Welcome to ChEAS VIII

1. 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

2. ChEAS primer

3. 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(?).

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 onbridging the gap between leaf- and canopy-scale flux measurements and the global CO2 flask sampling networkand understanding the causes of seasonal to interannual variability in forest-atmosphere exchanges. • Promote data sharing. • Guide the future direction of ChEAS research.

7. 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.

8. ChEAS research goals • 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. • 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.

9. 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.

10. Study sites within the ChEAS region

11. ChEAS long-term flux towers

12. 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

13. 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

14. Publications See http://cheas.psu.edu, link to publications Searchable database.

15. Meeting goals

16. 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

17. Topics for ChEAS VIII (2005) • Hypotheses, methods and results to date • ChEAS and the NACP MCI • Long-term plans for ChEAS

18. 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.

19. Special issues

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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

23. Spatial Domain: Tall Tower Footprints

25. 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.

26. 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?

27. Proposed ChEAS (carbon) hypotheses • 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. • Joint measurements of CO2 fluxes and mixing ratios, when of sufficient precision, are complementary. • 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. • 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. • 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. • 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.

28. 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?

29. 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.

30. 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

31. 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)