Ulrike Seibt

Atmospheric carbonyl sulfide sources from anthropogenic activity: Implications for carbon cycle constraints

Carbonyl sulfide (COS) has recently emerged as an atmospheric tracer of gross primary production. All modeling studies of COS air-monitoring data rely on a climatological anthropogenic inventory that does not reflect present conditions or support interpretation of ice core and firn trends. Here we develop a global anthropogenic inventory for the years 1850 to 2013 based on new emission measurements and material-specific data. By applying methods from a recent regional inventory to global data, we find that the anthropogenic source is similar in magnitude to the plant sink, confounding carbon cycle applications. However, a material-specific approach results in a current anthropogenic source that is only one third of plant uptake and is concentrated in Asia, supporting carbon cycle applications of global air-monitoring data. Furthermore, changes in the anthropogenic source alone cannot explain the century-scale mixing ratio growth, which suggests that ice and firn data may provide the first global history of gross primary production.

Large historical growth in global terrestrial gross primary production

Growth in terrestrial gross primary production (GPP)—the amount of carbon dioxide that is ‘fixed’ into organic material through the photosynthesis of land plants—may provide a negative feedback for climate change. It remains uncertain, however, to what extent biogeochemical processes can suppress global GPP growth. As a consequence, modelling estimates of terrestrial carbon storage, and of feedbacks between the carbon cycle and climate, remain poorly constrained. Here we present a global, measurement-based estimate of GPP growth during the twentieth century that is based on long-term atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (COS) records, derived from ice-core, firn and ambient air samples. We interpret these records using a model that simulates changes in COS concentration according to changes in its sources and sinks—including a large sink that is related to GPP. We find that the observation-based COS record is most consistent with simulations of climate and the carbon cycle that assume large GPP growth during the twentieth century (31% ± 5% growth; mean ± 95% confidence interval). Although this COS analysis does not directly constrain models of future GPP growth, it does provide a global-scale benchmark for historical carbon-cycle simulations.

Assessing a New Clue to How Much Carbon Plants Take Up

Current climate models disagree on how much carbon dioxide land ecosystems take up for photosynthesis. Tracking the stronger carbonyl sulfide signal could help.

Plant Uptake of Atmospheric Carbonyl Sulfide in Coast Redwood Forests

Author(s): Campbell, JE; Whelan, ME; Berry, JA; Hilton, TW; Zumkehr, A; Stinecipher, J; Lu, Y; Kornfeld, A; Seibt, U; Dawson, TE; Montzka, SA; Baker, IT; Kulkarni, S; Wang, Y; Herndon, SC; Zahniser, MS; Commane, R; Loik, ME | Abstract: ©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. The future resilience of coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) is now of critical concern due to the detection of a 33% decline in California coastal fog over the 20th century. However, ecosystem-scale measurements of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance are challenging in coast redwood forests, making it difficult to anticipate the impacts of future changes in fog. To address this methodological problem, we explore coastal variations in atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (COS or OCS), which could potentially be used as a tracer of these ecosystem processes. We conducted atmospheric flask campaigns in coast redwood sites, sampling at surface heights and in the canopy (~70 m), at the University of California Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve and Big Basin State Park. We simulated COS atmosphere-biosphere exchange with a high-resolution 3-D model to interpret these data. Flask measurements indicated a persistent daytime drawdown between the coast and the downwind forest (45 ± 6 ppt COS) that is consistent with the expected relationship between COS plant uptake, stomatal conductance, and gross primary production. Other sources and sinks of COS that could introduce noise to the COS tracer technique (soils, anthropogenic activity, nocturnal plant uptake, and surface hydrolysis on leaves) are likely to be small relative to daytime COS plant uptake. These results suggest that COS measurements may be useful for making ecosystem-scale estimates of carbon, water, and energy exchange in coast redwood forests.

Carbonyl Sulfide for Tracing Carbon Fluxes Field Campaign Report

The April-June 2012 campaign was located at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility Southern Great Plains (SGP) site Central Facility and had three purposes. One goal was to demonstrate the ability of current instrumentation to correctly measure fluxes of atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (COS). The approach has been describe previously as a critical approach to advancing carbon cycle science1,2, but requires further investigation at the canopy scale to resolve ecosystem processes. Previous canopy-scale efforts were limited to data rates of 1Hz. While 1 Hz measurements may work in a few ecosystems, it is widely accepted that data rates of 10 to 20 Hz are needed to fully capture the exchange of traces gases between the atmosphere and vegetative canopy. A second goal of this campaign was to determine if canopy observations could provide information to help interpret the seasonal double peak in airborne observations at SGP of CO2 and COS mixing ratios. A third goal was to detect potential sources and sinks of COS that must be resolved before using COS as a tracer of gross primary productivity (GPP).