Call for Coastal Ocean Interim Synthesis Activities
Dear OCB Colleagues:
The North American Carbon Program (NACP) research community, as you may
know, is currently engaged in a number of interim synthesis activities,
intended to bring together progress to date regarding our ability to
diagnose and understand the North American carbon balance. Foci for
these interim syntheses include land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide
and non-CO2 carbon. These are "interim" syntheses because they are not
intended to encompass the prediction and decision support objectives of
the NACP science implementation strategy.
Carbon fluxes in the coastal ocean are an important component of the
overall NACP plan. Unfortunately, we do not as yet have any ongoing
interim synthesis projects focused on the coastal oceans. This message
is intended in particular to encourage the OCB community to consider
initiating one or more synthesis activities that would highlight current
progress concerning our understanding of the carbon cycle of the coastal
regions of North America.
Any OCB investigator interested in suggesting (and especially leading) a
coastal interim synthesis activity is invited to step forward. In
addition to the OCB project office, we offer the assistance of Bob Cook,
Director of the Modeling and Synthesis Thematic Data Center (MAST-DC),
Peter Griffith, NACP Coordinator, and Ken Davis and Tony King, co-chairs
of the current NACP Science Steering Group, to help integrate any
activities into the current NACP interim synthesis efforts. Please
respond to Peter Griffith and Heather Benway if you would like
assistance in organizing a potential coastal marine synthesis activity.
The Carbon Cycle and NACP Science Steering Groups strongly encourage a
coastal contribution to the current interim synthesis efforts. The
results of these efforts will be one important focus of discussion at
the NACP all-investigators' meeting in February of 2009, and should
serve as an important waypoint marking the progress of the NACP and OCB
research effort.
Best wishes,
Ken Davis (davis@meteo.psu.edu) and Tony King (kingaw@ornl.gov)
NACP SSG co-chairs
Bob Cook (cookrb@ornl.gov)
Director, MAST-DC
Peter Griffith (peter.c.griffith@nasa.gov)
NACP Coordinator
Heather Benway (hbenway@whoi.edu) and Scott Doney (sdoney@whoi.edu)
OCB Project Office
Existing Interim Syntheses:
Foci for these interim syntheses include the comparison of spatially
gridded carbon dioxide flux estimates for the period from 2000-2005,
comparisons of models and observations of carbon dioxide fluxes at a
number of flux tower sites, evaluation of both spatial and point flux
estimates within the domain of the midcontinental regional intensive
campaign, and an effort to synthesize current understanding of non-CO2
carbon fluxes.
More information about the current synthesis activities can be found
within the MAST-DC web site at
http://nacp.ornl.gov/mast-dc/int_synthesis.shtml. Discussion groups for
these syntheses are being hosted at the NACP project web site,
http://www.nacarbon.org. Both MAST-DC directed by Dr. Bob Cook and the
NACP Office directed by Dr. Peter Griffith are providing critical
support to these interim synthesis activities.
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Heather Benway
Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry (OCB) Project Office
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MS #43
Woods Hole, MA 02543
(508) 289-2838
(508) 457-2161 (fax)
hbenway@whoi.edu
http://www.us-ocb.org/
http://www.whoi.edu/people/hbenway
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