A Decadal Perspective on North American Carbon Program Contributions to Carbon Cycle Science

Abstract:

The North American Carbon Program (NACP) is a multi-agency, multidisciplinary scientific research program focused on carbon sources, sinks, and fluxes in North America and its adjacent oceans. This community of practice includes ~2600 participants from universities, government agencies, research institutes, and non-profit and other stakeholder organizations. For the past decade, the NACP community has been guided by the 2011 US Carbon Cycle Science Plan to produce some of the most foundational and influential carbon cycle research published. We will highlight the topical, methodological, and synthetic advances by NACP researchers, documented by the 1650+ scientific articles and contributions to reports such as the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report. We will conclude with a forward-looking view to the upcoming decade by outlining the new NACP Science Implementation Plan, including objectives for sustained and expanded observations, assessment and integration, processes and attribution, predictions, and communication, outreach, and decision support.