Project Details
Description
Global temperatures are rising due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, leading to widespread, rapid changes in the climate system. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate forcing, and only thanks to uptake by natural sinks in the biosphere and oceans its rise in the atmosphere is slowed down by around 56%. To understand atmospheric CO2 levels, it is therefore not only crucial to know the rates of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but also how much CO2 is taken up by these natural sinks.
In this program, I will build a team that uses atmospheric oxygen (O2) to contribute to two fundamental challenges in carbon cycle research: understanding the gross drivers of biosphere CO2 exchange –photosynthesis and respiration– and separating the anthropogenic and natural components in the atmospheric CO2 signal. Atmospheric O2 and CO2 are directly coupled in the carbon cycle and connected through their so-called exchange ratios which are at the heart of my program.
My team will augment novel laboratory experiments of O2/CO2 exchange under controlled climatic conditions with measurements at two locations in the Netherlands: the Loobos forest site and the Rotterdam urban site. I aim to derive new estimates for the spatial-temporal variability of the biosphere O2/CO2 exchange ratio and provide new estimates of photosynthesis and respiration fluxes of CO2 and O2 at leaf-, plant- and ecosystem-scale. For the anthropogenic component, I will provide near real-time estimates of CO2 fossil fuel emissions based on new measurements, using unique exchange ratios per fuel type to “fingerprint” the signals and attribute them to different emission sources. Together with the development of a regional CarbonTracker-O2 modelling framework, this offers an exciting possibility to better quantify the European CO2 landscape. This is highly relevant for the energy transition towards achieving pledged CO2 emission reductions.
In this program, I will build a team that uses atmospheric oxygen (O2) to contribute to two fundamental challenges in carbon cycle research: understanding the gross drivers of biosphere CO2 exchange –photosynthesis and respiration– and separating the anthropogenic and natural components in the atmospheric CO2 signal. Atmospheric O2 and CO2 are directly coupled in the carbon cycle and connected through their so-called exchange ratios which are at the heart of my program.
My team will augment novel laboratory experiments of O2/CO2 exchange under controlled climatic conditions with measurements at two locations in the Netherlands: the Loobos forest site and the Rotterdam urban site. I aim to derive new estimates for the spatial-temporal variability of the biosphere O2/CO2 exchange ratio and provide new estimates of photosynthesis and respiration fluxes of CO2 and O2 at leaf-, plant- and ecosystem-scale. For the anthropogenic component, I will provide near real-time estimates of CO2 fossil fuel emissions based on new measurements, using unique exchange ratios per fuel type to “fingerprint” the signals and attribute them to different emission sources. Together with the development of a regional CarbonTracker-O2 modelling framework, this offers an exciting possibility to better quantify the European CO2 landscape. This is highly relevant for the energy transition towards achieving pledged CO2 emission reductions.
| Status | Active |
|---|---|
| Effective start/end date | 1/03/23 → … |
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