Organizers of the 4th NACP All-Investigators Meeting.

The Carbon Cycle Science Interagency Working Group (CCIWG) and the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Office staff from USGCRP, Gyami Shrestha, helped organize the 4th North American Carbon Program (NACP) All-Investigators Meeting (AIM4) in Albuquerque, NM, from February 4 to 7, 2013. Over 400 carbon cycle scientists from the US, Canada, Mexico and other nations attended the meeting. CCIWG co-chair Nancy Cavallaro (USDA) summarized the structure, functions, and priorities the CCIWG and US Carbon Program within the USGCRP framework. A CCIWG and U.S. Carbon Program Office panel discussion followed the CCIWG talk. Other sessions encompassed the current and future carbon budget for North America, approaches for communicating the science of climate change and science information needs for decision makers and international negotiations, including talks by NOAA’s Ko Barrett, and the National Climate Assessment’s Kathy Jacobs. The NACP was established in 2002 in response to Goal 1 of the 1999 Carbon Cycle Science Plan (i.e. quantify and understand the Northern Hemisphere terrestrial carbon sink). Its design addresses strategic research question 7.1 in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan (2003) regarding the magnitudes and distributions of North American carbon sources and sinks on seasonal to centennial time scales, and the processes controlling their dynamics. See more information