Climate Change Research at the Ecosystems Center

Because increased carbon dioxide levels are a major component of a greenhouse effect that warms the earth, it is important to understand from where and how carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, how much carbon is released, as well as how much carbon is captured from the atmosphere through natural processes. Higher plants, algae, and some bacteria use photosynthesis to transform carbon dioxide into life-based, or organic, carbon. Carbon dioxide is released from the earth’s surface by plants, animals, fungi, and microbes, and industrial processes that use fuels such as wood, coal, and oil. These processes, combined, constitute the global carbon cycle.

In the late 1970s, scientists who studied the earth’s systems knew that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were rising, and that fossil fuel combustion was partially responsible for this change. Scientists also knew that forests and land (terrestrial) ecosystems fit into the uptake and release of carbon dioxide, but a lot of uncertainty surrounded the magnitude of terrestrial carbon cycling. While scientists could make fairly accurate assessments about how much carbon was stored in, and flowed to and from, the oceans and atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems are incredibly diverse and dynamic, making them harder to study on an aggregate level.

Suggested citation
Baranski, Marci. 2015. "The Ecosystems Center: 1975-Present". MBL History Project digital exhibit. http://history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/ecosystems-center-1975-present
Bibliography

Stable Isotope Research

Computers and the Internet

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

  • Hobbie et al. 1977

Historical Contet of Climate Change Research

  • Canadell et al. 1999

Global Carbon Cycle Project

  • Houton et al. 1983
  • Moore et al. 1981
  • Rastetter and Shaver 1992

Processed-based Models TEM and GEM

  • Melillo et al. 1993
  • Raich et al. 1991
  • Rastetter et al. 1991

Long-term Ecological Research at the EC Historical Context

  • Hagan 1992, An Entangled Bank
  • Hobbie et al., 2006

Arctic Long Term Ecological Research: Toolik Lake, Alaska

Forest Long Term Ecological Research: Harvard Forest, Massachusetts

Coastal Long Term Ecological Research: Plum Island Sound, Massachusetts

Ocean Flux Program

  • MBL. ND. "Ocean Flux Program." Ecosystems Center a the MBL. http://www.mbl.edu/ecosystems/conte/ofp/
  • Chapin III, Stuart F., Pamela A. Matson, Peter M. Vitousek. 2012. Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology. Springer: New York.
  • Conte, Maureen. 2014. "Particle Flux in the Deep Sargasso Sea The 35-Year Oceanic Flux Program Time Series." The Official Magazine of the Oceanography Society Oceanorgraphy. 27(1). http://tos.org/oceanography/assets/docs/27-1_conte...

Semester in Environmental Science Program