Since plants utilize CO₂ as the substrate for photosynthesis, terrestrial plants
may be directly affected by increasing levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Plants native to
the sagebrush steppe are predicted to increase in growth in response to elevated CO₂
through increased water use efficiency and higher photosynthetic rates. This...
Radiative feedbacks associated with changes in water vapor, temperature, surface albedo and clouds remain a major source of uncertainty in our understanding of climate's response to anthropogenic forcing. In this dissertation climate model data is used to investigate variations in feedbacks that result from changing CO₂ forcing and the time...
Net uptake of carbon from the atmosphere (net ecosystem production, NEP) is dependent on climate, disturbance history, management practices, forest age, and forest type. To improve understanding of the influence of these factors on forest carbon flux in the western U.S., a combination of federal inventory data and supplemental ground...
Biological di-nitrogen (N₂) fixation is a key process in open-ocean ecosystems, where the new nitrogen (N) provided by marine diazotrophs can support a large fraction of primary productivity and carbon (C) drawdown. Recent laboratory studies have shown that elevated pCO₂ enhances the rate of N₂ fixation by select laboratory isolates...
In a steady state, the Earth's absorbed solar radiation (ASR) balances the outgoing
longwave radiation (OLR) at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). In response to a radiative
forcing, that is, an external perturbation to the top of the atmosphere energy balance, the
Earth's climate system adjusts until reaching a...
Fire is a fundamental disturbance that drives terrestrial and atmospheric carbon dynamics. Previous studies have quantified fire effects on carbon cycling from local to global scales but have focused nearly exclusively on high-severity, stand-replacement fire. Since 2002, variable-severity wildfires have burned more than 65 000 ha across the east slope...
Warming of the terrestrial biosphere due to the anthropogenic addition of carbon dioxide to the earth’s atmosphere is becoming a major focus of scientific inquiry. Predictions of the extent of this warming are hampered by uncertainty in the ability of the earth’s ecosystems to counteract this effect by sequestering carbon...
A graphical method, based on a set of acid-base titrations, is
presented for the determination of the carbon dioxide speciation in
natural solutions. The application of this method, in conjunction
with measurements of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide with
which our solutions were in equilibrium permitted the calculation
of...
The ratio of the absolute infrared intensity, A₃/A₂, for the
parallel mode (2336 cm⁻¹) and the perpendicular mode (658 cm⁻¹)
of a nonpolar solute molecule, carbon dioxide, has been determined
in a nonpolar solvent, Nujol. The solution ratio (5.0) which has
been extrapolated to zero concentration is less than the...