Our research group studies the interactions between the biosphere and the atmosphere to understand how vegetation affects atmospheric chemistry and climate. The biosphere is a living and dynamic component of the Earth System, and is constantly responding to the world around it. Our research focuses on understanding how emission from the biosphere can affect atmospheric chemistry and air quality, as well as understanding how changes at the land surface can affect regional climate.
NEWS
Winter 2022
- New paper on the impact of climate on future pollen emissions led by graduate student Yingxiao Zhang is now published at Nature Communications. See the associated media articles from CNN, National Geographic, NBC News, the AP, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New Scientist, and NPR’s All Things Considered. We worked with The Conversation to provide a summary piece as well!
- Congratulations to graduate student Yingxiao Zhang, recipient of the UM College of Engineering Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement award!
- Presentations from the group at the AMS 2022 Meeting include:
- Monday, January 24 4A.1: The terrestrial biosphere: An interface between atmospheric chemistry and climate (Allison Steiner; Walter Orr Roberts Lecturer)
- Tuesday, January 25 5A.1: Examining the role of soil moisture on soil NOx emissions (Graduate student Daniel Huber)
- Thursday, January 27 13.3: Modeling of pollen rupture mechanisms and their role in cloud formation (Postdoc Tamanna Subba)
- FACSS (Frontiers in Atmospheric Chemistry Seminar Series) is back at it for Winter 2022. Check out the schedule here!
Fall 2021
- Presentations from the group at the AGU Fall Meeting 2021 include:
- Tuesday, December 14 A24I-08: The role of in-canopy processes on the formation of organic nitrates: A comparison between two temperature forest sites (Former postdoc Dandan Wei)
- Tuesday, December 14 A25Q-1883: Simulating pollen-meteorology interactions and evaluating the impacts of pollen on cold cloud formation processes (Graduate student Yingxiao Zhang)
- Tuesday, December 14 A25Q-1884: Modeling of pollen rupture mechanisms during a thunderstorm event (Postdoc Tamanna Subba)
- Friday, December 17 A52B-05: Modeling lake spray aerosol at regional and global scales (Allison Steiner)
- Friday, December 17 C54C-07: Modeling the Himalaya-Karakoram-Hindukush glacial mass balance and ice dynamics using the Open Global Glacier Model (Graduate student Samar Minallah)
- New paper alert – former postdoc Dandan Wei has a model update paper out that evaluates the 1D canopy-chemistry FORCAsT model with the 2016 UMBS PROPHET observations.
- Frontiers in Atmospheric Chemistry Seminar Series (FACSS) is back for Fall 2021! Talks will be every other week this term with our speaker lineup here. Sign up in advance to receive a unique webinar link every week. Students at UM can sign up for CLIMATE 501.003 for a one-credit class that includes paper discussions.
- Graduate student Samar Minallah finally gets to move out to Boulder as part of her UCAR Next Generation Fellowship – Samar will be working with CISM and the Open Global Glacier Model on Himalayan ice sheets. (How is that we are now working on ice sheets? Good question…. but it’s been a fun project so far and a great collaboration with colleague Jeremy Bassis from CLaSP and Bill Lipscomb from NCAR)
- UM Graduate students: Interested in developing real climate solutions? Take a look at the new Rackham Climate Solutions Certificate launched by CLaSP and SEAS to combat climate change. Apply for the program by November 1!
Summer 2021
- New publication is out for postdoc Tamanna Subba on the potential for biological particle events in the Central Great Plains.
- Welcome to undergrad summer researchers Nitya Nakirekanti and Lunia Oriol! Nitya is working on a new pollen data visualization tool, and Lunia is continuing her research on aerosol deposition.
- Also welcome to REU undergraduate Brian Rakoczy from Central Michigan University! Brian has set up an ozone garden in front the Climate and Space Research building and will be analyzing CASTNET ozone data for the region.
- And with welcomes there are also farewells – good luck to Ana Amiri-Farahani who will be moving to the IMPROVE group at UC Davis, and to Dandan Wei who is moving to Columbia/Lamont/CCNY. Good luck in your next steps, we will miss you!
2021: SPRING
- Weekly atmospheric chemistry seminars – Frontiers in Atmospheric Chemistry Seminar Series (FACSS) – continues for Spring 2021. Check out our great lineup of speakers here.
- Congratulations to Yingxiao Zhang, who passed her Ph.D. qualifying exam in January!
- Check out the new paper by graduate student Samar Minallah in Journal of Climate titled “Role of the Atmospheric Moisture Budget in Defining the Precipitation Seasonality in the Great Lakes region” She compares several different reanalysis products to identify where moisture comes from the in the region and what defines the precipitation cycle.
- Graduate student Samar Minallah has *two* other new papers out this year on our Great Lakes work: The first looks at the atmospheric water cycle in the CMIP6 models to understand how models are simulating regional precip change, and the second focuses on the representation of the Great Lakes in the new ERA-5 and its impact on regional precipitation.
- Another new paper from CIGLR postdoctoral fellow Anahiti Amiri-Farahani on the role of lake spray aerosol emissions on regional climate in the Great Lakes region – here we model the observed impacts of LSA by colleague Andy Ault at UM – and it has a pretty big impact on regional chemistry.
For older events, please visit the News Archive.