The Global Carbon Cycle and Greenhouse Gases

THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE AND GREENHOUSE GASES

The Program on Climate Change, Winter 2004 (Oce/Atm/ESS 588)

Meeting Time: MWF 1:30-2:20; Meeting Place: OTB 205

Course Web Page: http://www.ocean.washington.edu/courses/oc588

Instructors:

Steven Emerson, OSB 419, 3-0428, emerson@u.washington.edu

Lyatt Jaegle, ATG 306, 5-2679, jaegle@atmos.washington.edu

TA:

Laurie Juranek, OSB 414, 3-4511, juranek@ocean.washington.edu

Course Goals and Structure:

The goals of the course are to review what is known about the natural global carbon cycle and greenhouse gases and to explore mechanisms controlling the changes caused by anthropogenic forcing.

The course is divided into 5 blocks in which there will normally be four lectures, a paper discussion and a problem discussion. In three of the blocks there are problems assigned to be solved using the computer program Matlab. The first block has a lecture on the use of Matlab in place of the problem discussion. Students are asked to prepare a paper and give a 15 minute presentation in the finals week on one of the topics on the attached list or one of their own choosing. Topics should be discussed with one of the instructors. Papers should be 5-10 pages (1.5 spacing) with greater than 10 references.

Assessment:

Grades will be assigned based on the studentπs performance on the three problems (40%), the quality of the paper and presentation (40%), and participation in the paper discussions (20%).

Library Reserve and Web Site:

There is no text for this course, but reference books and articles used in the lectures are on reserve in the Fish/Ocean Library and in some cases put on the web site. Reading assignments will be put on the web or handed out.

THE CARBON CYCLE AND GREEN HOUSE GASES (OCE/ATM/EES 588)

Winter 2004, Instructors: Steven Emerson and Lyatt Jaegle, T.A. Laurie Juranek

Week

Topic

Reading, Problem

1&2

Jan 5

Jan 12

INTRODUCTION

Radiative Forcing (LJ)

Paper Discussion

Carbon Fluxes (SE)

Carbonate Chemistry (SE)

Matlab (Laurie J)

Hand out paper (IPCC, 2001)

Hand out paper (Toggweiller and Sarmiento, 1985)

3&4

Jan.19

Jan 26

THE OCEAN BIOLOGICAL PUMP

Holiday

Biological Pump (SE)

Paper Discussion (Laurie)

Biological Pump (SE)

Problem Discussion (Laurie)

Biological Pump (SE)

Hand out Problem

Turn in Problem

5&6

Feb 2

Feb 9

GREEN HOUSE GASES

GH Gases (LJ)

Paper Discussion

Problem Discussion (Laurie)

GH Gases (LJ)

Hand out paper (xxx)

Hand out Problem

Turn in Problem

7&8

Feb 16

Feb 23

FOSSIL FUEL UPTAKE

Holiday

Ocean Uptake ≠ tracers (SE)

Ocean Uptake (SE)

Paper Discussion

Problem Discussion (Laurie)

Ocean/Terrestrial Uptake (SE)

Hand out Paper (Gruber et al.,1966) Hand out Problem

Paper Discussion

Turn in Problem

9&10

March 1

March 8

TERRESTRIAL CO₂ UPTAKE

Historical Trends (SE)

Experimental Methods (LJ)

Paper Discussion

MITIGATION

Sequestration of CO₂ (SE)

Non Greenhouse Gases (LJ)

Open Class

Hand out paper (IPCC, 1995)

Finals wk

March 15

Student Presentations

Discussion Papers:

IPCC (2001) Climate Change 2001: the scientific basis, Contribution of Working Group I in the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Houghton et al., eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. and New York, NY, USA, 881 pp. (We will discuss parts C, D & E of the Technical Summary, p 36-61)

Toggweiller, R. and J. Sarmiento (1985) Glacial to interglacial changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide: The critical role of ocean surface water at high latitudes, in: The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric CO₂: Natural variations Archean to Present, (Sundquist, E. and Broecker, W. S., eds) A.G.U. Geophysical Monograph 32, Wash. D. C.

Gruber, N., J. L. Sarmiento and T. F. Stocker (1996) An improved method for detecting anthropogenic CO₂ in the oceans, Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles, 10, 809-837.

IPCC (1995) Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climate Change (Haughton et al., ed.) Cambridge University Press, U.K., and New York, NY, USA, 571 p. (Chapter 9, Terrestrial Biotic Responses to Environmental Change and Feedbacks to Climate)

Possible Paper Topics:

Current trends in atmospheric methane concentration

Methane hydrates and climate change

Stratospheric H₂O: trends and climate effects

Tropospheric ozone: past and future changes

Effect of climate change on CH₄, N₂O emissions

Stratospheric ozone and global warming

The CO₂* method of determining fossil fuel penetration into the ocean

The interpretation of atmospheric d¹³C-pCO₂ changes in ice cores

Atmospheric O₂/N₂ ratios as tracers of marine and terrestrial CO₂ uptake

Experimental results of the terrestrial CO₂ fertilization effect

Climate change and nitrogen fixation

The role of coccolithophorids / diatoms in the carbon cycle

Potential consequences of continued iron fertilization in iron-limited regions of the ocean

The feasibility of sequestering anthropogenic CO₂ by pumping it into the ocean

Comparing different GCM results for anthropogenic CO₂ penetration into the ocean