This award provides support for a team of U.S. investigators under the direction of Dr. George Hendrey of the Brookhaven National Laboratory to travel to New Zealand over a two year period to work with researchers under the leadership of Dr. Bruce Campbell and Dr. Paul Newton at government facilities in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Government and university investigators in New Zealand have proposed establishing a free- air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiment to investigate the effects of CO2 enrichment of the atmosphere on a grassland. Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is expected to result in changes in terrestrial plant production and carbon storage that may exert feedback regulation on the rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The team under Dr. Hendrey has collaborated in the conception of this experiment and will design the FACE apparatus, build electronic control assemblies, erect the apparatus in New Zealand, and provide technical support and training to insure the success of the operation. The U.S. group has developed the technological means for maintaining close control over carbon dioxide concentrations in an open field setting without any form of containment. Support for this project in New Zealand comes from the Public Good Science Fund under the direction of the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MORST).
