Steven W. Running - 27 Sep 2017

"Is terrestrial net primary production a planetary boundary for the carbon cycle?"

 

September 27, 2017

Summary

In the last few years an interesting framing of global planetary boundaries has been developed, yet without a carbon cycle variable. In this seminar i will suggest that NPP might be a relevant planetary boundary, and with a multi decade of measurement that already exists, I will evaluate how stable global terrestrial NPP is and whether we can define a realistic boundary. Finally, i will discuss the policy relevance of such a boundary.

​Steven W. Running, University of Montana, USA 

Steven W. Running received his Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from Colorado State University, and has been with the University of Montana, Missoula since 1979, where he is a University Regents Professor of Global Ecology.  His primary research interest is the development of global and regional ecosystem biogeochemical models integrating remote sensing with bioclimatology and terrestrial ecology.  He is the Land Team Leader for the NASA Earth Observing System, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and is responsible for the EOS global terrestrial net primary production and evapotranspiration datasets. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and has been  designated a Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information. In 2014 was designated one of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” in Geosciences.