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International collaboration research with China: the U.S.-China Carbon Consortium
PARTNERS: Members of the U.S.-China Carbon Consortium
SUMMARY: The U.S.-China Carbon Consortium (USCCC) was established on December 16, 2003 in Beijing, P.R. China as a collaborative consortium between American and Chinese institutions that have interests in studying the role of managed ecosystems in the global carbon and water cycles. USCCC meets once every year in China or the U.S. for members to report progresses.
The overall goal is to develop a network of study sites sponsored by the above institutions in hope that data and results will be shared so that synthesis can be made at broader spatial scales to assess the importance of human influences on carbon and water fluxes in the changing climate. An integrated ecosystem approach will be adopted to explore the underlying mechanisms controlling the fluxes of dominant ecosystems in both continents. A central piece of the research is the flux towers using eddy-covariance method to directly and continuously measure the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 and H2O. The central hypothesis is that human disturbances increase variability of C sequestration and water cycle of a landscape in time and space primarily via influencing landscape structure (e.g., composition) that directly affects the underlying mechanisms. Further, researchers hypothesize that human disturbance (influence) regime in U.S. and China is significantly different, suggesting that models predicting carbon and H2O are different.
USCCC members agreed to use the same methods across the sites. Researchers will share the data, results and credits, and potential failures. A listserv was installed to facilitate communications among USCCC members. This consortium will not be exclusive of any other individuals, institutions, and programs but welcome those who are interested in being a partner. The team agreed to propose a decentralized database management plan, i.e., each institution will independently manage their data. The data will be open to all the participating members through project Webpages with permission of the institution. The committee strongly encourages its members to make their data as available as possible. USCCC will adopt the data sharing policy of Long-Term Ecological Research Networks (LTER, http://lternet.edu/data/netpolicy.html) for future research.
USCCC is governed by a steering committee, which includes a co-chair from U.S. and China, a coordinator, a science leader, and one representative of each participating institution. The steering committee is responsible for coordinating USCCC activities. This includes: 1) the formulation of study objectives and research questions through its annual meetings; 2) establishment and implementation of unified field instrumentation, data collection, and other sampling methods; 3) practical solutions for data quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC), and data storage and dissemination; 4) collaborative data analysis and compilation with the same metadata structure; 5) forming consensus on research results for publications; 6) determining authorship and approving papers prior to journal submission; and 7) settling any problems or disputes that may arise within or between sites and members.
STATUS: Ongoing
PROGRESS: The following papers and presentations have been produced as part of this project:
1. PEER-REVIEWED:
1.1. DIRECTLY RELATED & SUPPORTED:
Xiao, J.; Zhuang, Q.; Baldocchi, D.D.; Law, B.E.; Richardson, A.D.; Chen, J.; Oren, R.; Starr, G.; Noormets, A.; Ma, S.; Verma, S.B.; Wharton, S.; Wofsy, S.C.; Bolstad, P.V.; Burns, S.P.; Cook, D.R.; Curtis, P.S.; Drake, B.G.; Falk, M.; Fischer, M.L.; Foster, D.R.; Gu, L.; Hadley, J.L.; Hollinger, D.Y.; Katul, G.G.; Litvak, M.; Martin, T.A.; Matamala, R.; McNulty, S.G.; Meyers, T.P.; Monson, R.K.; Munger, J.W.; Oechel, W.C.; Paw U, K.T.; Schmid, H.P.; Scott, R.L.; Sun, G; Suyker, A.E.; Torn, M.S. 2008. Estimation of net ecosystem carbon exchange for the conterminous United States by combining MODIS and AmeriFlux data. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. In press.
Noormets, A.; McNulty, S.G.; DeForest, J.L.; Sun, G.; Li, Q.; and Chen, J. 2008. Drought during canopy development has lasting effect on annual carbon balance in a deciduous temperate forest. New Phytologist 179: 818-828. (PDF)
DeForest, J.L.; Noormets, A.; McNulty, S.G.; Tenney, G.; Sun, G.; Chen, J. 2006. Phenophases alter the soil respiration-temperature relationship in an oak-dominated forest. International Journal of Biometeorology 51: 135-144. (PDF)
1.2. MARGINALLY RELATED:
Moffat, A.M.; Papale, D.; Reichstein, M.; Barr, A.G.; Beckstein, C.; Braswell, B.H.; Churkina, G.; Desai, A.R.; Falge, E.; Gove, J.H.; Heimann, M.; Hollinger, D.Y.; Hui, D.; Jarvis, A.J.; Kattge, J.; Noormets, A.; Richardson, A.D.; Stauch, V.J. 2007. Comprehensive comparison of gap filling techniques for eddy covariance net carbon fluxes. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 147: 209-232. (PDF)
Desai, A.R.; Richardson, A.D.; Moffat, A.M.; Kattge, J.; Hollinger, D.Y.; Barr, A.; Falge, E.; Noormets, A.; Papale, D.; Reichstein, M.; Stauch, V.J. 2008. Cross-site evaluation of eddy covariance GPP and RE decomposition techniques. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 148: 821-838. (PDF)
Sun, G.; Noormets, A.; Chen, J.; McNulty, S.G. 2008. Evapotranspiration estimates from eddy covariance towers and hydrologic modeling in managed forests in Northern Wisconsin, USA. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 148: 257-267. (PDF)
John, R.; Chen, J.; Lu, N.; Guo, K.; Liang, C.; Wei, Y.; Noormets, A.; Ma, K.; Han X. 2008. Predicting plant diversity based on remote sensing products in the semi-arid region of Inner Mongolia. Remote Sensing of Environment 112: 2018-2032. (PDF)
Noormets, A.; Desai, A.; Cook, B.D.; Euskirchen, E.; Ricciuto, D.; Davis, K.J.; Bolstad, P.V.; Schmid, H.P.; Vogel, C.V.; Carey, E.V.; Su, H.B.; Chen, J. 2008. Moisture sensitivity of ecosystem respiration: Comparison of 14 forest ecosystems in the Upper Great Lakes Region, USA. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 148: 216-230. (PDF)
Ryu, S-R; Chen, J.; Noormets, A.; Bresee, M.K.; Ollinger, S.V.; 2008. Comparisons between PnET-Day and eddy covariance based gross ecosystem production in two northern Wisconsin forests. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 148: 247-256. (PDF)
Desai, A.R.; Noormets, A.; Bolstad, P.V.; Chen, J.; Cook, B.D.; Curtis, P.V.; Davis, K.J.; Euskirchen, E.S.; Gough, C.; Martin, J.M.; Ricciuto, D.M.; Schmid, H.P.; Su, H.B.; Tang, J.; Vogel, C.; Wang, W. 2008. Influence of vegetation and seasonal forcing on carbon dioxide fluxes across the Upper Midwest, USA: Implications for regional scaling. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 148: 288-308. (PDF)
2. PRESENTATIONS (NOT PEER-REVIEWED):
2.1. DIRECTLY RELATED & SUPPORTED:
Domec, J-C; Noormets, A.; King, J.S.; Sun, G.; McNulty, S.G.; Gavazzi, M.J.; Strickland, S.; Boggs, J.L. 2007. Hydraulic Redistribution of Soil Water in a Drained Loblolly Pine Plantation: Quantifying Patterns and Controls over Soil-to-Root and Canopy-to-Atmosphere Interactions. AGU annual meeting. December 10-14, 2007. San Francisco.
Noormets, A.; Gavazzi, M.; McNulty, S.G.; Sun, G.; Domec, J.C.; King, J.S.; Chen, J. 2008. Carbon balance of lower coastal plain forests. Ecological Society of America, Milwaukee, WI, August 4.
Noormets, A.; Gavazzi, M.; Sun, G.; Chen, J.; McNulty, S.G. 2007. Changes in temperature-moisture covariance could increase soil carbon loss. Ecological Society of America, San Jose, CA, August 7.
2.2. MARGINALLY RELATED:
Law, B.E.; Noormets, A.; Grace, J. 2007. The Effects of Disturbance on Forest Carbon Processes. AGU Fall Meeting. December 10-14, 2007. San Francisco.
Moffat, A.M.; Papale, D.; Reichstein, M.; Hollinger, D.Y.; Richardson, A.D.; Barr, A.G.; Beckstein, C.; Braswell, B.H.; Churkina, G.; Desai, A.R.; Falge, E.; Gove, J.H.; Heimann, M.; Hui, D.; Jarvis, A.J.; Kattge, J.; Noormets, A.; Stauch, V.J. 2007. Comprehensive comparison of gap filling techniques for eddy covariance net carbon fluxes. AGU Fall Meeting. December 10-14, 2007. San Francisco.
Alstad, K.P.; Sun, G.; Chen, J.; Noormets, A.; McNulty, S.G. 2007. Water loss through canopies of the Oak Openings Mixed Hardwood Forests. Oak Openings Annual Meeting.
Alstad, K.; Sun, G.; Chen, J.; Noormets, A.; McNulty, S. 2007. Estimating ET for a mixed oak forest using two methods: eddy-covariance and soil water budget (poster #1671). The AGU Fall Meeting. December 10-14, 2007. San Francisco, CA.
Lu, N.; Noormets, A.; Chen, J. 2007. Heat storage and energy balance closure across five forests of different ages. ESA/SER Joint Meeting. San Jose.
Noormets, A.; Gavazzi, M.; Sun, G.; Chen, J.; McNulty, S.G. 2008. Carbon balance of coastal forested wetlands. The 93rd Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America-Enhancing Ecological Thought by Linking Research and Education. August 3-8, 2008. Milwaukee, WI.
Quirino, V.F.; Wynne, R.H.; Noormets, A.; Huemmrich, K.F.; Sun, G.; McNulty, S.G. 2007. Identifying Temporal Patterns in Light use Efficiency for two Loblolly Pine Plantations in a Drained Lower Coastal Plain Region of North Carolina, U.S.A. AGU Fall Meeting. December 10-14, 2007. San Francisco.
Wilske, B.; Lu, N.; Chen, S.; Liu, C.; Xu, W.; Noormets, A.; Wei, L.; Lin, G.; Miao, H.; Wei, Y.; Zhang, Z.; Chen, J.; Zha, T.; Ni, J.; Sun, G.; Guo, K.; McNulty, S.; John, R.; Chen, J. 2007. Effects of Large Scale Poplar Plantations on the Hydrology of Semiarid Areas in Inner Mongolia. AGU Fall Meeting. December 10-14, 2007. San Francisco.
LINKS: U.S.-China Carbon Consortium
CONTACT: Ge Sun, EFETAC Southern Global Change Program Research Hydrologist, Ge_Sun@ncsu.edu or 919-515-9498
