Manitou Forest Observatory

Multi-level flux tower deployed at the Manitou Experimental Forest to understand biogenic effects on aerosols.

BEACHON project conducts experimental and numerical research studies to enhance understanding of the roles of biogenic aerosols, nitrogen trace gases and oxidants in linking and regulating the carbon and water cycles.

The Earth system has undergone extensive change during the last 60 years, with important implications for human health, resource management, ecosystem services and the environment. The ability to predict these changes and their impacts on time scales of months to a decade is becoming increasingly important. Key to improving the predictability of Earth system behavior over these time scales is an improved understanding of the coupling between water, energy and biogeochemical cycles in a multi-scale modeling framework. Robust predictions at these time scales require coordinated modeling, observations and process studies that explicitly address the coupled water, energy and biogeochemical cycles at multiple temporal and spatial scales.