| Summary: | AmeriFlux is a network of PI-managed sites measuring ecosystem carbon, water, and energy fluxes in North and South America. It was established in 1996 to connect research on field sites representing major climate and ecological biomes, including tundra, desert, grasslands, savanna, crops, and conifer, deciduous, and tropical forests. The network has grown from about 15 sites in 1997 to more than 100 active sites registered today. In addition, 61 more sites, now inactive, have flux data stored in the network's database. Network goals are to: (1) quantify the magnitude of the carbon sources and sinks for a range of terrestrial ecosystems in the Americas, and how they may be influenced by disturbance, management regimes, climate variability, nutrients, and atmospheric pollutants; (2) advance understanding of processes regulating carbon assimilation, respiration, and storage; (3) collect critical new information to help define the current global CO2 budget; and (4) enable improved predictions of future concentrations of atmospheric CO2.â
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