A global terrestrial monitoring network integrating tower fluxes, flask sampling, ecosystem modeling and EOS satellite data

Accurate monitoring of global scale changes in the terrestrial biosphere has become acutely important as the scope of human impacts on biological systems and atmospheric chemistry grows. For example, the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 signals some of the dramatic socioeconomic and political decisions that may lie ahead concerning CO₂ emissions and global carbon cycle impacts. These decisions will rely heavily on accurate measures of global biospheric changes (Schimel, 1998; IGBP TCWG, 1998). An array of national and international programs have inaugurated global satellite observations, critical field measurements of carbon and water fluxes, and global model development for the purposes of beginning to monitor the biosphere. The detection by these programs of interannual variability of ecosystem fluxes and of longer term trends will permit early indication of fundamental biospheric changes which might otherwise go undetected until major biome conversion begins. This article describes a blueprint for more comprehensive coordination of the various flux measurement and modeling activities into a global terrestrial monitoring network that will have direct relevance to the political decision making of global change.