Eos published Meeting Report for 2017 Joint NACP and AmeriFlux PI Meeting

Citation: Tzortziou, M., M. Litvak, and G. Shrestha (2017), Coordinating and communicating carbon cycle research, Eos, 98, https://doi.org/10.1029/2017EO080201. Published on 07 September 2017.

Eos has just published a Meeting Report for the 2017 Joint NACP and AmeriFlux Principal Investigators Meeting, held in Bethesda MD, March 27–30, 2017. Close to 280 researchers and other stakeholders from Canada, United States and Mexico attended this meeting to discuss topics of carbon cycle research across North America. The meeting was designed to foster collaboration, synthesis, and multiagency coordination for interdisciplinary carbon cycle research in North America and its adjacent ocean regions.

The introductory topics for the meeting were identifying Global Carbon Cycle research infrastructure and needs, and how carbon cycle scientists can best communicate with stakeholders and policy makers. Another focus was on field studies in critical regions, from the Arctic to the tropics, and current intensive field campaigns in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Such field activities include the AmeriFlux Network, the National Science Foundation’s National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), and NASA’s Arctic-Coastal Land Ocean Interactions (Arctic-COLORS) and Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) programs. Another focus was on the upcoming special report of the Sustained National Climate Assessment, the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR-2), and global methane budget and measurements. Several breakout sessions and side meetings took place. Poster sessions offered 180 posters. The meeting underscored the need for stronger connections between research and application, the natural and social sciences, and science and policy.

Before the main meeting, Alison Boyer of ORNL DAAC led a half-day Data Management Best Practices Workshop, which was attended by 47 data producers and researchers.

Marcy Litvak and Maria Tzortziou co-chaired the organizing committee, which also included several well-known AmeriFlux Network community members. AmeriFlux Management Project was represented by Trevor Keenan and Margaret Torn. This meeting received support from the Biological and Environmental Research program at the U.S. Department of Energy, and NASA’s Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Focus Area. Further information about the meeting, a list of participants, and presentation/poster abstracts can be found on the meeting’s website.