The center will help scientists answer some of the most important scientific issues of our time -- understanding how carbon flows through the air, oceans, soils and plants, and how carbon dioxide increases affect the Earth system.
Funded with a $2-million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles, this national carbon cycle research center will be used initially by scientists from UCI, Caltech, Cal State Fullerton and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Earth system science researchers Ellen Druffel, John Southon and Susan Trumbore will oversee the facility.
By using an analytic technique called mass spectrometry, researchers will be able to measure a rare isotope of carbon, called radiocarbon, in materials such as plants, soils and ocean coral. These measurements are the best and at times the only way to determine the rates of carbon exchange on a global scale. As the most advanced method of conducting radiocarbon research, accelerator mass spectrometry allows for very sensitive and rapid measurements of this isotope in small samples.
"This new center provides a wonderful opportunity for scientists to ask questions about the carbon cycle that could not be answered before," said Druffel, a leading oceanographer who studies radiocarbon in coral and other marine samples in order to understand the role oceans play in the carbon cycle. "Innovative use of this AMS technology will have a major impact on Earth system science and enhances UCI's strength in interdisciplinary scientific study."
Radiocarbon exists naturally in the environment in very small amounts, although levels have been boosted due to nuclear weapons testing over the past 50 years. These isotopes serve as chemical tracers, allowing researchers to follow where carbon circulates in the Earth system and how long it is stored.
"Tracing radiocarbon is like inserting a red dye into the carbon cycle," said Southon, who dates radiocarbon in sea sediment and corals to understand paleoclimate records. "Its study plays an important part in understanding the interplay between this cycle and the Earth's climate."
The carbon cycle is a fundamental activity that distributes the element throughout the Earth system. Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide due to the burning of organic compounds, such as coal, wood and oil-based fuels, have been identified as a key factor both in air pollution and in global warming trends. By understanding how the carbon cycle works, researchers can begin to understand how the planet processes and stores these growing atmospheric amounts of carbon.
Founded in 1989 by UCI Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone, one of the world's leading experts on climate change, the Department of Earth System Science has gained international attention for its research into atmospheric changes caused by greenhouse gas emissions, most notably with F. Sherwood Rowland's findings on stratospheric ozone depletion, for which he received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The department's world-renowned faculty work together to provide a fundamental scientific understanding of the Earth system while identifying processes that have the potential to change this system during a human lifetime. Based on the importance of Earth system science faculty research, the Institute for Scientific Information, in a 1998 analysis, cited UCI as the university with the greatest impact in the field of geoscience.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE: A TOP-TIER PUBLIC UNIVERSITY
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