J1.1
Linking Water, Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles (INVITED)
Elisabeth A. Holland, NCAR, Boulder, CO
The increasingly global nature of human influence on the environment requires a global-scale perspective in parallel with regional and process measurement and modeling activities. Water is a central regulator of biogeochemical cycles. Understanding biogeochemical cycles is fundamentally linked to our understanding of the water cycle. Rainfall, its fate in terrestrial ecosystems, regulates soil moisture, plant distribution, plant growth and production, nutrient import and export, nutrient turnover, microbial activity, and trace gas exchange. Water determines the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems and the resulting rates of both carbon and nitrogen cycling. The NCAR Biogeosciences Program integrates observation and modeling of physical and biological processes to study biogoechemical and water cycles from local process studies to earth system global modeling.
Joint Session 1, Impacts of Terrestrial Changes on Weather and Climate (Joint with 21st Conference on Hydrology and Climate Aspects of Hydrometeorology)
Tuesday, 16 January 2007, 8:30 AM-12:00 PM, 214A
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