Our Earth Systems Research is supported by grants from NASA, NOAA, NSF, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service (USDAFS), U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the State of N.H., among others.
Research Themes
Cryosphere
How is climate change affecting the mass balance of the polar ice sheets? Can we use space-borne remote sensing to quantify ice flow in the polar ice sheets? Is the Arctic hydrological cycle accelerating? What is the freshwater budget of the Arctic Ocean drainage basin?
Faculty/Research PI’s: Dibb, Fahnestock, Lammers, Shiklomanov, Twickler, Wake
Research Methods: modeling, data synthesis, remote sensing, field studies
What are the impacts of human-induced changes in land use and land cover on the climate system? How reliably can we detect land-use/land-cover change from space?
Faculty/Research PI’s: Frolking, Li, Ollinger, Palace, Rubin, Xiao
Research Methods: remote sensing, modeling, field studies, data synthesis
Is the Arctic hydrological cycle accelerating? What regions of the world will suffer from water shortages in the coming decades? What is the freshwater budget of the Arctic Ocean drainage basin?
Faculty/Research PI’s: Lammers, Prusevich, Shiklomanov, Wollheim
Research Methods: modeling, data synthesis, remote sensing
What biogeochemical and physical processes control the composition and variability of seafloor hydrothermal vents (hot springs)? What are the linkages between the chemistry of the fluids and both the surrounding biological communities and the chemistry of the ocean? How do freshwater ecosystems process nutrient inputs, and how much gets delivered to coastal oceans?
Faculty/Research PI’s: Wollheim
Research Methods: field studies, modeling, remote sensing, data synthesis
How are forests responding to increased nitrogen inputs? What is the role of peatlands in the Earth’s carbon budget? What is the role of the Amazonian forest in the Earth’s climate system? How much do croplands contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gases, and what are possible mitigation strategies? How are forests responding to increased nitrogen inputs?
Faculty/Research PI’s: Frolking, Hobbie, Li, Martin, Ollinger, Palace, Rock, Xiao
Research Methods: modeling, field studies, remote sensing
Faculty/Research PI’s: Wake
Faculty/Research PI’s: Martin, Ollinger, Rock, Schloss
Research Groups
Agro-Ecosystem Biogeochemistry
Arctic CHAMP Project Office
Forest Ecosystems
Global Remote Sensing
GRANIT
Remote Sensing and GIS
Trace Gas Biogeochemistry
Water Systems Analysis Group