United States Trace Gas Network

Welcome to the TRAGNET Home Page

The atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) are increasing substantially. These increases are expected to result in global warming and changes in precipitation patterns, and may directly affect terrestrial ecosystems. Our understanding of the contemporary fluxes of these gases between the land and atmosphere is incomplete. There are large regions of the earth for which we have very little information on trace gas fluxes. Furthermore, for no region do we fully understand how global change, including land-use change, will affect gas fluxes.

The United States Trace Gas Network(TRAGNET) is meant to accomplish the following two goals:

• Document contemporary fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O between regionally important ecosystems and the atmosphere
• Determine the factors controlling these fluxes and improve our ability to predict future fluxes in response to ecosystem and climate change

Part of this research is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Additional information:

Database Products and Information

• Access TRAGNET Database

Network Information

• Objectives
• Publications
• Instruments
• Tragnet Site List
• Site Membership Criteria
• Steering Committee
• Citations
• Treatment/Location Descriptions

For General Information about TRAGNET contact:

Dr. Dennis Ojima
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

Phone:(303) 491-1976
FAX: (303) 491-5632
E-mail: dennis@nrel.colostate.edu