Environmental networks and Greenhouse Gas fluxes from ecosystems in Mexico

There is increasing interest on measuring greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems that has resulted in the creation of national and international research networks. These ongoing efforts have contributed to measure, model and scale sources and sinks across multiple spatial scales. Furthermore, environmental problems and their potential solutions are not delineated within specific sociopolitical or economic boundaries. Therefore, to integrate understanding of ecological and earth-system challenges it is important to create international programmatic and scientific collaborations. Such collaborations require sharing of technology, data and experiences in order to truly advance our understanding of- and solutions to continental- to global-scale problems. This presentation focuses on the state-of-the-art of major national and international networks for greenhouse gas fluxes across the world with special attention to the Mexican eddy covariance network (MexFlux). We will discuss the need of long-term research and commitment for resources to acquire, share, and synthetize “big-data” to address large-scale questions. Therefore, we place emphasis on how science can move beyond specific site-based research in Mexico towards an international scope to address these challenges. Moving towards coordinated national and international long-term research will require interoperability of different networks, often cross disciplinary, that include: standardize protocols, data sharing, long-term commitments, quantification of uncertainty, and a transparent policy to ensure proper recognition, and privacy and confidentiality of sensitive data. Ultimately these national and international collaborations should aim at increasing our understanding of large-scale science of greenhouse gas fluxes by expanding the temporal and spatial extent of mechanistic and observational studies across Mexico to address key scientific challenges and to benefit society.

Rodrigo Vargas

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