Global change encompasses hundreds of issues, the number depending upon how fine a focus one brings to bear.  Here we present a selection of issues, as summaries of the body of knowledge to date, and for a number of topics we identify work that we see as of high value, often novel, and within our expertise in the consortium.  We present the issues in varying degrees of detail:

• Two presentations are of significant length, combining detail and breadth:

            Forest issues

            Water issues

 

These are not position statements of the GCCC on actions that are needed; rather, they present the known factual background and some of the positions that have been taken by various parties.  With these pages, we aim to demonstrate our grasp of the issues.  We also develop some novel viewpoints.  Within the page on forest issues, there is also a link to a list of projects that we foresee that clients may request the GCCC to do.  We are actively engaged on water issues on a current contract.

 

The two issues pages draw on our backgrounds and years of work in universities, national laboratories in 3 countries, and scientific agencies, plus our contacts with researchers, agency personnel, and private enterprises across the US and a number of other nations.  The pages contain links to many other Web pages, media pages, journal articles, and books for further exploration of the issues.

 

    • A larger number are of intermediate length:

   Biofuels

      Main reasons to pursue them 

      Concomitant problems

      A preliminary report on switchgrass prepared by the Consortium for the Southwest Biofuels Association

      Closer look at two goals mixed together

      Potential niche for the Consortium>

   Forest fires, water stress, and watershed condition in the western US

      Review of big issues

      A major effort already designed

      Potential clients

      Selling points for the Consortium's services

   Global change and water: Projections of global change effects on municipal water supplies, irrigation water availability, and crop growth

      Three components of change

      Two lines of development of services

      Specific comments and bite-sized projects

    Irrigation management

      Why irrigation is challenging to maintain

      A major effort in progress in our group

Life-cycle energy costing and carbon (CO₂ equivalent) accounting of diverse energy technologies

   Geoengineering the globe to reduce global warming

   Ocean acidification by elevated CO₂

• Presentations on issues (by director and collaborators; other members' work to follow)

   HTML documents (moderate size)

   Major challenge to sharing green technology: note to a journalist in advance of Copenhagen talks.

   Biological consequences of global change: an outline for a series of public talks.

   Water-energy connections: outline for a small public forum.

   Low thermal efficiency of central power plants: brief explanation to a non-scientist.

   Potential productivity of native and domesticated plants in Mexican arid zones, including impacts of climate change: a presentation for a symposium (Spanish)

   Interesting calculation: energy trapping by CO₂ put into the air exceeds by 100-fold the energy liberated in burning the fuel

   PowerPoint presentations (ppt) and PDF documents (multiple MB)

   Nature of biological extreme events (ppt): national meeting presentation.

   Large and unpredictable changes in plant distributions around the world, from CO2 and climate change: fundamental paper (PDF) and national meeting presentation (ppt).

   Link to Web pages, with multiple subsidiary links

   Trying to do big computer models well for global change, ecology, etc. (navigate esp. to Co-organizer page, with details).

   Selected documents, mostly PDFs, from the director's work on issues related to global change - most in collaboration with colleagues in the US, Australia, and Mexico

   Pushing microclimate too far for natural reforestation in Australia

   Biological extreme events: major challenges in defining and studying them

   Estimating evaporative losses from a New Mexico reservoir by remote sensing. Final report to a US EPA program

   Plant growth at high CO₂: analysis of greenhouse experiments with a concise physiological model. Additionally, two background papers (1993) and (1995)

   Plant growth at high CO₂: adjustments of the root system.

   Plant nitrogen nutrition and changes with industrial/automotive N deposition

   Plant nitrogen nutrition: internal physiological controls - a model

   Pecan water use by ground measurements, remote sensing, and a physiological model: relevant to designing new irrigation management as adaptation to global change

   Physiological control of water use in native and invasive trees: a Ph. D. thesis using field measurements and models

   Pecans under water (anoxia): assessing an irrigation practice

   Water stress responses of pecan: evaluation with a physiological & meteorological model (research report)

   How much CO₂ have humans added? Popular newsletter entry

   Managing pecan irrigation with a process-based understanding I: water-use efficiency evaluated with measurements and physiological / meteorological models

   Managing pecan irrigation with a process-based understanding. II: a full growth and management model

   The low-carbon energy-efficient world: opportunities to develop in the US. Public forum presentation

   Humidity effects on crop growth: explanation with a physiological model, and expected changes. Popular newsletter entry

   An extremely drought-tolerant plant: lessons for vegetation change with climate change. Popular presentation (ppt; 15 MB)

   Technology development: leaf area estimation from image analysis for estimating growth and stress.

 

• For a yet larger number of issues, we provide identifiers or simple outlines.   We will develop these into longer presentations, as time permits.  Our priority is to do the 'hands-on' work on issues for which clients engage us; the list here serves to demonstrate our awareness and our considerable interest in a wide variety of issues.