ISOSCAPES 2008

1. ISOSCAPES 2008 Acquisition, analysis, and application of spatially-explicit isotope data Gabriel Bowen Jason West

2. Impetus for the meeting • New opportunities for: • Collaboration: A growing body of work involving spatial isotope data in a range of fields makes this an opportune time to promote cross-disciplinary exchange • Research Initiatives: New opportunities for spatial isotope monitoring and environmental data collection merit a discussion of how stable isotope research can and should be incorporated in and benefit from these programs • Innovation: An increasing fluency in the language of isoscapes provides common ground for discussion on major, cross-cutting research challenges

3. What is an isoscape? • Quantitative representation of isotope distributions in space/time • Isoscapes integrate knowledge • Spatially resolved observations • Models of physical and biological processes • Isoscapes enable discovery • Data-model integration • Spatial tracing • Isoscapes facilitate communication • Homogeneous data

4. The underlying information • Isotopes “record” natural processes • Phase changes • Enzyme activity • Radioactive decay • Isotopic exchange • Movement & mixing • Reactant pool • Intensive mechanistic work is necessary • Metabolism • Transpiration • Biosynthetic pathways

5. Applications • Processes inferred from isotope ratios • Water sources and transformations • Climate dynamics • Animal migration • Weathering • Biogeochemical cycling • Human impacts • Atmospheric transport • Isoscapes provide a framework for addressing fundamental and applied research questions at large scales

6. Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences Biological Diversity and Ecosystem Functioning Biogeochemical cycles Climate Variability Hydrologic Forecasting Infectious Disease and the Environment Institutions and Resource Use Land-Use Dynamics Reinventing the Use of Materials

7. Climate change From R. Dave Keeling (1998, AREE): “It has been over 40 years since Roger Revelle and Hans Suess pointed out that the burning of fossil fuels was a large-scale geophysical experiment... despite the heightened political awareness of the greenhouse problem indicated by the Kyoto meeting last winter, most governments have shown little interest in environmental monitoring.”

8. Isotope data networks Global Seawater Oxygen-18 GLOBALVIEW

9. Large-scale efforts NEON: ...will gather long-term data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and climate, and on feedbacks with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere...It will consist of distributed sensor networks and experiments, linked by advanced cyberinfrastructure to record and archive ecological data for at least 30 years. Using standardized protocols and an open data policy, NEON will gather essential data for developing the scientific understanding and theory required to manage the nation’s ecological challenges. neoninc.org

10. Large-scale efforts WATERS: ... will transform our scientific understanding of how water quantity, quality, and related earth system processes are affected by natural and human-induced changes to the environment. It will accomplish this by enabling multi-scale, dynamic predictive modeling for water, sediment, and water quality by measuring or estimating fundamental properties such as the flux, hydrologic flow paths, residence times, and chemical/biological reaction rates and include such capabilities as near-real-time assimilation of data, prediction up to the national scale and feedback to adjust community models and observatory design and function. watersnet.org

11. Large-scale efforts TRACE: …aims to improve the health and well-being of European citizens by delivering improved traceability of food products. The 5 year project sponsored by the European Commission will provide consumers with added confidence in the authenticity of European food through complete traceability along entire fork to farm food chains. TRACE will develop cost effective analytical methods integrated within sector-specific and -generic traceability systems that will enable the determination and the objective verification of the origin of food. Trace.eu.org

12. Blind monks… • Meeting impetus • Isoscape definition • Big questions • Data networks • Large-scale efforts • Understanding d13C in tree rings "Blind monks examining an elephant" by Itcho Hanabusa

13. d13Ca in tree rings “Briefly, the 13C/12C ratio of a plant constituent such as cellulose reflects the 13C/12C ratio of the atmosphere, but there is a temperature coefficient of 0.02‰ per °C. This is small enough to be of little consequence in this investigation.” Wilson.1978.Nature

14. d13Ca in tree rings “It seems clear that a resolution of the various parameters which may potentially affect atmospheric d13C will be forthcoming only after detailed study of tree-ring 13C/12C ratios before the onset of man’s major industrial and agricultural activities on a global scale and for a geographical area where lengthy direct temperature records are available.” Farmer.1979.Nature "Blind monks examining an elephant" by Itcho Hanabusa

15. d13Ca in tree rings “The differences between 13C/12C trends in trees from different regions, coupled with the differences between most 13C/12C trends in tree-rings representing the past 20 yr and the direct atmospheric measurement, seriously question the interpretation of any tree record in terms of global atmospheric behavior...A solution must be sought in the mechanism of fractionation in plants.” Francey.1981.Nature "Blind monks examining an elephant" by Itcho Hanabusa

16. d13Ca in tree rings “Although the global atmospheric 13C/12C information in tree rings is often masked by a scatter which depends on local physical as well as climatological processes, it is, nevertheless, possible to infer past 13C/12C ratios of atmospheric CO2, if a larger number of free-standing trees from various parts of the world are measured...” Freyer.1981.Nature “Recent progress in understanding the mechanism of carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis suggests that anthropogenic influences on fractionation will occur on both local and global scales.” Francey.1981.Nature

17. d13Ca in tree rings “The expression gives good agreement with d13p measurements where independent information on ci exists, such as seasonal growth, growth low in the canopy and in conditions of low humidity. The expression provides possible explanations for two previously unexplained phenomena: the absence of anticipated changes due to fossil fuel-induced changes in d13a, and regional differences in d13p trends.” Francey&Farquhar.1982.Nature ci ca d13p ≈ d13a – a – (b – a)ci/ca

18. Isoscapes revealing “the elephant” • Components incorporated • Plant physiology models • Observed meteorology • Satellite-derived data • Network data for model comparisons • Spatio-temporal synthesis Suits et al.2005.GBC

19. Carbon isoscapes enabling discovery • Spatial and temporal distributions of sources and sinks • Land versus ocean flux partitioning • Underlying processes and response to change • Comparison with observation (e.g., flux towers or flask collection sites) • Understanding biosphere-atmosphere interactions • Tracing movement of animals

20. Meeting goals • Communication • Sharing of results within and across disciplines • Exploration of insights from different approaches • Collaboration • New connections promoting the integration of multiple isotope systems, and data- and knowledge-sharing • New research and communication uniting instrument developers, empiricists, experimenters, modelers, and managers • Research Initiatives • Improved understanding of community resource needs and appropriate mechanisms to fulfill them • Innovation • New projects, applications, and research directions spawned from the merging of data and perspectives