost of northern ecosystems to double current carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Because of the size and nature of the permafrost carbon pool, decomposition of previously frozen, old organic carbon is one of the most likely positive feedbacks from terrestrial ecosystems to climate change in a warmer world. This project uses radiocarbon measurements as a unique fingerprint for detecting the loss of old soil carbon in combination with an ecosystem-scale field manipulation to determine controls over the release of permafrost carbon. This high-precision isotope research is paired with the continued development and teaching of an intensive short course designed to expose students to the emerging technology of accelerator mass spectrometry for measuring radiocarbon. Increased numbers of radiocarbon measurements combined with more researchers skilled in the interpretation of this data offers great promise towards detecting changes in ecosystem and global carbon cycling. Climate change is altering the world in which we live. At present, increasing greenhouse gases responsible for climate change are largely a result of human activities. However, climate change may alter the natural cycling of carbon in ecosystems far from direct human influence. The permafrost carbon pool is more than 100 times the current annual inputs of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from human activity, and thresholds at the freezing point indicate that abrupt changes are possible. This research and education plan focusing on radiocarbon is aimed at understanding more broadly whether terrestrial ecosystems will accelerate or mitigate future climate change.

北部生态系统的土壤和多年冻土中含有足够的碳，可以使大气中的二氧化碳两倍。 由于永久冻土碳池的大小和性质，以前冷冻的分解，旧有机碳是从地面生态系统到温暖世界中气候变化的最可能积极反馈之一。 该项目使用放射性碳测量值作为独特的指纹，用于检测旧土壤碳的损失，并结合生态系统规模的场操作，以确定对释放多种冻土碳的控制。 这项高精度的同位素研究与一门密集的短期课程的持续开发和教学配对，旨在使学生进入加速器质谱的新兴技术，以测量放射性碳。 放射性碳测量值增加，再加上越来越多的研究人员来解释该数据，这为检测生态系统和全球碳循环的变化提供了巨大的希望。气候变化正在改变我们生活的世界。目前，造成气候变化的越来越多的温室气体主要是人类活动的结果。 但是，气候变化可能会改变生态系统中碳的自然循环，这远非直接人类影响力。 永久冻土碳池是人类活动中当前年度二氧化碳年度输入到大气中的100倍以上，冰点处的阈值表明可能发生突然的变化。 该研究和教育计划的重点是放射性碳，旨在更广泛地了解陆地生态系统是否会加速或减轻未来的气候变化。