A Roadmap for a Continental-Scale Greenhouse Gas Observing System in Europe

Author(s):  
A. Johannes Dolman ◽  
Philippe Ciais ◽  
Riccardo Valentini ◽  
Ernst-Detlef Schulze ◽  
Martin Heimann ◽  
...  
2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Russell-Smith ◽  
Cameron P. Yates ◽  
Peter J. Whitehead ◽  
Richard Smith ◽  
Ron Craig ◽  
...  

Australia is among the most fire-prone of continents. While national fire management policy is focused on irregular and comparatively smaller fires in densely settled southern Australia, this comprehensive assessment of continental-scale fire patterning (1997–2005) derived from ~1 km2 Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery shows that fire activity occurs predominantly in the savanna landscapes of monsoonal northern Australia. Statistical models that relate the distribution of large fires to a variety of biophysical variables show that, at the continental scale, rainfall seasonality substantially explains fire patterning. Modelling results, together with data concerning seasonal lightning incidence, implicate the importance of anthropogenic ignition sources, especially in the northern wet–dry tropics and arid Australia, for a substantial component of recurrent fire extent. Contemporary patterns differ markedly from those under Aboriginal occupancy, are causing significant impacts on biodiversity, and, under current patterns of human population distribution, land use, national policy and climate change scenarios, are likely to prevail, if not intensify, for decades to come. Implications of greenhouse gas emissions from savanna burning, especially seasonal emissions of CO2, are poorly understood and contribute to important underestimation of the significance of savanna emissions both in Australian and probably in international greenhouse gas inventories. A significant challenge for Australia is to address annual fire extent in fire-prone Australian savannas.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (24) ◽  
pp. 15151-15165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Lan ◽  
Pieter Tans ◽  
Colm Sweeney ◽  
Arlyn Andrews ◽  
Andrew Jacobson ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study analyzes seasonal and spatial patterns of column carbon dioxide (CO2) over North America, calculated from aircraft and tall tower measurements from the NOAA Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network from 2004 to 2014. Consistent with expectations, gradients between the eight regions studied are larger below 2 km than above 5 km. The 11-year mean CO2 dry mole fraction (XCO2) in the column below  ∼  330 hPa ( ∼  8 km above sea level) from NOAA's CO2 data assimilation model, CarbonTracker (CT2015), demonstrates good agreement with those calculated from calibrated measurements on aircraft and towers. Total column XCO2 was attained by combining modeled CO2 above 330 hPa from CT2015 with the measurements. We find large spatial gradients of total column XCO2 from June to August, with north and northeast regions having  ∼  3 ppm stronger summer drawdown (peak-to-valley amplitude in seasonal cycle) than the south and southwest regions. The long-term averaged spatial gradients of total column XCO2 across North America show a smooth pattern that mainly reflects the large-scale circulation. We have conducted a CarbonTracker experiment to investigate the impact of Eurasian long-range transport. The result suggests that the large summertime Eurasian boreal flux contributes about half of the north–south column XCO2 gradient across North America. Our results confirm that continental-scale total column XCO2 gradients simulated by CarbonTracker are realistic and can be used to evaluate the credibility of some spatial patterns from satellite retrievals, such as the long-term average of growing-season spatial patterns from satellite retrievals reported for Europe which show a larger spatial difference ( ∼  6 ppm) and scattered hot spots.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Lan ◽  
Pieter Tans ◽  
Colm Sweeney ◽  
Arlyn Andrews ◽  
Andrew Jacobson ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study analyzes seasonal and spatial patterns of column carbon dioxide (CO2) over North America calculated from aircraft and tall tower measurements from the NOAA Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network from 2004 to 2014. Consistent with expectations, gradients between the eight regions studied are larger below 2 km than above 5 km. The 11-year mean CO2 dry mole fraction (XCO2) in the column below ~ 330 hPa (~ 8 km above sea level) from NOAA's CO2 data assimilation model, CarbonTracker (CT2015), demonstrates good agreement with those calculated from calibrated measurements on aircraft and towers. Total column XCO2 was attained by combining modeled CO2 above 330 hPa from CT2015 with the measurements. We find large spatial gradients of total column XCO2 during June to August, and the north and northeast regions have ~ 3 ppm stronger summer drawdown than the south and southwest regions. The spatial gradients of total column XCO2 across North America mainly reflect large-scale circulation patterns rather than regional surface sources and sinks. We have conducted a CarbonTracker experiment to investigate the impact of Eurasian long-range transport. The result suggests that the large summer time Eurasian boreal flux contributes about half of the north-south column XCO2 gradient across North America. Our results confirm that continental-scale total column XCO2 gradients simulated by CarbonTracker are realistic and can be used to evaluate the credibility of spatial patterns from satellite retrievals, such as the long term average spatial patterns from satellite retrievals reported for Europe which show larger spatial difference (~ 6 ppm) and scattered hot spots.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie R Januchowski-Hartley ◽  
Christine Lauzeral ◽  
Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber ◽  
Wolfram Graf ◽  
Sebastien Brosse

ABSTRACTLittle remains known about how the timing of mitigation of current greenhouse gas emissions will influence freshwater biodiversity patterns. Using three general circulation models, we evaluate the response of 260 broad-ranging European caddisfly species to climate conditions in 2080 under two scenarios: business as usual (A2A) and mitigation (A1B). If implemented effectively, recent government commitments established under COP21, to mitigate current greenhouse gas emissions, would result in future climatic conditions similar to the mitigation scenario we explored. Under the Cgcm circulation model, which we found to be the most conservative model, suitable environmental conditions were predicted to shift 3° more to the east under the mitigation scenario compared to business as usual. The majority of broad-ranging European caddisfly species will benefit from mitigation, but 5 to 15% of species that we evaluated will be bigger losers under the mitigation scenario compared to business as usual. Under the mitigation scenario, caddisfly species that will retain less of their current range and experience lower predicted range expansion are those that currently have relatively limited distributions. Continental-scale assessments such as the ones that we present are needed to identify species at greatest risk of range loss under changing climatic conditions.


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