Dr. Dean Atkinson's Lab
Research in Dr. Atkinson's laboratory is all focused on doing measurements of atmospheric species for climate change and air quality science. A research student might be involved in our study of the effects of water vapor on the optical extinction of aerosols. These studies use a laser-based instrument that we built ourselves to measure the very small amount of light that is scattered or absorbed by aerosol particles (we usually make them ourselves in the laboratory, but we have done studies on ambient aerosols in the "real world") and how that changes with relative humidity.
Another likely project for a student that would work in our lab this summer is to measure the amount of lead in aerosol samples that were collected by concerned citizens near the Hillsboro Airport out west of Portland. Most people find it surprising that tetraethyl lead is still used as an anti-knock additive in the gasoline that is used by small aircraft and helicopters, since it was removed from the fuel used by cars and trucks years ago. This makes the small (but busy) Hillsboro airport one of the biggest sources of airborne lead in the state of Oregon, and lead is both thought to be carcinogenic and has been shown to decrease intelligence in children. We use an interesting and sensitive electrochemical instrumental method called Anodic Stripping Voltammetry to measure the small but significant lead levels in the aerosol that our volunteer monitors collect on filters.
Dr. John Bershaw’s Lab
The Bershaw research group in the Department of Geology studies a variety of topics within Earth Science including Paleoclimate, Stable Isotope Geochemistry, Stratigraphy, and Basin Analysis. Within CCAR, his group studies the evolution of stable isotopes in precipitation in mountain ranges including the Andes, Himalayas, and Cascades. His work also applies water isotopic approaches to more arid and continental environments to test how paleoaltimetry can be applied to regions where atmospheric processes other than orographic precipitation are significant (e.g., in the Tian Shan in Central Asia). Last summer’s CCAR REU student worked with the group to focus on answering the question: does the "amount effect" impact downwind precipitation and if so, to what extent? For this project, the student analyzed published quantitative precipitation and stable isotope data from meteoric water where the "amount effect" is observed. Examples include coastal SE Asia and the Gulf of Mexico.
Dr. Chris Butenhoff's Lab
The Butenhoff Lab is broadly interested in understanding the natural and anthropogenic factors that influence the emissions of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, at spatial scales that range from local to global, and temporal scales that range from days to decades. We use both so-called “bottom-up” and “top-down” methods to estimate emissions strengths and trends, and to place observational constraints on emissions inventories. We currently use global measurements of atmospheric methane and its isotopes to infer decadal trends in the major sources of methane, including emissions from oil and gas fields. In collaboration with other CCAR scientists we also conduct global and urban air quality modeling studies to better understand emissions of air pollution species and factors that affect their atmospheric concentrations.
In support of these projects summer REU students will have the opportunity to run state-of-the-art atmospheric models on CCAR’s high performance computing cluster Gaia. “Gaia” is a 100-node 1000-core Linux-based computer cluster housed on the PSU campus used for parallel computing. Models that we currently use on Gaia include the atmospheric chemistry model GEOS-Chem and the meteorology model WRF (Weather Research & Forecasting). Student tasks might include preparing input data fields for models, running models under different scenarios, writing source code, performing data analysis, visualizing data, or other tasks as needed. This REU opportunity will be especially attractive for those students interested in computational modeling of any kind.
Dr. Andrew Fountain's Lab
We are exploring the spatial patterns of glacier change in the Rocky Mountain west. To determine change we use both satellite imagery and aerial photos compared to ones in previous years. The images are brought into GIS software and the perimeter of the glacier is digitized. That perimeter is compared to those digitized in previous years to quantify how much the glacier has enlarged (unlikely) or shrank (common). These changes are compared to weather records of air temperature and precipitation to understand the controlling factors - was the summer warm or were the winters providing less snowfall.
Most of our work is in front of a computer examining images because to visit each glacier is too time consuming and we could not track very many glaciers. During the summer we may visit a glacier or two for other reasons but that is a very small part of our work.
Dr. Elliott Gall's Lab
Research in Dr. Gall’s laboratory seeks to understand processes occurring in built environments that affect indoor and urban environmental quality. Time and energy inputs to the built environment are substantial: Americans spend 90% of their time indoors and buildings consume 40% of the primary energy produced in the US. Buildings play important direct and indirect roles in affecting energy consumption and human exposures to air pollution. Mitigation and adaptation to future climate scenarios, e.g., via the design of buildings and urban spaces that produce healthful, comfortable indoor environments in a low-energy manner will be enabled by a thorough understanding of human-building interactions.
Approaches employed in Dr. Gall’s lab include 1) fundamental laboratory and field studies of indoor air pollutant transport and transformation, 2) air pollution exposure assessment through modeling and personal exposure studies 3) evaluation of building technology and design with respect to indoor environmental quality, including aspects of air quality, thermal comfort, and occupant well-being. Specific projects could include: facilitating exposure studies through implementation with improved, portable, personal air pollutant sensors; expanding the scope and improving the quality of parameters measured in personal exposure assessments through integration of mobile applications in exposure studies; development of low-cost air pollutant sensors; and modeling of building operation and energy use under projections of future climate/air quality.
Dr. Linda George's Lab
Dr. George is an atmospheric chemist who has been studying air quality for nearly 30 years. Her primary research interests include monitoring and modeling of urban air pollutants as they relate to urban infrastructure, such as transportation systems, land use and urban form. In addition her group works on assessing human exposure of air pollutants using statistical models and GIS, development of measurement techniques for quantifying atmospheric species and sensing and analysis of urban climate modification. Potential research projects in her lab include investigations of: measurements and modeling of ozone formation and nitrogen deposition in the Columbia River Gorge, dispersion of traffic-related pollutants in the city and metal particulate emissions and deposition in urban environments.
Dr. Kelly Gleason’s Lab
Dr. Kelly Gleason is an Assistant Professor of Ecohydrology in the Environmental Science and Management Department at Portland State University. Research in the Gleason lab focuses on the interactions and feedbacks of hydrology, climatology, and ecology under a changing climate system. We use creative experimentation, micro-meteorology, geochemical analysis, remote sensing, and integrated modeling of eco-hydro-climate systems to evaluate how acute disturbances such as forest fire, and prolonged disturbances such as drought and climate change, alter local physical hydroclimatological mechanisms (such as snow accumulation and snow melt) and influence regional-scale water resource availability.
Dr. Paul Loikith's Lab
Research in Dr. Loikith’s lab centers on understanding how extreme events, such as heat waves and floods, will change due to anthropogenic global warming. Our work primarily involves data analysis of climate data, both from observations and climate models, with a focus on the interface of weather and climate. We have a particular focus on understanding the meteorological mechanisms behind extreme events and then using this knowledge to evaluate the ability of climate models to realistically simulate these features. We are also interested in evaluating the extent to which increased climate model resolution improves the simulation of phenomena associated with climate impacts, such as extreme events. This all lays a foundation for interpreting future changes in extreme events, as projected by climate models, and understanding potential implications for impacts. This work involves analyzing and processing large datasets, constructing novel approaches and metrics that distil and visualize meteorological features and processes, and developing innovative ways to quantify and understand uncertainty in climate model simulations.
One potential project aims to identify places that may experience relatively large changes in temperature extremes due to global warming as compared with other places based on the shape of the local temperature frequency distribution. This would involve statistical and dynamical analysis of observations and climate model data. Another possible project is to develop a way to track changes in extreme precipitation over time. This project would involve coming up with creative and intuitive ways to monitor extreme events and would require the development of a user-friendly way to present and visualize this indicator of change. Dr. Loikith’s lab maintains strong collaborative relationships with other institutions including the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of California Los Angeles, and Rutgers University with opportunities for interactions between students and scientists outside of PSU.
More information: Dr. Loikith's Lab Website
Dr. Andrew Martin's Lab
Dr. Martin performs research to understand how weather patterns and clouds influence water and energy resources, now and in future climates. The ability of aerosols to act as cloud seeds is an important concept in this research. Dr. Martin is interested in cloud condensation nuclei aerosols because they can change the brightness of clouds and alter earth’s energy balance; and in ice nuclei aerosols because they can modify precipitation efficiency, particularly in mountain rain or snow. Whether investigating cloud condensation or ice nuclei, Dr. Martin uses his training as a meteorologist to understand how weather patterns bring the aerosols and clouds together and how weather creates the right conditions to support the aerosol-cloud effect. To learn more, visit http://web.pdx.edu/~anmarti2/index.html
This summer, help is needed to evaluate the realism of clouds created by a regional climate model. Dr. Martin and his collaborators are running the model to understand how summertime coastal low clouds (“June gloom”) might change in future climates. If coastal low cloudiness changes in response to global climate change, the demand for energy to cool homes and the supply of rooftop solar energy will change markedly, too. During the REU project, the student will learn how weather patterns affect coastal low-altitude cloud cover, will learn basic techniques in scientific programming and visualization, and will become an important part of improving a climate model to project future energy supply and demand.
Dr. Jennifer Morse's Lab
Jennifer Morse is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Science and Management at Portland State University. As a biogeochemist and an ecosystem ecologist, she is broadly interested in understanding ecosystem responses to environmental changes and applying ecological knowledge to help inform environmental decisions, particularly with regard to restoration, sustainability, and managed ecosystems. One research direction focuses on the production of greenhouse gases by soil microbes in urban, suburban, and agricultural settings. Understanding how management practices, such as fertilizer application, can be altered to minimize greenhouse gas production is an important benefit of this work. Her research incorporates varied methods: field-based sample collection of soils and gases, environmental monitoring using sensors, laboratory soil incubations, gas and soil chemical analyses, and data assimilation and analysis.
Dr. Andrew Rice's Lab
Research in Andrew Rice's laboratory is focused on understanding the drivers of climate change. Specifically, we study the sources and sinks of atmospheric gases with importance to climate and atmospheric chemistry including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide and molecular hydrogen. There is little doubt today that, through their radiative properties, rising concentrations of greenhouse gas species in the atmosphere are responsible for most of the ~0.85 C global temperature rise scientists have observed over the past 130 years. There is high confidence that as concentrations continue to rise in the future, so will global temperatures. Of growing importance are the second order questions of: how much will temperatures rise and how fast? Here, scientist’s ability to predict future levels of greenhouse gases – which drives future climate – will ultimately depend on a comprehensive understanding of their sources and sinks and what controls their variability. We aim to address new and long-standing research questions along these lines at a variety of scales from the process-level to global scales.
Our research group's specialty area is the use of stable isotopes to probe greenhouse gas source and sink processes. Our work combines laboratory instrument development, high-precision laboratory measurements and field studies to quantify concentrations and isotopic composition of trace gases. Examples of ongoing student research projects in our group are: understanding changes in global methane and nitrous oxide concentrations; quantifying fluxes of greenhouse gases from cities; and studying dynamics of production and destruction mechanisms of greenhouse gases in natural and man-made ecosystems.
More information: Dr. Rice's Lab Website
Dr. Todd Rosenstiel’s Lab
Research in the Rosenstiel lab at PSU examines how key components of climate change, e.g., elevated CO2, temperature and ozone, influence the metabolism and physiology of plants, particularly forest trees. The Rosenstiel group is interested in developing a mechanistic understanding of how plant metabolism responds to climate change factors in order to establish how the form and function of forested ecosystems will be altered in the future. Current projects include identifying key genes and biochemical processes that directly link atmospheric CO2 concentration to the production and release of volatile organic compounds, such as isoprene, from tree leaves. The release of highly reactive volatile compounds, like isoprene, from forested ecosystems is one of the primary principal controls over the oxidative photochemistry of the lower atmosphere, strongly influencing the regional production of smog, as well as the lifetime of key greenhouse gases. Work in the Rosenstiel lab has discovered a surprising direct effect of atmospheric CO2 concentration on regulating the production of leaf isoprene emission. Ongoing work suggests that continued increases in atmospheric CO2 are likely to have dramatic consequences for wide-ranging aspects of plant metabolism, including reducing a tree's ability to protect itself against insect damage. The Rosenstiel group is currently working with an international team of physiologists, atmospheric chemists, and mathematical modelers in an effort to develop new methodologies for more accurately predicting the nature of biosphere-atmosphere interactions in a changing climate.
Dr. Vivek Shandas’ Lab
Vivek is the Director of the Sustaining Urban Places Research (SUPR) Lab, which supports research and analytical efforts for improving environmental quality in cities. All research projects recognize that cities are socially constructed adaptive systems, the landscapes of which are the result of decisions past and present, large and small, collective and individual. Since humans have created the built environment in cities, we can re-create them based on the basis of emerging information. Climate change, human health, and vulnerability are pressing challenges that are central to the research efforts in the SUPR Lab. By using collaborative, interdisciplinary, and evidence-based approaches research teams aim to improve the living conditions for urban residents, especially those with the least access to resources.
Of recent interest is the use of mobile sensors to understand urban air quality and heat islands. By conducting empirical assessments of these two climate-induced stressors, one goal is to identify those [built-environment] factors that improve living conditions. By understanding the sources, for example of urban heat islands, we can understand how altering the physical designs of neighborhoods such that we reduce the likelihood of human health impacts. Over the coming years, we'll be looking for students to participate in field-based data collection in Portland and other cities, and conduct computer-based analysis (often spatial) that evaluates the potential of alternative mitigation strategies. The lab is equipped with the necessary software and hardware to conduct these assessments, and we welcome inquires for participation in research projects. All projects are supervised by Vivek in collaboration with other members of the SUPR Lab.