It has been really great reading over all of the excellent comments and questions that all of you have shared. I will try to reply as promptly as possible in getting to them. Today was our first day of learning about what is actually happening here at the SERC (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center). We started off the morning with a powerpoint presentation by one of the scientists explaining what the main goals are for each of the institutions (SERC, Earthwatch, and the Center for Tropical Forest Systems) that are working together here in Edgewater, Maryland. There are also various studies going on here as well that I will learn more about in the upcoming days. Since climate change is such a complex topic and one that will not be easily solved, the other teachers and I that are involved in the study will be focusing on one main topic: Does forest management influence stem and carbon dynamics in the forest at different developmental stages. For example, the scientists identify different parts of the forest to study such as a control area, a logged area, an immature forest area and a mature forest area. They then take various measurements of these trees to determine the amount of carbon that makes up the trees, in other words the amount of biomass that is in that particular area of the forest they are studying. This will let the scientists know how much carbon dioxide absorption is happening. In the morning, we actually walked to a few of the sites where the scientists are making these measurements and had some practice measuring the trees, which is what we will be doing in the next few days. I learned that the scientists make the land area measurements in 1 hectare areas.
After the scientists know how much carbon dioxide is being absorbed, it will be easier for politicians to make decisions about what we should do from here. For instance, should the politicians start charging carbon credits for the amount of carbon dioxide that industries are producing? Later, if the industries need to purchase carbon credits, they will need to know how much a new forest would cost as opposed to an old forest, which may be producing more carbon dioxide. They are actually doing this study in four other places in the world to determine if the trees will react differently in differing environments. At night, we discussed the cultural impacts of climate change and what we can do as teachers to influence the people we come in contact with to convince them that we should work together to find a solution to climate change. See if you can answer the questions below:
1. How many meters do you think there are in a hectare?
2. What do you think scientists use as a control variable in this study?
3. How do you think we can tell how much carbon is being absorbed by measuring the circumference of the trees in the 1 hectare plots?