Long-term urban carbon dioxide observations reveal spatial and temporal dynamics related to urban characteristics and growth
Abstract
Cities are concentrated areas of CO2 emissions and have become the foci of policies for mitigation actions. However, atmospheric measurement networks suitable for evaluating urban emissions over time are scarce. Here we present a unique long-term (decadal) record of CO2 mole fractions from five sites across Utah’s metropolitan Salt Lake Valley. We examine “excess” CO2 above background conditions resulting from local emissions and meteorological conditions. We ascribe CO2 trends to changes in emissions, since we did not find longterm trends in atmospheric mixing proxies. Three contrasting CO2 trends emerged across urban types: negative trends at a residentialindustrial site, positive trends at a site surrounded by rapid suburban growth, and relatively constant CO2 over time at multiple sites in the established, residential, and commercial urban core. Analysis of populationwithin the atmospheric footprints of the different sites reveals approximately equal increases in population influencing the observed CO2, implying a nonlinear relationshipwith CO2 emissions: Population growth in rural areas that experienced suburban development was associated with increasing emissions while population growth in the developed urban core was associated with stable emissions. Four state-of-the-art global-scale emission inventories also have a nonlinear relationship with population density across the city; however, in contrast to our observations,more »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1423734
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1425443; OSTI ID: 1425455
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0010624; FG02-04ER63904; SC0005236; SC0010625
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 115 Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Mitchell, Logan E., Lin, John C., Bowling, David R., Pataki, Diane E., Strong, Courtenay, Schauer, Andrew J., Bares, Ryan, Bush, Susan E., Stephens, Britton B., Mendoza, Daniel, Mallia, Derek, Holland, Lacey, Gurney, Kevin R., and Ehleringer, James R. Long-term urban carbon dioxide observations reveal spatial and temporal dynamics related to urban characteristics and growth. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.1702393115.
Mitchell, Logan E., Lin, John C., Bowling, David R., Pataki, Diane E., Strong, Courtenay, Schauer, Andrew J., Bares, Ryan, Bush, Susan E., Stephens, Britton B., Mendoza, Daniel, Mallia, Derek, Holland, Lacey, Gurney, Kevin R., & Ehleringer, James R. Long-term urban carbon dioxide observations reveal spatial and temporal dynamics related to urban characteristics and growth. United States. doi:10.1073/pnas.1702393115.
Mitchell, Logan E., Lin, John C., Bowling, David R., Pataki, Diane E., Strong, Courtenay, Schauer, Andrew J., Bares, Ryan, Bush, Susan E., Stephens, Britton B., Mendoza, Daniel, Mallia, Derek, Holland, Lacey, Gurney, Kevin R., and Ehleringer, James R. Mon .
"Long-term urban carbon dioxide observations reveal spatial and temporal dynamics related to urban characteristics and growth". United States. doi:10.1073/pnas.1702393115.
@article{osti_1423734,
title = {Long-term urban carbon dioxide observations reveal spatial and temporal dynamics related to urban characteristics and growth},
author = {Mitchell, Logan E. and Lin, John C. and Bowling, David R. and Pataki, Diane E. and Strong, Courtenay and Schauer, Andrew J. and Bares, Ryan and Bush, Susan E. and Stephens, Britton B. and Mendoza, Daniel and Mallia, Derek and Holland, Lacey and Gurney, Kevin R. and Ehleringer, James R.},
abstractNote = {Cities are concentrated areas of CO2 emissions and have become the foci of policies for mitigation actions. However, atmospheric measurement networks suitable for evaluating urban emissions over time are scarce. Here we present a unique long-term (decadal) record of CO2 mole fractions from five sites across Utah’s metropolitan Salt Lake Valley. We examine “excess” CO2 above background conditions resulting from local emissions and meteorological conditions. We ascribe CO2 trends to changes in emissions, since we did not find longterm trends in atmospheric mixing proxies. Three contrasting CO2 trends emerged across urban types: negative trends at a residentialindustrial site, positive trends at a site surrounded by rapid suburban growth, and relatively constant CO2 over time at multiple sites in the established, residential, and commercial urban core. Analysis of populationwithin the atmospheric footprints of the different sites reveals approximately equal increases in population influencing the observed CO2, implying a nonlinear relationshipwith CO2 emissions: Population growth in rural areas that experienced suburban development was associated with increasing emissions while population growth in the developed urban core was associated with stable emissions. Four state-of-the-art global-scale emission inventories also have a nonlinear relationship with population density across the city; however, in contrast to our observations, they all have nearly constant emissions over time. Our results indicate that decadal scale changes in urban CO2 emissions are detectable through monitoring networks and constitute a valuable approach to evaluate emission inventories and studies of urban carbon cycles.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1702393115},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
number = 12,
volume = 115,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {3}
}
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1702393115
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

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Figures / Tables found in this record: