Scientists intensively study the vertical fluxes of carbon in order to understand the trajectory of climate change. Scientists are particularly concerned with managing anthropogenic carbon emissions and studying how climate change will alter the delicate natural processes that regulate our planet’s atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
In this class, we will take a deep dive into the global carbon cycling. We will examine the natural world from the leaves of the trees to the microbes in the soil, applying principles of science and mathematics to look at the leading contemporary methodologies for measuring and predicting carbon fluxes. We will examine a wide host of ecosystems including terrestrial (e.g. forests, wetlands, grasslands) and marine ecosystems, looking at published data to analyze and interpret the way the natural world interacts with atmospheric carbon dioxide.
We will also study anthropogenic effects on the carbon cycle, including historic and present day carbon emissions (i.e. energy and transportation grid emissions, hydrofracking fugitive emissions, etc.) as well as innovative technological and economic ideas that seek to address climate change (i.e. carbon trading, carbon capture and storage). We will study the impact of related engineering technologies on the global climate carbon cycle.