The USGCRP’s U.S. Carbon Program Cycle Science Program Office organized the 24th biannual meeting of the Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Group (CCSSG) at the NSF headquarters in Ballston, Virginia from May 24-25, 2012. The Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (CCIWG) updated the CCSSG on recent federal level agency and interagency programmatic activities related to carbon cycle science and of interest to this community of scientists. The CCSSG members, led by its co-chair Dr. Dennis Hansell of the University of Miami, addressed recent scientific developments and needs in the following areas:

• Human dimensions of the carbon cycle: some uncertainties and opportunities
• Climate feedbacks for methane
• Impacts of disturbances on terrestrial carbon cycling in the Northern Hemisphere
• Determining the global marine carbon pump using chemical measurements on Argo floats
• Coastal CO2 fluxes
• Arctic/Boreal carbon balance
• A multi-method intensive effort to improve the prognostic skill of terrestrial biosphere carbon cycle
  models.
• Developing the methodological tools required for successful carbon emissions management
• U.S. Government support for monitoring, verification, and reporting in the Tropics to facilitate REDD
• The Carbon Program’s Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program: New initiative

Dr. Alan Townsend, Director of the Division of Environmental Biology (NSF/BIO), welcomed the CCSSG and the CCIWG. The CCIWG and the Program Director of the NSF Division of Environmental Biology (DEB), and USGCRP/NCA Senior Scientist, Dr. Nancy Grimm discussed the National Climate Assessment. The CCIWG and the CCSSG brainstormed potential future activities and entities (projects,products, groups, data centers, etc.) based on the meeting discussions, the newly released 2012- 2021 USGCRP Strategic Plan and the community produced 2011 Carbon Cycle Science Plan. The USGCRP article link is here.