**** A summary of the AGU 2014 session co-led by the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program is here. This session evolved after merging with two other proposed AGU sessions. ****

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The following AGU sessions which may be of interest to the carbon cycle science community were recently announced. The abstract submission deadline is 6 August 2014, 23:59 EDT/03:59 +1 GMT via http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2014. Many others, not listed here, also pertain to these topics and can be accessed via the same link.

 'Linking Interdisciplinary Carbon Cycle Research in the Context of Emerging Inter- and Intra-Governmental Scientific Priorities and Policies’ 

This is a session organized by USGCRP's U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Office with members of the Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group. Presentations on changes in carbon stocks and fluxes in managed and unmanaged ecosystems in response to changing environmental, social, and/or geopolitical pressures are invited. Talks/posters aligned with current and upcoming U.S. Governmental science priorities and actions as well as global inter- and intra- governmental strategic research priorities and plans are highly encouraged. Primary Convener: Gyami Shrestha, Co-conveners: Nancy Cavallaro (USDA-NIFA), Sian Mooney (NSF-EPSCoR ), Christopher M. Clark (EPA-ORD)

Soil Organic Matter: Mechanisms of Stabilization and Change

Soils are essential components of the Critical Zone, and are both responders and drivers of the most critical environmental changes facing the earth during the Anthropocene. Soil organic matter dynamics play a major role in determining C storage in ecosystems and in regulating atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. How will climate change and man’s alteration of the terrestrial landscape affect soil organic matter dynamics? This session will focus on empirical and modeling studies of soils and carbon: storage potential, mechanisms of stabilization/ destabilization/ long term storage, and ecosystem vulnerability.Primary Convener: Kate Lajtha, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States. Co-conveners: Susan E Crow, University of Hawaii Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States, Marc G. Kramer, University of Florida, Soil and Water Science Department, Gainesville, FL, United States and Nancy Cavallaro, USDA/NIFA, Washington, DC, United States

Identifying Certainties and Uncertainties in Future Forest Carbon Under a Changing Climate

Forests are an important component of the global carbon cycle because of their role as a terrestrial carbon sink and their potential for long term carbon storage. Globally forests are in a rapid period of change due to interactions of modified disturbance regimes, climate change, and past and current forest management practices. In some cases the state of current research gives us a clear indication of the effects of forest management on long-term carbon balance, but in other cases uncertainties of future forest conditions, or future disturbances such as wildfire, are too great to recommend action at this time. Here we are calling for presentations of original research and syntheses or review analyses that evaluate the long-term implications of forest management on the carbon cycle. We particularly welcome studies that incorporate formal uncertainty analysis and those that address how carbon management may interface with other forest management goals.Primary Convener: Kathy Kelsey, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States Co-conveners: Jason Caufield Neff, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States and Nancy Cavallaro, USDA/NIFA, Washington, DC, United States

Quantifying and Attributing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Urban Systems and Other Complex Areas

Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions at policy-relevant scales such as cities, megacities, and oil and gas fields is an important scientific challenge.  Providing analyses that attribute emissions to source types or locations offers added value for improving inventories, which are ultimately necessary to guide management of future emissions.  When top-down studies disagree with the bottom-up inventories, it is important to be able to determine why, if scientific efforts are to be policy-relevant.  Confronting models of emissions with measurements and comparing independent measurement methods can improve understanding of both emissions and their governing processes. We invite contributions focused on anthropogenic emissions including ground, airborne and space-based measurements, atmospheric modeling, activity data, and inventories - particularly those that improve understanding of uncertainties, synthesize measurements and models, compare measurement methods, improve understanding of anthropogenic processes, or apply them to management or policy questions. Primary Convener: James H Butler, NOAA, Boulder, CO, United State,Co-conveners:  Riley M Duren, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, Irène Xueref-Remy, IPSL-LSCE, Gif-Sur-Yvette Cedex, France and Jocelyn C Turnbull, GNS Science / Rafter Radiocarbon, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Multi-scale analysis of biogeochemical cycles in urban region

Extensive urbanization has become one of the key land use change drivers globally and produced fragmented landscapes which account for more than 60% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To understand biogeochemical cycles in heterogeneous urban regions, it is essential to integrate multi-scale observation and modeling on structure and functions in urban ecosystems. In this session, we invite researchers who study carbon, water, radiation, energy and GHG balances across urban regions in conjunction with multi-scale observation and modeling. We particularly encourage submissions which investigate structure and function of urban ecosystems with multi-scale remote sensing techniques, from near-surface to satellite–based approaches. Primary Convener:  Iryna Dronova, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States Co-conveners:  Youngryel Ryu, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea and Steve M Raciti, Boston University, Arlington, MA, United States. 

Urban areas and global change

Urban and exurban areas play an important role in local and global feedbacks to Earth system processes. This session invites communities that conduct observations or use models to study biogeochemical interactions of human-land-atmosphere systems in urban and exurban areas. We encourage submissions from researchers who develop and deploy new measurement techniques and scaling methods in complex urban terrain. We welcome contributions from modeling groups that incorporate urban processes in models. Potential topics of this session include: energy budgets and greenhouse gases in urban areas; effects of urban areas on regional climate, air quality, biogeochemical cycles in urban areas; and their interactions with policy and urban planning. Primary Conveners: Kevin Robert Gurney, MS, MPP, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Science, Senior Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley, Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, USA. 

“Earth's Future: Navigating the Science of the Anthropocene”

During the last decades, decision makers in public service and private sectors have increasingly realized that the major challenges facing human society in the 21st century will be related to the evolution of the Earth system.  Understanding and managing our future relation with the Earth requires research and knowledge spanning diverse fields, and integrated, societally relevant science that is geared toward solutions.  This session will explore such interactions in geological, ecological, and social sciences.  Presentations will provide science-based knowledge on risks, challenges, and opportunities related to environmental change and sustainability.  Examples of anticipated contributions include publications in AGU’s journal Earth’s Future, which, like this session, examines the Earth as an interactive system under the influence of the human enterprise as its overarching theme. Conveners:  Guy Brasseur, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany, Michael Ellis, British Geological Survey, Nottinghamshire, NG12, United Kingdom , Nancy Grimm, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States, Ben van der Pluijm, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.