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ISOSCAPES 2008. Acquisition, analysis, and application of spatially-explicit isotope data. Gabriel Bowen. Jason West. Impetus for the meeting. New opportunities for: - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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ISOSCAPES 2008Acquisition, analysis, and
application of spatially-explicit isotope data
Gabriel Bowen Jason West
Impetus for the meeting
New opportunities for:• Collaboration: A growing body of work
involving spatial isotope data in a range of fields makes this an opportune time to promote cross-disciplinary exchange
• Research Initiatives: New opportunities for spatial isotope monitoring and environmental data collection merit a discussion of how stable isotope research can and should be incorporated in and benefit from these programs
• Innovation: An increasing fluency in the language of isoscapes provides common ground for discussion on major, cross-cutting research challenges
What is an isoscape?
Quantitative representation of isotope distributions in space/time
Isoscapes integrate knowledge• Spatially resolved observations• Models of physical and biological processes
Isoscapes enable discovery• Data-model integration• Spatial tracing
Isoscapes facilitate communication• Homogeneous data
The underlying information
Isotopes “record” natural processes• Phase changes• Enzyme activity• Radioactive decay• Isotopic exchange• Movement & mixing• Reactant pool
Intensive mechanistic work is necessary• Metabolism• Transpiration• Biosynthetic pathways
Applications
Processes inferred from isotope
ratios• Water sources and transformations • Climate dynamics• Animal migration• Weathering• Biogeochemical cycling• Human impacts• Atmospheric transport
Isoscapes provide a framework for
addressing fundamental and applied
research questions at large scales
Grand Challenges inEnvironmental Sciences
Biological Diversity and Ecosystem Functioning
Biogeochemical cycles
Climate Variability
Hydrologic Forecasting
Infectious Disease and the Environment
Institutions and Resource Use
Land-Use Dynamics
Reinventing the Use of Materials
Climate change
From R. Dave Keeling (1998, AREE):
“It has been over 40 years since Roger
Revelle and Hans Suess pointed out that the
burning of fossil fuels was a large-scale
geophysical experiment... despite the
heightened political awareness of the
greenhouse problem indicated by the Kyoto
meeting last winter, most governments have
shown little interest in environmental
monitoring.”
Isotope data networks
Global Seawater Oxygen-18
GLOBALVIEW
Large-scale efforts
NEON: ...will gather long-term data on ecological
responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and
climate, and on feedbacks with the geosphere,
hydrosphere, and atmosphere...It will consist of
distributed sensor networks and experiments, linked by
advanced cyberinfrastructure to record and archive
ecological data for at least 30 years. Using standardized
protocols and an open data policy, NEON will gather
essential data for developing the scientific
understanding and theory required to manage the
nation’s ecological challenges.
neoninc.org
Large-scale efforts
WATERS: ... will transform our scientific
understanding of how water quantity, quality, and
related earth system processes are affected by natural
and human-induced changes to the environment. It will
accomplish this by enabling multi-scale, dynamic
predictive modeling for water, sediment, and water
quality by measuring or estimating fundamental
properties such as the flux, hydrologic flow paths,
residence times, and chemical/biological reaction rates
and include such capabilities as near-real-time
assimilation of data, prediction up to the national scale
and feedback to adjust community models and
observatory design and function. watersnet.org
Large-scale efforts
TRACE: …aims to improve the health and well-being
of European citizens by delivering improved traceability
of food products. The 5 year project sponsored by the
European Commission will provide consumers with
added confidence in the authenticity of European food
through complete traceability along entire fork to farm
food chains. TRACE will develop cost effective analytical
methods integrated within sector-specific and -generic
traceability systems that will enable the determination
and the objective verification of the origin of food.
Trace.eu.org
Meeting impetus Isoscape definition Big questions Data networks Large-scale efforts
Understanding 13C in tree
rings
"Blind monks examining an elephant" by Itcho Hanabusa
Blind monks…
13Ca in tree rings
“Briefly, the 13C/12C ratio of a plant constituent such as cellulose reflects the 13C/12C ratio of the atmosphere, but there is a temperature coefficient of 0.02‰ per °C. This is small enough to be of little consequence in this investigation.”
Wilson.1978.Nature
13Ca in tree rings
"Blind monks examining an elephant" by Itcho Hanabusa
“It seems clear that a resolution of the various parameters which may potentially affect atmospheric 13C will be forthcoming only after detailed study of tree-ring 13C/12C ratios before the onset of man’s major industrial and agricultural activities on a global scale and for a geographical area where lengthy direct temperature records are available.”
Farmer.1979.Nature
13Ca in tree rings
"Blind monks examining an elephant" by Itcho Hanabusa
“The differences between 13C/12C trends in trees from different regions, coupled with the differences between most 13C/12C trends in tree-rings representing the past 20 yr and the direct atmospheric measurement, seriously question the interpretation of any tree record in terms of global atmospheric behavior...A solution must be sought in the mechanism of fractionation in plants.”
Francey.1981.Nature
13Ca in tree rings
“Although the global atmospheric 13C/12C information in tree rings is often masked by a scatter which depends on local physical as well as climatological processes, it is, nevertheless, possible to infer past 13C/12C ratios of atmospheric CO2, if a larger number of free-standing trees from various parts of the world are measured...”
Freyer.1981.Nature
“Recent progress in understanding the mechanism of carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis suggests that anthropogenic influences on fractionation will occur on both local and global scales.”
Francey.1981.Nature
13Ca in tree rings
“The expression gives good agreement with 13
p measurements where independent information on ci exists, such as seasonal growth, growth low in the canopy and in conditions of low humidity. The expression provides possible explanations for two previously unexplained phenomena: the absence of anticipated changes due to fossil fuel-induced changes in 13
a, and regional differences
in 13p trends.”
Francey&Farquhar.1982.Nature
13p ≈ 13
a – a – (b – a)ci/ca
ci
ca
Isoscapes revealing“the elephant”
Components incorporated
• Plant physiology models• Observed meteorology• Satellite-derived data• Network data for model comparisons• Spatio-temporal synthesis
Suits et al.2005.GBC
Carbon isoscapesenabling discovery
• Spatial and temporal distributions of sources and
sinks
• Land versus ocean flux partitioning
• Underlying processes and response to change
• Comparison with observation (e.g., flux towers or
flask collection sites)
• Understanding biosphere-atmosphere
interactions
• Tracing movement of animals
Meeting goals
Communication
• Sharing of results within and across disciplines
• Exploration of insights from different approaches
Collaboration
• New connections promoting the integration of multiple isotope systems, and data- and knowledge-sharing
• New research and communication uniting instrument developers, empiricists, experimenters, modelers, and managers
Research Initiatives
• Improved understanding of community resource needs and appropriate mechanisms to fulfill them
Innovation
• New projects, applications, and research directions spawned from the merging of data and perspectives