Understanding the impacts of leaks from geologic carbon sequestration, also known as carbon capture and storage, is key to developing effective strategies for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions management and mitigation of potential negative effects. Here, we provide the first report on the potential effects of leaks from carbon capture and storage sites on microbial functional groups in surface an...

Using CO2 data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), it is found for the first time that the mid-tropospheric CO2 concentration is ~1 part per million by volume higher during dry years than wet years over the southwestern USA from June to September. The mid-tropospheric CO2 differences between dry and wet years are related to circulation and CO2 surface fluxes. During drought conditions...

Increased atmospheric CO2 may affect the physiological response of natural trees to drought. We examined radial growth rates developed from five western juniper chronologies to determine if post-drought growth responses have changed. Using prior year October to current year June precipitation from 1896-1998, we identified drought recovery years as having standardized scores (z-scores) > 0 and p...

We have developed a novel framework (“TanTracker”) for assimilating observations of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, based on the POD-based (proper orthogonal decomposition) ensemble four-dimensional variational data assimilation method (PODEn4DVar). The high flexibility and the high computational efficiency of the PODEn4DVar approach allow us to include both the atmospheric CO2 concentrations a...

Soils contain the largest pool of terrestrial organic carbon (C) and are a major source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Thus, they may play a key role in modulating climate change. Rising atmospheric CO2 is expected to stimulate plant growth and soil C input but may also alter microbial decomposition. The combined effect of these responses on long-term C storage is unclear. Combining meta-...

Reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 during times of past abrupt climate change may help us better understand climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. Previous ice core studies reveal simultaneous increases in atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic temperature during times when Greenland and the northern hemisphere experienced very long, cold stadial conditions during the last ice age. Whether this relationship ext...

The response of the carbon cycle in prognostic Earth system models (ESMs) contributes significant uncertainty to projections of global climate change. Quantifying contributions of known drivers of interannual variability in the growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is important for improving the representation of terrestrial ecosystem processes in these ESMs. Several recent studies ha...

Direct use of atmospheric CO2 as a C1 source to synthesize high-value chemicals through environmentally benign processes is of great interest, yet challenging. Porous heterogeneous catalysts that are capable of simultaneously capturing and converting CO2 are promising candidates for such applications. Herein, a family of organic ionic polymers with nanoporous structure, large surface area, stro...

In this contribution, we continue our exploration of the factors defining the Mesozoic climatic history. We improve the Earth system model GEOCLIM designed for long term climate and geochemical reconstructions by adding the explicit calculation of the biome dynamics using the LPJ model. The coupled GEOCLIM-LPJ model thus allows the simultaneous calculation of the climate with a 2-D spatial reso...

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is a long-lived greenhouse gas that significantly contributes to global warming. Long-term and continuous measurements of atmospheric CO2 to investigate its global distribution and concentration variations are important for accurately understanding its potential climatic effects. Satellite measurements from space can offer atmospheric CO2 data for climate change...