SCALED ECO-HYDRAULICS
The working group on scaled eco-hydraulics is building a predictive framework for the vertical transport of water and carbon through the biosphere. This group is integrating physical and biological principles from a hierarchy of scales into a continuous computational system for exploring water and carbon cycling from the xylem scale to the regional scale. Their approach accounts for the fundamental complexities (between physics and biology and between disparate scales) within the ecosystem and lower atmosphere. The group's research is focused on the intersection between major national and international science initiatives, targeted to resolve the impact of biosphere-atmosphere interactions (and feedbacks) on the global carbon and water cycles. The NSF, DOE, NASA, and USDA are supporting broad efforts to build predictive understanding in the individual cycles of water and carbon. By working on the intersection of these cycles, the group is positioned to establish a leadership role in taking this topic from descriptive to the predictive. An important product of this research is the ability to estimate present and future carbon uptake by terrestrial ecosystems in the presence of dynamic water availability.
The group's expertise spans plant physiological ecology (Ram Oren) through canopy scale transport (Gabriel Katul) to atmospheric boundary layer transport (John Albertson), with a strong integrating role of mathematics and physics (Andrea Bertozzi).
During the Fall 2002 term, the group offered a course to graduate and undergraduate students that explored the role of terrestrial ecosystems in regulating atmospheric CO2 and water uptake. More information.
