Cloudy Days: Not Such a Bad Thing

Clouds can both cool the planet, by acting as a shield against the sun, and warm the planet, by trapping heat. But why do clouds behave the way they do? And how will a warming planet affect the cloud cover? ESD’s David Romps has answers.

Dependence of Limber Pine on Summer Soil Moisture

Continued changes in climate are projected to alter the geographic distributions of plant species, in part by affecting where individuals can establish from seed.

What's the flux? Unraveling how CO2 fluxes from trees reflect underlying physiological processes

Tree stems and branches emit carbon dioxide (CO2) at rates that per unit area can rival emissions from leaves or the soil surface and summed over a forest stand can comprise 14–30% of the total CO2 efflux

Amazon Forests and the Global Carbon Cycle

ESD’s Jeffrey Chambers and his international team have devised ways of detecting forest mortality patterns, in an attempt to determine the role of forests in carbon sequestration and the impact of climate change on such patterns.

Call for Proposals for FY2014 LDRDs

Director Alivisatos recently issued the call for proposals for the FY2014 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program. All scientific staff from our Division are encouraged to think of potential innovative proposal topics.

ESD at AGU: A Zone of Constant Activity

The AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco last month (December 2012) was a great success, especially for LBNL’s Earth Sciences Division and our homebase at the site, the ESD booth—a zone of constant activity.

Using Model Reduction to Predict the Soil Surface C1800 flux: An Example of Representing Complex Biogeochemical Dynamics in a Computationally Efficient Manner

ESD’s Bill Riley recently presented a high-dimensional model representation (HDMR) modeling approach that allows detailed process representation of a coupled carbon and water tracer in a computationally tractable manner.

Comparison of soil organic matter dynamics at five temperate deciduous forests with physical fractionation and radiocarbon measurements

ESD’s Margaret Torn joined a group of climate scientists in comparing soil carbon dynamics at five broadleaf forests in the Eastern U.S. that vary in climate, soil type, and soil ecology.

ESD Scientists Win FY2013 LBNL LDRD Awards

Scientists within the Earth Sciences Division won a number of LBNL FY2013 Laboratory Directed Research and Development awards, as announced recently within TABL by Lab Director Paul Alivisatos and shown below. Bravo, all!

Meet ESD Scientists in Booth #406 at AGU 2012

ESD’s Meet the Scientist program at AGU 2012 will reveal the exceptional minds and diverse expertise of our earth scientists this year.