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Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) Data Management System

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has funded trace gas enrichment experiments since the mid 1990s in two separate programs (the Terrestrial Carbon Processes Program and Program for Ecosystem Research). These experiments fall into two categories, Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experiments and open-top chamber (OTC) experiments. DOE initially funded the FACE sites as research and development experiments which later evolved into environmental research user facilities. The DOE Biological and Environmental Research Program (BER) operates four distributed research facilities referred to as FACE facilities.

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) supports central operations for several of the FACE sites. Additionally, the DOE supports OTC experiments in conjunction with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Maryland and Florida. These sites are part of a larger international FACE network. Please follow this link for more information on site locations and contacts.

Distributed Research Facilities

ASPEN FACE

The Aspen FACE Experiment is a multidisciplinary study to assess the effects of increasing tropospheric ozone and carbon dioxide levels on the structure and function of northern forest ecosystems.

Duke Forest FACE

The Forest-Atmosphere Carbon Transfer and Storage (FACTS-I) facility is located in the Blackwood Division of the Duke Forest. It consists of four free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) plots that provide elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and four plots that provide ambient CO2 control. 

Nevada Desert FACE Facility

NDFF whole-ecosystem manipulation is a flagship experiment of the Terrestrial Carbon Process (TCP) research program of the US Dept. of Energy. It is also a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) and a contribution to the US Global Change Research Program.

ORNL FACE

The Oak Ridge Experiment on CO2 Enrichment of Sweetgum is a Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) experiment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA.

Illustration of FACE MDS Ecosystem

FACE Model Data Synthesis

The Free Air CO2 Enrichment Model-Data Synthesis (FACE-MDS) was established in 2008 with the initial plan was to benchmark model predictions of terrestrial ecosystem responses to elevated atmospheric CO2 using data from the Duke and Oak Ridge FACE experiments, two of the longest and most comprehensive experimental datasets on ecosystem responses to elevated CO2. The project soon evolved to delve deeper into model results and pull apart the underlying reasons for model behaviour, a method we refer to as model-data synthesis or assumption centered modeling. 

 

Data Archive and Repository

The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) will serve as a central data repository and archive for DOE supported FACE and OTC data. These data will be a part of the FACE Data Management System. The development of this system will make data more accessible to users worldwide and will facilitate cross-site synthesis research. Initially, CDIAC will mirror whatever data are openly available at the individual sites. Work will be ongoing to ingest all relevant data into the FACE Data Management System. Following data ingest, CDIAC will:

  • perform additional QA/QC checks
  • reformat data when necessary for consistency with other FACE data
  • review documentation
  • develop a searchable FACE database
  • develop value-added products (e.g. standardized files for all FACE sites for model use)

Please navigate to the individual site pages for more information and data access.

 

Department of Energy Network

These projects were part of the CO2 research network fostered by the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. Results from the experiment contribute to the Terrestrial Ecosystem Response to Atmospheric and Climatic Change (TERACC) project, a 5-year initiative integrating experimental data and global change modeling.