News in 2011
Dec. 30, 2011
Congratulations to Yueyang Jiang who has just accepted an post-doctoral scientist offer from Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA!
Dec. 20, 2011
Congratulations! Prof. Qianlai Zhuang was awarded the Seed for Success Award, that is given in recognition of the accomplishments of single investigators and teams of investigators for their efforts in obtaining a $1 million or more research grant at Purdue during 2011.
Dec.20, 2011
Using an artificial neural network approach and field observational data of N2O fluxes, we estimate that the global soil N2O source strength from natural ecosystems is 3.37 Tg (1 Tg . 1012 g) N per year with an uncertainty ranging from 1.96 to 4.56 Tg N per year in 2000. The study was just published in Atmospheric Environment.
Citation:
Zhuang, Q., Y. Lu, and M. Chen (2011), An inventory of global N2O emissions from the soils of natural terrestrial ecosystems, Atmospheric Environment, 1352-2310, doi: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.11.036.
Dec. 2, 2011
Our lab just published an analysis on methane emissions from Northern Eurasian with multiple wetland distribution datasets. Our uncertainty analyses indicated that the uncertainty in wetland extent had a larger effect on future CH4 emissions than the uncertainty in future climate. This study suggests that better characterization of the spatial distribution and the natural diversity of wetlands should be a research priority for quantifying CH4 fluxes in this region.
Citation:
Zhu X., Zhuang Q., Chen M., Sirin A., Melillo J., Kicklighter D., Sokolov A., Song L. Rising methane emissions in response to climate change in Northern Eurasia during the 21st century. Environ. Res. Lett. 6 045211 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/6/4/045211
Dec. 1, 2011
A study from our lab that focus on analyzing the eff ects of growing switchgrass and Miscanthus on Chinese marginal agricultural lands on biomass production and carbon emissions with a global scale biogeochemical model. We found that Miscanthus has tremendous potential to meet future bio-fuel needs, and to benefit CO2 mitigation in China.
Citation:
Qin Z., Zhuang Q., Zhu X., Cai X., Zhang X. Carbon consequences and agricultural implications of growing biofuel crops on marginal agricultural lands in China. Environ. Sci. Technol.. DOI: 10.1021/es2024934
Nov. 28, 2011
Congratulations to Zhangcai Qin, who just passed the qualifying exam for his PhD program!
Nov. 28, 2011
Yujie He and Xudong Zhu pass their qualifying exam for their PhD program, congratulations!
Nov. 27, 2011
Congratulations to Zhiwei Zhang, who has passed final exam on his Masters degree program!
Oct. 10, 2011
Welcome Ms. Lulu Song joining us as a jointed student between Chinese Academy of Sciences and Purdue University to pursue her PhD degree!
Sept. 26, 2011
Our lab just published a study on US biofuel development and consequences of carbon dynamics in Global Change Biology ?Bioenergy. The study concluded that Miscanthus could better serve as an energy crop than food crops or switch-grass, considering both economic and environmental benefits.
Citation:
Qin, Z., Q. Zhuang, and M. Chen, Impacts of land use change due to biofuel crops on carbon balance, bioenergy production, and agricultural yield, in the conterminous United States, Glob Change Biol Bioenergy, 1757-1707, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1757-1707.2011.01129.x, DO - 10.1111/j.1757-1707.2011.01129.x
Sept. 26, 2011
A study using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiome- ter (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Land Sur- face Water Index (LSWI) and carbon flux data of AmeriFlux and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM) has been just published in Biogeosciences.The study found that the regional GPP is between 7.02 and 7.78 Pg C yr-1 and net primary production (NPP) ranges from 3.81 to 4.38 Pg C yr-1 and net ecosystem production (NEP) varies within 0.08 to 0.73 Pg C yr-1 over the period 2000 to 2005 for the conterminous United States.
Citation:
Chen, M. and Q. Zhuang(2011), Q., Cook, D. R., Coulter, R., Pekour, M., Scott, R. L., Munger, J. W., and Bible, K.: Quantification of terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics in the conterminous United States combining a process-based biogeochemical model and MODIS and AmeriFlux data, Biogeosciences, 8, 2665-2688, doi:10.5194/bg-8-2665-2011
Sept. 15, 2011
Our lab just published a study on Canadian forest fires using extreme theory. The study found that (i) all three extreme statistical models perform well to characterize extreme fire events, but the GPD and PP models need extra care to fit the nonstationary fire data, (ii) anthropogenic and natural extreme fires have significantly different extreme statistics, and (iii) fires in different ecozones exhibit very different characteristics in the view of statistics.
Abstract:
For details, please refer to "Yueyang Jiang, Qianlai Zhuang (2011), Extreme value analysis of wildfires in Canadian boreal forest ecosystems, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 41:1836-1851, 10.1139/x11-102".
Aug. 26, 2011
Welcome graduate students Zhenong Jin, Ian Pope, Linyuan Shang, and Zeli Tand , and Research Assistant Jayne Piepenburg joining our lab!
Aug. 16, 2011
Our lab just published a study examining the land cover change in Yukon River Basin for the last couple of decades. The study is contribution to our NSF funded bio-complexity project investigating the interactions of permafrost, climate, and terrestrial ecosystems.
Citation:
Lu, X. and Q. Zhuang (2011), Areal changes of land ecosystems in the Alaskan Yukon River Basin from 1984 to 2008, Environ. Res. Lett. 6 034012,doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/6/3/034012
July 22, 2011
Our lab is just funded by Department of Energy with a project, entitled "Collaborative Research: Quantifying Climate Feedbacks of the Terrestrial Biosphere under Thawing Permafrost Conditions in the Arctic". Prof. Qianlai Zhuang is the Lead PI in collaboration with Co-PIs C. A. Schlosser at MIT, J. M. Melillo at MBL, Woods Hole MA, and K. Anthony Walter at University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Abstract:
The project is to test the following hypothesis "There exists a climate warming threshold beyond which permafrost degradation becomes widespread and stimulates large increases inmethane emissions (via thermokarst lakes and poorly-drained wetland areas upon thawing permafrost along with microbial metabolic responses to higher temperatures) and increases in carbon dioxide emissions from well-drained areas. Besides changes in biogeochemistry, this threshold will also influence global energy dynamics through effects on surface albedo, evapotranspiration and water vapor. These changes would outweigh any increased uptake of carbon (e.g. from peatlands and higher plant photosynthesis) and would result in astrong, positive feedback to global climate warming".
Feb. 4, 2011
A new study on further developing on the fixed-lag ensemble square root Kalman smoother and fixed-lag square root sigma-point Kalman smoother is just published.
Citation:
Tang, J. and Zhuang, Q., Technical Note: Propagating correlations in atmospheric inversions using different Kalman update smoothers, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 921-929, doi:10.5194/acp-11-921-2011, 2011.
Abstract:
The new development treat nonlinear observation operators easily in atmospheric trace gases inversion.