Program Overview

Climate Variability and Carbon Management is a growing interdisciplinary research program in the Earth Sciences Division. The program's main focus is on conducting research to increase the scientific foundation for prediction, impact assessment, and prevention of climate change. In addition, increased understanding of the earth's biogeochemical cycles and climate is needed for many other pressing issues under the purview of DOE and other public agencies, such as stewardship of water resources and the environmental effects of energy use and land use. To that end, we have active projects on climate and hydrology, climate change, a variety of ecological systems and biogeochemical cycles, and carbon sequestration in geologic, oceanic, and terrestrial systems.

One of the strengths of the Climate Variability and Carbon Management Program is its active partnerships with universities, industry, and other research laboratories. A prominent example of such partnerships is our strong link to research activities on the UC Berkeley campus, including the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center.

Last year (2002), within the Program, more than a dozen PIs led projects that included four divisions and more than 62 people at Berkeley Lab. This year (2003), the Program joined with three other divisions  (Energy and Environmental Technologies, Engineering, and National Energy Research and Scientific Computing) in developing a proposal for a Lab-wide climate change initiative.  

Recent Accomplishments

To illustrate a few recent accomplishments by the Climate Variability and Carbon Management Program, below we describe the new regional carbon sequestration alliance we have joined and the advanced research we are doing in the areas of regional climate studies, terrestrial carbon cycling, oceanic carbon cycling, and geologic carbon sequestration.

Carbon Sequestration Partnership

A major new development this year was the establishment of the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, in which ESD is playing a central role. This is one of seven partnerships recently established by the DOE to evaluate CO₂ capture, transport, and sequestration technologies best suited for different regions of the country. The West Coast Region comprises Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the North Slope of Alaska. This partnership constitutes a consortium of over 35 organizations, including state natural resource and environmental protection agencies; national labs and universities; private companies working on CO₂ capture, transportation, and storage technologies (CS&T); utilities; oil and gas companies; nonprofit organizations; and policy/governance coordinating organizations. In an 18-month Phase I project, this partnership will evaluate both terrestrial and geologic sequestration options.  There are five major tasks. The first task is to collect data to characterize major CO₂ point sources, the transportation options, and the terrestrial and geologic sinks in the region.  These data will be compiled and organized via a geographic information system (GIS) database.

Another task is to address key issues affecting deployment of CS&T technologies, including storage site permitting and monitoring, injection regulations, and health and environmental risks.  As part of this, we will conduct public outreach and maintain an open dialogue with stakeholders in carbon CS&T technologies through public meetings, joint research, and education work. At this point, the data and information from the above tasks can be integrated and analyzed to develop supply curves and cost-effective, environmentally acceptable sequestration options, both near- and long-term. Finally, the partnership will identify appropriate terrestrial and geologic demonstration projects consistent with the options defined above, and create action plans for their safe and effective implementation. If suitable demonstration projects can be identified and are approved by DOE, they will be carried out as a Phase II of the Partnership program.

Regional Climate and Water Resources

Berkeley Lab's California Water Resources Research Center investigates regional and local hydroclimates for multiple state and federal agencies. A number of regional climate models tend to overestimate precipitation in California, making it difficult to predict water resources and flooding, or to evaluate climate change impacts with confidence.  Berkeley Lab analyses showed that these biases arise because models do not represent snow accurately. Simulating the snow pack also has great practical significance, since snow packs store 80% of California's water supply. A climate change analysis for the year 2100 performed by the Lab projects a significant reduction in snow pack for six major watersheds in the state. The related changes in snowmelt and stream flow suggest there will be higher flow, and thus greater flood danger, in the winter, while summer flows, when demand is greatest, will be lower.

Terrestrial Biosphere Carbon Cycle

Soils contain twice as much carbon as the atmosphere and exchange carbon with the atmosphere at ten times the rate of fossil fuel emissions.  We are using advanced isotopic techniques to study the poorly understood rate-controlling processes hidden underground.    Berkeley Lab documentation that fine tree roots live five times longer than previously thought is leading to changes in forest ecosystem models and estimates of the amount of carbon pumped belowground by root growth. One of the focal points of carbon cycle research is the vast range of scales--from a single leaf to an entire continent--that must be bridged with measurements and models.  Berkley Lab has implemented a coordinated suite of carbon concentration, isotope, and flux measurements in the Southern Great Plains, as part of the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. Data streams began flowing to the ARM archives this year. Simultaneously monitoring from crop fields, tall towers, and aircraft, this facility is possibly the best-instrumented site for regional carbon studies in the world. 

Ocean Biogoechemistry

Oceans contain more carbon than any other dynamic reservoir on earth, and thus pose a great observational challenge. The pulses of biological productivity are episodic and rapid, and the areas are vast. As a result, we lack understanding of what controls ocean productivity and the export of carbon from the productive photic zone to deeper waters, where it can be stored for long periods. Berkeley Lab has developed the Carbon Explorer, an autonomous float that uses satellite telemetry to report its observations from distant oceans.  Last year, Carbon Explorers were deployed as part of the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment to test the effect of iron fertilization. The results suggest that the impact of iron was greater than expected in waters where other essential elements were deficient. These results were made possible by the continuous observations of the Carbon Explorers over an entire year, a data record that would not have been possible with conventional research ships. 

Geologic Carbon Sequestration

Geologic sequestration of CO₂ below the earth's surface is one of the most promising options for reducing atmospheric CO₂ over the next several decades, because the technologies to capture and store CO₂ are readily available. Berkeley Lab has been exploring a possible new technology--carbon sequestration with enhanced gas recovery, whereby CO₂ is injected into mature natural gas reservoirs to enhance CH₄ recovery while simultaneously storing CO₂ in the reservoir. Simulations suggest that the method is both technically and economically feasible in many cases.  Berkeley Lab was also active during the year in leading an international comparison of numerical codes that predict the fate of CO₂ in storage reservoirs, to better understand human health and environmental impacts. We also demonstrated the first use of seismic imaging between two horizontal wells for detailed characterization of a storage reservoir, and the first use of joint electromagnetic and seismic imaging to quantitatively map the saturation of CO₂ in the subsurface for monitoring and verification.

Funding and Partnerships

The Climate Variability and Carbon Management Program is funded by a variety of federal and state agencies, and international collaborations.  These include the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Fossil Energy, Office of Geological and Environmental Research, and Office of Biological and Environmental Research; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the National Science Foundation; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; and the Office of Naval Research, as well as the California Energy Commission and CAL-FED.