Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Dan Yakir
CIRES Visiting Fellow
2012-2013

Sabbatical
Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Project: Exploring the links between COS and 18O-CO2 in biosphere-atmosphere exchange: Combining process understanding and atmospheric observations

Dan Yakir is a professor of biogeochemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. His main research interests are biogeochemistry and plant-atmosphere interactions.

While at CIRES, Yakir is working with David Noone, Steve Montzka, and Jim White, director of INSTAAR. Yakir is investigating two tracers (a radioactive atom present in a material and used to study the material’s distribution and pathway)—oxygen-18 content in CO2 and carbonyl sulfide—and how they can be used to better estimate the exchange of CO2 between land vegetation and the atmosphere. “Accurately estimating carbon uptake by land vegetation will improve estimates of the rate of global warming and climate change,” Yakir says. “Tracing specific fluxes of CO2 between the atmosphere and the land vegetation will also provide a powerful tool to understand the process underlying the biosphere response to climate change.”

While in Colorado, Yakir plans to head high: “While at home, we like to hike down to the Dead Sea area some 1,400 feet below sea level,” Yakir. “We look forward to great hikes covering at least some of the distance toward its peaks at 14,000 feet above sea level.”

Sponsor: David Noone and Steve Montzka