NAI
2003 Annual Science Report
NASA Ames Research Center
Reporting | JUL 2002 – JUN 2003
Executive Summary
Ames Research Center NAI team has maintained a coordinated research program that links the formation, evolution, and climates of habitable planets; the roles of interstellar chemistry in supplying potential biological precursors to these worlds; the origins and nature of metabolism in the first cells; the impact of established biospheres on planetary climate and crustal and atmospheric chemistry, emphasizing the formation of detectable biosignatures; the response of vegetation to regional climate change; and, finally, the potential for life to transcend planetary boundaries through transfer between habitable worlds. Our program for education and public outreach captures these themes to develop an engaging and informative package that is being disseminated to national- and international-scale audiences. This is being achieved through partnerships with the California Academy of Sciences (CAS), Yellowstone National Park (YNP), New York Hall of Science, and several K-14 educational organizations. Strong conceptual and functional links to ...
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David Des Marais
NAI, ASTEP, ASTID, Exobiology -
TEAM Active Dates:
7/1998 - 10/2003 CAN 1 -
Members:
76 (See All) - Visit Team Page
Project Reports
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Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling
We have developed a simulation model called MBGC (Microbial BioGeoChemistry) to infer effects of major environmental controllers on microbial community structure and function (Decker and Potter, 2002).
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1 7.2 -
Rapid Rates of Change
A map of advanced very-high-resolution radiometer — normalized difference vegetation index (AVHRR-NDVI) was produced for the subtropical and higher latitude growing season of South America (Oct-Jan, when El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) effects are more intense) on monthly data from 1981 through 2000.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.1 -
Chemical Building Blocks
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 3.1 3.4 4.3 7.1 7.2 -
Biogeochemistry of Earth’s Greenhouse Leading to the Rise of Oxygen
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 3.1 4.1 6.1 7.1 7.2 -
Early Microbial Ecosystems
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1 7.2 -
Early Metabolic Pathways
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.4 -
Life Beyond the Planet of Origin
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3 6.2 -
Habitable Planets
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 4.3
Publications
- There are no publications for this team in the 2003 annual report.
2003 Teams
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Arizona State University
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Harvard University
Marine Biological Laboratory
Michigan State University
NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA Johnson Space Center
Pennsylvania State University
Scripps Research Institute
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Rhode Island
University of Washington
Virtual Planetary Laboratory (JPL/CalTech)