GC102-0009
Development of a Full Carbon Budget for Auckland, New Zealand
Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Poster
Lucas G Domingues1, Jocelyn C Turnbull1, Elizabeth D. Keller1, Jeremy Thompson1, Julia Collins1, Sara E Mikaloff-Fletcher2, Gordon W Brailsford2, Shanju Xie3, Nancy Golubiewski3, Kevin R Gurney4 and Lucy Hutyra5, (1)GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, (2)National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington, New Zealand, (3)Auckland Council, Auckland, New Zealand, (4)Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States, (5)Boston University, Earth & Environment, Boston, MA, United States
Abstract:
New Zealand has committed to ambitious greenhouse gas emission reductions. Yet key questions surrounding forest, grassland and urban carbon exchange remain unanswered. Recent studies hypothesize that urban ecosystems could absorb twice as much carbon as natural forest, but no direct evidence has yet been presented for any city. We will establish the first full urban-scale carbon exchange estimation for Auckland, incorporating both fossil emissions and carbon uptake by the urban ecosystem.
Being an island, the biggest city of New Zealand has a strategic geographical position, which facilitates the measurements of incoming background gases and the urban atmospheric contribution (Figure 1). We will perform measurements of CO, CO2 and CH4 using a Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy monitor at four sites which will provide the upwind background constraint and the urban plume information. In addition, an automatic flask sampler will collect weekly one-hour time-integrated air samples for analysis of CO2, CO, CH4, N2O and COS concentrations, and the isotopes 13C, 18O and 14C in CO2. The measurements collected in this study will be used in city scale Atmospheric Inverse Modelling. Comprehensive assessment of NZ’s carbon balance will enable emission mitigation strategies to be developed that optimise environmental, social and economic benefits.
