Biocomplexity Resources

Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles

Online resources in this list explore the interrelationships among earth system cycles, including physical, chemical, geological, hydrological, and biological processes. Examples include projects such as global change research and climatology.

• A Climate Change Atlas For 80 Forest Tree Species Of The Eastern United States. Statistical and spatial databases of climate change scenarios, life-history and disturbance attributes, ecological attributes, and forest type maps for 80 tree species in the Eastern US. (more info)
  
• Biocomplexity at Johns Hopkins University. This site provides information about an NSF-funded biocomplexity research project at Johns Hopkins University. The goal of the research is to develop and test an advanced instrumentation and computational modeling framework required to understand and predict the emission and transport of "Primary Biological Aerosol Particles" into the turbulent atmosphere. The site contains a project summary, research activities, results of the work so far, publications and abstracts, and links to the project faculty. (more info)
  
• Biocomplexity of Aquatic Microbial Systems. The goal of this biocomplexity research project is to investigate the functional relationship between complexity in microbial communities and the biogeochemical cycles of natural ecosystems. The study includes sites in the Chesapeake Bay, the Choptank River, and the open ocean of the Sargasso Sea. The research will characterize the physical and chemical complexity of these systems in terms of chemical and hydrological variables. The web site includes a project summary, data, a published journal article and links to the researchers involved. This resource is part of the Biocomplexity collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/biocomplexity/ ( This site is likely no longer available. )
  
• Biocomplexity of Frost-Boil Ecosystems. This NSF funded biocomplexity project seeks to understand the complex linkages between biogeochemical cycles, vegetation, disturbance, and climate across the full summer temperature gradient in the Arctic in order to better predict ecosystem responses to changing climate. The project examines the complexity associated with self-organization in frost-boil; complexity associated with interactions between biogeochemical cycles, cryoturbation, and vegetation; and biocomplexity across spatial-temporal scales. The web site includes the project proposal, research objectives, preliminary results, maps, photographs, datasets, and publications. (more info)
  
• CDIAC: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. Global and regional CO2, atmospheric, oceanic and climate data. ( This site is likely no longer available. )
  
• Earth Observatory. Customizable maps of atmospheric, oceanic, climatic, land use and biologic data plotted on world maps and animations. (more info)
  
• Floodplain Biocomplexity. This NSF-funded biocomplexity research project is founded on the principle that river flood plains are regional centers of ecological organization. Research is being conducted on the Nyack Flood Plain of the Flathead River, Montana, by faculty and students at the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station. The research addresses topics such as floodplain structure, groundwater and surface water flux, sediment and wood transport, nutrient flux, habitats and diversity. Important modifiers of this system include floods, drought, wildfire, human activities and invasions of nonnative species. (more info)
  
• Global Climate Maps. Global maps and animations of temperature, precipitation, sunshine fraction, climate classification and biomass potential. ( This site is likely no longer available. )
  
• Global Land Vegetation. The goal of this NASA Earth Science Enterprise-funded project is to increase the use of satellite data in high school and college science classrooms by developing classroom materials linked to guided inquiry computer exercises. (more info)
  
• Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Biological, solid earth and climatic data sets. (more info)
  
• Online Trends - A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Digital data and graphs of CO2, methane, greenhouse emissions, temperature and clouds from a range of monitoring stations and time periods. (more info)
  
• The US Long Term Ecological Research Network. This is a collaborative effort involving more than 1100 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. The studies include topics such as hydrology, metabolic rate of ecosystems, global change research, and climate data. (more info)
  
• US Global Change Research Program. This site contains global change data from a variety of government agencies as well as reports from national and international research projects. Frequently updated lists of new research findings and calls for proposals are available. Some of the topics covered are atmospheric composition, climate variability and change, global carbon and water cycles, and land use / land cover change. (more info)
  
• US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. This site contains a library of global change research documents and a listing of current or ongoing research projects. Most of these papers are posted on line in their entirety. Some of the global change issues include seasonal to inter-annual climate fluctuations, climate change, ozone depletion, UV radiation, atmospheric chemistry, changes in land cover, and terrestrial and marine ecosystems. (more info)