Kurz Werner A.

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Kurz
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Werner A.
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  • Preprint
    Animating the carbon cycle
    ( 2013-08) Schmitz, Oswald J. ; Raymond, Peter A. ; Estes, James A. ; Kurz, Werner A. ; Holtgrieve, Gordon W. ; Ritchie, Mark E. ; Schindler, Daniel E. ; Spivak, Amanda C. ; Wilson, Rod W. ; Bradford, Mark A. ; Christensen, Villy ; Deegan, Linda A. ; Smetacek, Victor ; Vanni, Michael J. ; Wilmers, Christopher C.
    Understanding the biogeochemical processes regulating carbon cycling is central to mitigating atmospheric CO2 emissions. The role of living organisms has been accounted for, but the focus has traditionally been on contributions of plants and microbes. We develop the case that fully “animating” the carbon cycle requires broader consideration of the functional role of animals in mediating biogeochemical processes and quantification of their effects on carbon storage and exchange among terrestrial and aquatic reservoirs and the atmosphere. To encourage more hypothesis-driven experimental research that quantifies animal effects we discuss the mechanisms by which animals may affect carbon exchanges and storage within and among ecosystems and the atmosphere. We illustrate how those mechanisms lead to multiplier effects whose magnitudes may rival those of more traditional carbon storage and exchange rate estimates currently used in the carbon budget. Many animal species are already directly managed. Thus improved quantitative understanding of their influence on carbon budgets may create opportunity for management and policy to identify and implement new options for mitigating CO2 release at regional scales.
  • Article
    The role of historical fire disturbance in the carbon dynamics of the pan-boreal region : a process-based analysis
    (American Geophysical Union, 2007-06-20) Balshi, M. S. ; McGuire, A. David ; Zhuang, Qianlai ; Melillo, Jerry M. ; Kicklighter, David W. ; Kasischke, E. ; Wirth, C. ; Flannigan, M. ; Harden, J. W. ; Clein, Joy S. ; Burnside, T. J. ; McAllister, J. ; Kurz, Werner A. ; Apps, M. ; Shvidenko, Anatoly
    Wildfire is a common occurrence in ecosystems of northern high latitudes, and changes in the fire regime of this region have consequences for carbon feedbacks to the climate system. To improve our understanding of how wildfire influences carbon dynamics of this region, we used the process-based Terrestrial Ecosystem Model to simulate fire emissions and changes in carbon storage north of 45°N from the start of spatially explicit historically recorded fire records in the twentieth century through 2002, and evaluated the role of fire in the carbon dynamics of the region within the context of ecosystem responses to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration and climate. Our analysis indicates that fire plays an important role in interannual and decadal scale variation of source/sink relationships of northern terrestrial ecosystems and also suggests that atmospheric CO2 may be important to consider in addition to changes in climate and fire disturbance. There are substantial uncertainties in the effects of fire on carbon storage in our simulations. These uncertainties are associated with sparse fire data for northern Eurasia, uncertainty in estimating carbon consumption, and difficulty in verifying assumptions about the representation of fires that occurred prior to the start of the historical fire record. To improve the ability to better predict how fire will influence carbon storage of this region in the future, new analyses of the retrospective role of fire in the carbon dynamics of northern high latitudes should address these uncertainties.