This award will fund a workshop to discuss the scientific rationale for and design of a national facility (VAL, Variable Atmosphere Laboratory) to study the effects of atmospheric composition and climate on biological and earth processes. The tentative location of this facility would be the Arizona State University Polytechnic campus. VAL is envisioned as containing approximately 50 terrestrial and 20 aquatic "mini-worlds" in which atmospheric composition, temperature, humidity, UV radiation, atmospheric pressure and light cycle can be controlled. VAL would serve a wide variety of research fields, including geology, paleontology, ecology, plant physiology, animal physiology, astrobiology and environmental toxicology. Creation of VAL would provide the U.S. with the premier facility for experimental analysis of the effects of past and future climate change, and would be a critical step in rational planning for a sustainable earth. Educational outreach will be an important component of VAL. School groups will be able to tour the facility, and web cams and web-based data systems will allow school groups to observe and participate in on-going experiments. Educating students and the general public on the impacts of global change will be a central theme of VAL.
The purpose of the workshop is to gather diverse, expert opinion on the design and construction of VAL, with a special emphasis on the identification of: 1) the most important scientific problems that cannot currently be addressed in a cost-effective manner without VAL, and 2) key design features necessary for the success of VAL. Because of the breadth of fields encompassed by VAL, it is critical that the design and scientific rationale for VAL be considered by experts from diverse fields. The workshop will be held at the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity at Arizona State University.
The product of the workshop will be a white paper, which will be submitted to a general US science journal, and will serve as the basis for proposals to fund construction of VAL. Construction of VAL will eventually require significant support from multiple agencies such as DOE, NASA, NIH, NOAA, EPA and NSF.
