The Raymond laboratory has been researching the role of climate and land use on the lateral transport of atmospheric carbon to streams. Over the past year they have written the code to calculate export alkalinity for 158 sub watersheds of the Ohio. Over the next year they hope to determine how changing land use and climate alters the watershed export of atmospheric CO2, as alkanity, from terrestrial systems. Much of the CO2 that is exported as alkalinity is transfered through terrestrial biota as part of gross primary production (GPP).
This project will, in part, incorporate MODIS GPP estimates into the Raymond lab model in order to determine the fraction of GPP that is exported to streams as alkalinity. We will also determine how this fraction changes with changing land use and climate.