Earth System Feedbacks: Vulnerability of the Carbon Cycle to Drought and Fire

Agenda

Canberra, Australia
5-8 June 2006 – Part I
8-9 June 2006 – Part II (Australia focus)

Organized by:
Global Carbon Project
ARC Network for Earth System Science
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Australian Climate Change Science Program
Australian Academy of Science
Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System
European Space Agency

AGENDA – Part I (as per 2 June 2006) Monday, 5 June 2006

09:00 – 9:30	Welcome - Mike Raupach, Jason Beringer Purpose and structure of the workshop - Pep Canadell
	- All talks are 20 minutes and 10 minutes questions -
Overview
09:30 – 10:00	A dynamical-system perspective on carbon and water vulnerabilities: views at global and local scales (ppt, 11.6Mb) – Mike Raupach, Australia
10:00 - 10:30	The global carbon cycle: present status and future vulnerabilities (ppt, 8.1Mb) – Pep Canadell, Australia
10:30 – 11:00	Break

Theme 1: Observations of Climate Change, Variability and the Carbon Cycle Chair: Ray Leuning
11:00 – 11:30	Changes in global land surface moisture conditions during 1950-2004 (ppt, 21.1Mb) – Aiguo Dai, USA
11:30 – 12:00	Global Trends in LAI and Burned Area with Earth Observations (ppt, 11.5Mb) – Stephen Plummer, Italy
12:00 – 12:30	Climate Trends and Water Resources in Australia (ppt, 2.5Mb) – David Walland, Australia
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch
13:30 – 14:00	Vegetation trends in Australia (ppt, 7.0Mb) - Peter Briggs, Australia
14:00 – 15:00	Discussion (Helen Cleugh)
15:30 – 16:00	Break

Theme 2: Processes and Controls of Coupled Carbon-Water Cycles Chair: Rachel Law
16:00 – 16:30	ENSO, drought and the changing carbon cycle (pdf, 951Kb) – Ning Zeng, USA
16:30 – 17:00	Effects of drought and fire on interannual variability in CO2 fluxes as derived using atmospheric- CO2 inversion. (ppt, 3.3Mb) Prabir Patra, Japan
17:00 – 17:30	Recent decoupling of human and climate controls on global fire emissions – Jim Randerson, USA
17:30 – 18:30	Mixer at the Dome

Tuesday, 6 June 2006 Chair: Roger Gifford
09:00 – 09:30	Heterotrophic respiration in a warmer world: controversy or consensus? (pdf, 262Kb) – Miko Kirschbaum, Australia
09:30 – 10:00	Feedbacks between drought, land-use, and fire in the Amazon: integrating field experiments and modeling – Daniel Nepstad, USA
10:00 – 10:30	Relationships between fire, drought and carbon emissions in southern Africa (ppt, 1.4Mb) - Bob Scholes, South Africa
10:30 – 11:00	Break
11:00 – 11:30	Interannual variability of the Australian terrestrial carbon cycle – Damian Barrett, Australia
11:30 – 12:00	Effect of drought and disturbance on carbon budgets in a temperate forest (pdf, 2.8Mb) – Helen Cleugh and Heather Keith, Australia
12:00 – 12:30	Impact of fire on the carbon cycle of Australian savannas (pdf, 3.7Mb) – Jason Beringer, Australia
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch
13:30 – 14:30	Discussion (Pep Canadell)

Theme 3: Modeling Present and Future Interactions of Carbon and Hydrological Cycles Chair: Yingping Wang
14:30 – 15:00	Simulating global fire activity, fire-vegetation interactions, and emissions from biomass burning - Allan Spessa, Germany
15:00 – 15:30	Implementation of fire into general circulation/Earth System models – Sergey Venevsky, UK
15:30 – 16:00	Break
16:00 – 16:30	Emerging understanding of the effects of disturbances, management, and climate variability on Australia’s carbon budget – Gary Richards, Australia
16:30 – 17:00	Data assimilation for the coupled carbon-water system (ppt, 5.0Mb) – Cathy Trudinger, Australia (Pep Canadell)
17:00 – 18:00	Discussion (Andy Pitman)

Wednesday, 7 June 2006 Theme 4: Vulnerability and Ecosystem Services of Carbon-Water Cycles Chair: Annette Cowie
09:00 – 09:30	Self-organization and thresholds of carbon dynamics in social-ecological systems. Brian Walker, Australia
09:30 – 10:00	Interactions between climate and management in rangelands (ppt, 5.6Mb) - Steve Archer, USA
10:00 – 10:30	Wildfire, climate and management in western US Forests: Historical consequences and current dilemmas (pdf, 10.9Mb) - Kathy Hibbard, USA
10:30 – 11:00	Break
11:00 – 11:30	Carbon-water interactions with grassland to plantation conversions: effect of vegetation cover on the production of ecosystem services (ppt, 1.5Mb) – Kathleen Farley, USA
11:30 – 12:30	Discussion (Mike Raupach)
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch
13:30 – 17:30	Product discussion and paper outlines
18:30	Dinner at the Hyatt

Thursday, 8 June 2006 a.m. National Focus (see next page)
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch
12:30 – 18:00	Trip to Namagi (burned forest and lots of kangaroos) – For those not participating at the National workshop (part II)

AGENDA - Part II June 8 and 9, 2006 National Meeting (Australian Focus) The Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator and Australian Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Research Hosted by the ARC Network for Earth System Science, the GCP and CSIRO

Thursday, 8 June 2006 Key global issues - Facilitator Jason Beringer
Using the wealth of International expertise we will summarise the state of knowledge of the coupled carbon and water system. We hope to engage with international visitors on key issues arising of relevance to the Australian effort toward a Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS).

MORNING-Introduction
09:00-09:30	Introduction to National workshop (Beringer, Pitman)

Thematic summaries of days 1-3 (emphasis on relevance to Australia) and discussion (Beringer Chair)
09:30-09:40	Processes (Mike Raupuch)
09:40-09:50	Observations (Helen Cleugh)
09:50-10:00	Modelling (Miko Kirshbaum)
10:00-10:30	Panel Discussion
10:30-11:00	Coffee break

Interactive coupling of the carbon cycle to the physical climate system (Andy Pitman Chair)
11:00-11:20	The Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) (Kamel Puri) – Big science issues – Committing to bring in – key processes – relative effort. Strategic plan.
11:20-11:40	The ACCESS land surface model (CABLE) – Coupling nutrient, CO2, water and interactions across timescales (Ying PingWang)
11:40-12:00	Vegetation, fire and climate interactions – Major concepts and Australian issues. DGVM and fire module (Alan Spessa)
12:00-13:00	Panel Discussion
13:00-14:00	Lunch

We will advance a strategy to further develop a fully integrated carbon/land surface model (CABLE) for stand alone use and coupling to ACCESS, including an Australian capacity in a Dynamic Global Vegetation Model. Specifically:
14:00-14:20	Vision for Land Surface Modelling in Australia - Development of CABLE structure, interface and performance and inclusion of Australian biophysics and processes including unique plant functional types (Gab Abramowitz / Ying Ping Wang)
14:20-14:40	Discussion
14:40-15:00	Research Network for Vegetation Function, plant functional types, and issues for improving DGVMs (Mark Westoby)
15:00-15:20	Discussion
15:20-15:50	Coffee break
15:50-16:10	Evaluation of any models against current observations I: Terrestrial carbon, water and nitrogen stocks and fluxes (Ross McMurtrie / Belinda Medlyn) – Nitrogen and nutrients
16:10-16:30	Discussion
16:30-16:50	Isotopes – data assimilation (Graham Farqhuar)
16:50-17:10	Discussion

Friday, 9 June 2006 National integration and collaboration and implementation of the Australian Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Science Plan We will address how to effectively integrate Terrestrial Carbon Cycle research in Australia across ARC NESS, CSIRO, ANSTO, NCAS, universities and other institutions and how this may be facilitated through the national “Blueprint for Australian Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Science Plan”. Short talks with ample discussion. Engagement with TCCSP and ACCESS. How can the wider community contribute to the TCCSP and ACCESS. Specifically we will address the capacity and priorities for the following (including key research issues, expertise, areas for collaboration, limitations, funding opportunities), for the following areas:
Introduction 09:00-09:15	Introduction (Andy Pitman)
Interactive coupling of the carbon cycle to the physical climate system (continued – Andy Pitman chair)

09:15-09:30	Designing a platform for integration between Uni/CSIRO and international community for CABLE and ACCESS (Ying Ping Wang chair)
09:30-10:30	Discussion i. How do we integrate more sophisticated biogeochemistry – National issues ii. Engagement with CABLE and ACCESS iii. Coordinated contributions to CABLE/DGVM
10:30-10:50	Coffee Break
The Blueprint for Australian Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Research (Will Steffen chair)
10:50 – 11:00	Overview of the Blueprint for Australian Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Research (Will Steffen)

Theme 1: Vulnerability of terrestrial carbon sinks into the future (Will Steffen chair)
11:00-11:10	i. Critical processes (Pep Canadell)
11:10-11:20	ii. Fire (Geoff Carey and John Raison)
11:20-11:30	iii. Uniquely Australian issues (Mike Raupach)
11:30-12:15	Discussion on Priorities
12:15-13:00	Lunch

Theme 2: Patterns of sources and sinks of carbon across Australia (Mike Raupach chair)
13:00-13:10	i. Top down approaches – Inverse modelling and satellite (Damian Barrett)
13:10-13:20	ii. Bottom up – Inventories, flux measurements, etc. (Helen Cleugh)
13:20-13:30	iii. Data Assimilation (Ian Enting)
13:30-14:10	Discussion on Priorities

Theme 3: Integration
14:10-14:25	How can we integrate land use change and associated biogeochemical changes into terrestrial surface schemes/modelling? (links between C cycle research and NCAS) (Gary Richards).
14:25-14:50	Discussion

Summary and synthesis (Will Steffen)
14:50-15:10	Explore policy-relevant simulations to address the sensitivity and vulnerability of carbon sinks to climate variability and change (Will Steffen)
15:10-15:30	Coffee Break
15:30-16:30	Discussion
16:30	Workshop ends

The discussions and priorities identified during the workshop will feed into a document/paper “Plans and progress, as measured against the Blueprint for Australian Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Research”