Environmental monitoring network for India

Abstract

Understanding the consequences of global environmental change and its mitigation will require an integrated global effort of comprehensive long-term data collection, synthesis, and action (1). The last decade has seen a dramatic global increase in the number of networked monitoring sites. For example, FLUXNET is a global collection of >300 micrometeorological terrestrial-flux research sites (see figure, right) that monitor fluxes of CO², water vapor, and energy (2–4). A similar, albeit sparser, network of ocean observation sites is quantifying the fluxes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from oceans and their role in the global carbon cycle (5, 6). These networks are operated on an ad hoc basis by the scientific community. Although FLUXNET and other observation networks cover diverse vegetation types within a 70^oS to 30^oN latitude band (3) and different oceans (5, 6), there are not comprehensive and reliable data from African and Asian regions. Lack of robust scientific data from these regions of the world is a serious impediment to efforts to understand and mitigate impacts of climate and environmental change (5, 7).

Citation

Sundareshwar, P.V.; Murtugudde, R.; Srinivasan, G.; Singh, S.; Ramesh, K.J.; Ramesh, R.; Verma, S.B.; Agarwal, D.; Baldocchi, D.; Baru, C.K.; Baruah, K.K.; Chowdhury, G.R.; Dadhwal, V.K.; Dutt, C.B.S.; Fuentes, J.; Gupta, Prabhat, K.; Hardgrove, W.W.; Howard, M.; Jha, C.S.; Lal, S.; Michener, W.K.; Mitra, A.P.; Morris, J.T.; Myneni, R.R.; Naja, M.; Nemani, R.; Purvaja, R.; Raha, S.; Santhana Vanan, S.K.; Sharma, M.; Subramaniam, A.; Sukumar, R.; Twilley, R.R.; Zimmerman, P.R. 2007. Environmental monitoring network for India. Science, Vol. 316: 204-205