Environmental & Climate Sciences Department Seminar

Human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. A portion of emissions are sequestered in natural and managed ecosystems on land in the ocean, the balance of which determines the carbon budget. Major efforts are undertaken to account for net GHG emissions at regional, national, and global scales for the purposes of developing policy for, and fulfilling the requirements of, emissions reductions and climate change mitigation agreements. This seminar will provide an overview of the different methods scientists use to measure and model the various sources and sinks of GHGs such as carbon dioxide and methane at multiple scales, present examples of efforts to balance these source and sink estimates across the major components that make up the carbon budget, and discuss the uncertainties and research priorities that emerge from attempts to reconcile carbon budget estimates from different scientific approaches and policy perspectives.