INDUSTRY

Oak Ridge National Laboratory¹s new Flux Ecoregions Website is a valuable tool for climate researchers and great viewing for map lovers. Because carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas, climate researchers take great interest in how the earth's ecosystems store and release carbon into the environment. The Ameriflux network of carbon flux towers, sponsored by several government agencies including the Department of Energy, measures carbon uptake and release in 60 locations across the United States. Each tower measures carbon flux, or change, from a meandering area of about one square kilometer. Extrapolating these sparse measurements into a continuous estimate across the nation's 7.8 million square kilometers remains a challenge. ORNL researchers William Hargrove and Forrest Hoffman, using multivariate statistics and supercomputers, have combined data on climate and soils with satellite-based measurements of vegetation and productivity to divide the country into 90 homogeneous flux ecoregions. The flux ecoregions will help to produce continuous estimates by pre-arranging the country into zones having similar carbon fluxes. The Flux Ecoregion Website's maps, found at http://geobabble.ornl.gov/flux-ecoregions, come in several colorful formats with features including zoom and animation