The primary goal of NIGEC is excellent research.
To achieve this, however, the projects must serve the following needs,
as outlined in the NIGEC Management Plan:
- Improving scientific understanding of
the mechanisms of global environmental and climate change;
- Reducing uncertainties surrounding key
scientific environmental and climate change issues;
- Creating innovative experimental or observation
programs to enhance the understanding of regional scale, or ecosystem
scale, processes contributing to global change;
- Improving decision-making tools that are
appropriate for the global environmental and climate change issues;
- Building education and training opportunities
and development of new curriculum materials to increase the flow
of talented young people into global environmental change research
areas;
- Focusing contributions to the public education
on the subject of global climate change.
The Institute's research objectives outlined above are intended to
serve the following congressionally-developed objectives, as outlined
in the NIGEC Management Plan:
- The provision of information to the Department
of Energy on energy-related technical data and finite models for
the U.S. component of the international discussions on global
climate change,
- The development of finite models that
can be used to enable public officials to assess energy-related
environmental risks,
- The preparation and conduct of public
education programs on global warming and other energy-related
environmental risks,
The provision of training opportunities
for graduate students and young scientists in environmental and
related studies.
The Southeast Region:
The Southeast Region consists of the following states: Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Virginia, and West Virgina along with the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Territory. Predominate land
uses
are forest and agriculture combining for over 80% of the total.
The region is heavily forested and is considered the "woodbasket"
of the nation, providing more than half of the nation's forest
products. The Southeast Region also offers a rich abundance of
natural resources including water, coal, and natural gas and petroleum.
The Southeast's biological ecosystem is one of the most diverse
in the world. Many areas in the region are rapidly urbanizing
and the region as a whole has one of the nation's highest population
and economic growth rates.
The Southeast Regional Center (SERC), as part of the NIGEC program,
attempts to 1) address the goals of NIGEC, 2) fill important gaps
in research not being accomplished under other programs, 3) train
a new generation of researchers, 4) create partnerships with other
programs to further program goals, 5) encourage data sharing,
networking, and the incorporation and analysis of historic data
to help ensure accuracy and quality of predictions, and 6) sponsor
balanced studies aimed at better understanding the processes that
control ecosystem response to global environmenal change through
regionally focused projects.
The Southeast Regional Center Strategic Vision:
The strategic vision of the Southeast Regional Center (SERC) is
to conduct a high-quality focused research program directed at
understanding the consequences of climatic and atmospheric change
on major terrestrial ecosystems and resources in the Southeast
United States. The purpose of the research is to help answer questions
concerning overall consequences of increased atmospheric CO2 (and
other environmental changes associated with energy production)
in the Region through coordinated, value-added research projects.
The SERC supports research that explores, quantifies, predicts,
and provides fundamental understanding of the underlying principals
regarding major research questions important to the region including
the following
- What are the net carbon exchanges in terrestrial ecosystems
in the southeast and how do the southeastern ecosystems contribute
to the global carbon cycle and other greenhouse gas fluxes?
- What are the impacts of environmental change on southeastern
terrestrial ecosystems?
- What are the important socioeconomic consequences in the Southeast
environment due to potential climate change in the region?
-What
are the effects of sulfurous and/or carbonaceous aerosols on earths
radiation balance?
The above questions may change from time to time based on the
direction and focus of the program. For additional information
about the most current SERC goals and research questions, see
the annual Request for Proposal (RFP)
published by the National NIGEC Office.
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