Using satellite observations, field measurements, models, and machine learning approaches, we study human modification of biogeochemical cycles and climate. We seek to improve our understanding of interactions between humans, ecosystems, and climate change that influence the long-term sustainability of the Earth System.
News from the Climate, Carbon, Fires Dynamics Lab
Audrey Odwuor awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Congratulations to Audrey for her selection this spring as a recipient of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Audrey's thesis work is on using isotope measurements of fire emissions from the Amazon and the western US to quantify characteristics about fuel...
Updates on the 2019 Amazon fires
We are tracking the evolution of fires in the Amazon. Please check out the Global Fire Emissions Database website for daily updates. The number of fires in the Legal Amazon was unusually high and fire temperatures were considerably above normal at the time of this...
Liz Wiggins’ paper on the carbon age of smoke from Indonesian fires published in PNAS
Liz Wiggins' paper on the radiocarbon content of aerosols from Indonesian fires was published yesterday in PNAS. Colleagues from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology collected aerosol samples from the...
Why do model predictions indicate the Amazon will get drier but Indonesia will get wetter?
In most climate model projections for the 21st century with moderate to high fossil fuel emissions, the Amazon becomes drier and Indonesia becomes wetter. Within the climate modeling community, this pattern of diverging tropical land precipitation had been attributed...
Weiwei Fu’s paper on ocean oxygen trends published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Weiwei Fu's paper published this week in Global Biogeochemical Cycles shows ocean oxygen minimum zones are poised for a wild ride over the next few centuries. First they will expand from warming, but then they may shrink far below current levels. Recovery of oxygen...
Congratulations to Shane on being awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Shane Coffield, a first year Ph.D. student in Earth System Science, was awarded a 2018 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Shane proposes to work on fire prediction and participates in the Machine Learning in Physical Sciences (MAPS) NSF training program....