Researchers from NOAA and the University of Colorado have devised a breakthrough method for estimating national emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels using ambient air samples and a well-known isotope of carbon scientists have relied on for decades to date archaeological sites. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they report the first-ever national scale estimate of fossil-fuel derived carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions obtained by observing CO2 and its naturally occurring radioisotope, carbon-14, from air samples collected by NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network.
Shaily Rahman led a study using cosmogenic silicon to estimate the amount of biogenic silica stored in clays along continental margins. The team's findings may explain a longstanding, large discrepancy in the global marine silica budget. Understanding silicon is especially important because of its influence on primary production and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.