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Ralph Keeling

Director, Scripps CO2 Program

Ralph Keeling is the current program director of the Scripps CO2 Program. He is also a professor and the principal investigator for the Atmospheric Oxygen Research Group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Research Interests

  • Measurements of variations in atmospheric oxygen
  • Recent perturbations to the global carbon cycle
  • Air-sea gas exchange
  • Detection of ocean heat storage and transport using atmospheric gases
  • Paleoclimate theory.

Education

  • B.S., Yale University
  • Ph.D., Harvard University

Select Publications

  • Resplandy, L., R. Keeling, B. Stephens, J. Bent, A. Jacobson, C. Rödenbeck and S. Khatiwala (2016). "Constraints on oceanic meridional heat transport from combined measurements of oxygen and carbon." Climate Dynamics: 1-23.
  • Keeling, R. F. and A. C. Manning (2013). Studies of recent changes in atmospheric O2 content. Treatise on Geochemistry, Volume 5. R. F. Keeling and L. Russell. Amsterdam, Elsevier: 385-404.
  • Graven, H. D., R. F. Keeling, S. C. Piper, P. K. Patra, B. B. Stephens, S. C. Wofsy, L. R. Welp, C. Sweeney, P. P. Tans, J. J. Kelley, B. C. Daube, E. A. Kort, G. W. Santoni and J. D. Bent (2013). "Enhanced Seasonal Exchange of CO2 by Northern Ecosystems Since 1960." Science 341(6150): 1085-1089.
  • Welp, L. R., R. F. Keeling, H. A. J. Meijer, A. F. Bollenbacher, S. C. Piper, K. Yoshimura, R. J. Francey, C. E. Allison and M. Wahlen (2011). "Interannual variability in the oxygen isotopes of atmospheric CO2 driven by El Niño." Nature 477(7366): 579-582.
  • Keeling, R. F., A. Kortzinger and N. Gruber (2010). "Ocean Deoxygenation in a Warming World." Annual Review of Marine Science 2: 199-229.
  • Manning, A. C. and R. F. Keeling (2006). "Global oceanic and land biotic carbon sinks from the Scripps atmospheric oxygen flask sampling network." Tellus 58B: 95-116.