Wanda R. Ferrell, Ph.D. Acting Director Climate and Environmental Sciences Division February 23, 2010 BERAC Meeting Climate and Environmental Sciences

Wanda R. Ferrell, Ph.D.Acting DirectorClimate and Environmental Sciences Division

February 23, 2010

BERAC MeetingBERAC Meeting

Climate and Environmental Sciences Division Climate and Environmental Sciences Division

Office of Science

Office of Biological and Environmental Research

Office of Science


Office of Science


UPDATES ON DIVISION SOLICITATIONS

• Current University Solicitations– Research in Integrated Assessment Inter-Model

Development, Testing and Diagnostics– Regional and Global Climate Modeling Program:

Modes of Low Frequency Variability in a Changing Climate

• DOE National Laboratories Only– Climate Uncertainties at Regional and Global Scales,

LAB 10-04– Earth System Modeling: Advanced Scientific

Visualization of Ultra-Large Climate Data Sets, LAB 10-05

Department of Energy • Office of Science • Biological and Environmental Research2 BER BSSD2 BER BSSD Department of Energy • Office of Science • Biological and Environmental ResearchDepartment of Energy • Office of Science • Biological and Environmental Research2 BERAC Feb2010

UPCOMING SOLICITATIONS

• Terrestrial Ecosystem Science • Subsurface Biogeochemical Research • Atmospheric System Research • NSF-USDA-DOE solicitation - “Decadal and

Regional Climate Prediction using Earth System Models (EaSM)”


Causality of the Sea Level Oscillations – Early Glacial Period

This is the first study to indicate that the status of the Bering Strait may have played an essential role on past climate changes.

Hu, A, G. A. Meehl, B. L. Otto-Bliesner, C. Waelbroeck, W. Han, M-F. Loutre, K. Lambeck, J. X. Mitrovica and N. Rosenbloom, 2010, Influence of Bering Strait flow and North Atlantic circulation on glacial sea level changes, Nature Geosciences, doi:10.1038/NGEO729, 3, 118-121.

Regional & Global Climate Modeling

• Early results show a successful simulation of the magnitude of the abrupt Bolling-Allerod warming

• This is the 1st coupled CGCM

simulation of the transient climate evolution since the Last Glacial Maximum (21,000 years ago)

Liu et al., Science, 2009, partially supported by DOE Abrupt Change and INCITE

Earth System Modeling

Integrated Assessment

Moss, R.H., et. al, 2010. "The Next Generation of Climate Scenarios." Nature (in press) DOI 10.1038/nature08823.

• New process for creating plausible scenarios for climate change research and assessment, shaping among other things, this next round of IPCC.

• Central to the new process is the concept that a diverse range of socioeconomic and technological development scenarios can achieve four potential radiative forcing pathways.

• Climate modelers and socio-economic/ecological researchers will work to develop both climate scenarios and detailed socio-economic and environmental scenarios.


Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility

• In January new aircraft campaign to obtain a new and comprehensive set of in-cloud measurements about the size and number of ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds

• AMF continuing its deployment in the Azores to study marine clouds


ARM Climate Research Facility

• Recovery Act activities are on track and new instruments expected to be operational in September.

• Experiments for 2011 are joint effort with NASA on precipitation, Madden Julian Oscillation experiment in Manus, AMF2 in Colorado, and AMF1 in Ganges Valley.


Atmospheric System Research

•Reported in Science, a team of researchers present a framework for interpreting the chemical transformations and physical characteristics common to organic aerosols from diverse human and natural sources. •This framework holds promise for enabling scientists to build model descriptions of the behavior of this important atmospheric component.

Jimenez, J. L., et al. 2009. "Evolution of Organic Aerosols in the Atmosphere," Science 326, 1525.


Terrestrial Ecosystem Research

Plans are proceeding for the next generation ecosystem experiment (arctic tundra warming) with infrastructure prototype development underway. Large-scale northern Minnesota bog warming/elevated-CO2 experiment is under construction -- joint effort between ORNL and U.S. Forest Service


Terrestrial Ecosystem Research

A range of in situ warming and precipitation manipulation experiments are underway: eastern temperate forests, alpine tree line, western woodlands, boreal-temperate forest ecotone, western grasslands, and western and eastern insect populations (some laboratory studies too). Plant community species composition is being affected by climate change treatments and mechanisms of drought-induced plant mortality are being elucidated. Effects of warming on insect populations is being quantified at the genetic level

Hartshorne RS, CL Reardon, DE Ross, J Nuester, TA Clarke, AJ Gates, PC Mills, JK Fredrickson, JM Zachara, L Shi, AS Beliaev, MJ Marshall, M Tien, SL Brantley, JN Butt, and D Richardson. (2009). " Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106 (52):22169-22174.

• Lipid vesicles containing protein and redox active dyes were used to demonstrate electron transfer across a membrane and electron transport was measured using protein film voltammetry

• The results demonstrate a biochemical mechanism for the microbial respiration of extracellular solid phases such as metal oxides.

Department of Energy • Office of Science • Biological and Environmental Research12 BER Overview

Subsurface Biogeochemical Research

The mechanism is important for understanding bacterially-mediated metal and radionuclide reduction in subsurface environments.

• Analyses at the EMSL facility using a battery of analytical techniques (SEM/TEM, XRD, Mossbauer) and the APS (XANES) enabled identification of oxidized and reduced uranium on the pyrite surface.

• Characterize uranium associated with reduced minerals produced by microbial activity in uranium-contaminated aquifers.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Qafoku, N, Kukkadapu, RK, McKinley, JP, Arey, BW, Kelly, SD, Wang, CM, Resch, CT, Long, PE (2009) Environ. Sci. Technol. 43(22):8528-8534

Department of Energy • Office of Science • Biological and Environmental Research13 BER Overview

Future CESD Activities

• Principal investigator meetings– ASR – March 15-19 Marriott Bethesda North Hotel

in Bethesda MD– SESP – March 29-31 JW Marriott, Wash DC– Climate Change Modeling Programs – Integrated

Science Team Meeting – March 29-April 2 Gaithersburg Hilton

• Future workshops– Climate Roadmapping


Personnel

• Re-posted recruitment for an ecologist to backfill for Roger Dahlman (announcement closes March 1).

• Dr. Anjuli Bamzai has moved to the National Science Foundation. We are recruiting to backfill for Climate Modeling Program Manager position.

• Ms. Eileen Knox has joined BER as a Secretary for the Climate and Environmental Sciences Division.


Documents

Wanda R. Ferrell, Ph.D. Acting Director Climate and Environmental Sciences Division February 23, 2010 BERAC Meeting Climate and Environmental Sciences