[1] We analyzed 13 years (1992À2004) of CO 2 flux data, biometry, and meteorology from a mixed deciduous forest in central Massachusetts. Annual net uptake of CO 2 ranged from 1.0 to 4.7 Mg-C ha À1 yr À1 , with an average of 2.5 Mg-C ha À1 yr À1 . Uptake rates increased systematically, nearly doubling over the period despite forest age of 75-110 years; there were parallel increases in midsummer photosynthetic capacity at high light level (21.5À31.5 mmole m À2 s À1 ), woody biomass (101À115 Mg-C ha À1 from 1993À2005, mostly due to growth of one species, red oak), and peak leaf area index (4.5À5.5 from 1998-2005). The long-term trends were interrupted in 1998 by sharp declines in photosynthetic capacity, net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO 2 , and other parameters, with recovery over the next 3 years. The observations were compared to empirical functions giving the mean responses to temperature and light, and to a terrestrial ecosystem model (IBIS2). Variations in gross ecosystem exchange of CO 2 (GEE) and NEE on hourly to monthly timescales were represented well as prompt responses to the environment, but interannual variations and long-term trends were not. IBIS2 simulated mean annual NEE, but greatly overpredicted the amplitude of the seasonal cycle and did not predict the decadal trend. The drivers of interannual and decadal changes in NEE are long-term increases in tree biomass, successional change in forest composition, and disturbance events, processes not well represented in current models.

Methane emissions from natural gas delivery and end use must be quantified to evaluate the environmental impacts of natural gas and to develop and assess the efficacy of emission reduction strategies. We report natural gas emission rates for 1 y in the urban region of Boston, using a comprehensive atmospheric measurement and modeling framework. Continuous methane observations from four stations are combined with a high-resolution transport model to quantify the regional average emission flux, 18.5 ± 3.7 (95% confidence interval) g CH 4 ·m −2 ·y −1 . Simultaneous observations of atmospheric ethane, compared with the ethane-to-methane ratio in the pipeline gas delivered to the region, demonstrate that natural gas accounted for ∼60-100% of methane emissions, depending on season. Using government statistics and geospatial data on natural gas use, we find the average fractional loss rate to the atmosphere from all downstream components of the natural gas system, including transmission, distribution, and end use, was 2.7 ± 0.6% in the Boston urban region, with little seasonal variability. This fraction is notably higher than the 1.1% implied by the most closely comparable emission inventory.natural gas distribution | greenhouse gas emissions | cities | methane A tmospheric methane (CH 4 ) is an important greenhouse gas (1) and major contributor to elevated surface ozone concentrations worldwide (2). Current atmospheric CH 4 concentrations are 2.5 times greater than preindustrial levels due to anthropogenic emissions from both biological and fossil fuel sources. The growth rate of CH 4 in the atmosphere slowed beginning in the mid-1980s and plateaued in the mid-2000s, but growth has resumed since 2007. The factors responsible for the observed global increase and interannual trends, and the spatiotemporal distribution of sources, remain uncertain (3).Losses of natural gas (NG) to the atmosphere are a significant component of anthropogenic CH 4 emissions (3), with important implications for resource use efficiency, worker and public safety, air pollution, and human health (4), and for the climate impact of NG as a large and growing source of energy. A major focus area of the US Climate Action Plan is reduction of CH 4 emissions (5), but implementation requires identification of dominant source types, locations, and magnitudes. A recent review and synthesis of CH 4 emission measurements in North America, spanning scales of individual components to the continent, found that inventory methods consistently underestimate CH 4 emissions, that fossil fuels are likely responsible for a large portion of the underestimate, and that significant fugitive emissions may be occurring from all segments of the NG system (6).The present study quantifies CH 4 fluxes from NG in the urbanized region centered on Boston. Elevated CH 4 concentrations in urban environments have been documented around the world for decades (7) (SI Appendix, Table S1) and attributed to a variety of anthropogenic source types. Recent studies of urbanized regions in...

Abstract. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 has been on orbit since 2014, and its global coverage holds the potential to reveal new information about the carbon cycle through the use of top-down atmospheric inversion methods combined with column average CO2 retrievals. We employ a large ensemble of atmospheric inversions utilizing different transport models, data assimilation techniques, and prior flux distributions in order to quantify the satellite-informed fluxes from OCO-2 Version 7r land observations and their uncertainties at continental scales. Additionally, we use in situ measurements to provide a baseline against which to compare the satellite-constrained results. We find that within the ensemble spread, in situ observations, and satellite retrievals constrain a similar global total carbon sink of 3.7±0.5 PgC yr−1, and 1.5±0.6 PgC yr−1 for global land, for the 2015–2016 annual mean. This agreement breaks down in smaller regions, and we discuss the differences between the experiments. Of particular interest is the difference between the different assimilation constraints in the tropics, with the largest differences occurring in tropical Africa, which could be an indication of the global perturbation from the 2015–2016 El Niño. Evaluation of posterior concentrations using TCCON and aircraft observations gives some limited insight into the quality of the different assimilation constraints, but the lack of such data in the tropics inhibits our ability to make strong conclusions there.