Michelle Mack describes the effects the wildfires in Alaska this summer will have on the carbon emissions from permafrost in this story in the Washington Post. “Beyond the direct carbon emissions from fire, loss of the insulating organic layer is likely to destabilize permafrost, leading to thaw, decomposition and release […]
The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events (e.g. frost-, heat-, drought-, and heavy rainfall events) on the continuous phenological development over the entire seasonal cycle remained poorly understood. Previous studies mainly focused on modeling key phenological transition dates (e.g. discrete timing of spring bud-break and fall senescence) based […]
We refer to a theoretical trait space (TTS) as an n-dimensional hypervolume (hypercube) characterizing the range of values and covariations among multiple functional traits, in the absence of explicit filtering mechanisms. We previously constructed a 32-dimensional TTS for North American trees by fitting the Allometrically Constrained Growth and Carbon Allocation […]
Plant functional traits research has revealed many interesting and important patterns among morphological, physiological, and life-history traits and the environment. These are exemplified in trade-offs between groups of traits such as those embodied in the leaf and wood economics spectra. Inferences from empirical studies are often constrained by the correlative […]
Terrestrial carbon cycle models have incorporated increasingly more processes as a means to achieve more-realistic representations of ecosystem carbon cycling. Despite this, there are large across-model variations in the simulation and projection of carbon cycling. Several model intercomparison projects (MIPs), for example, the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison […]
Increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) are likely to affect the trophic relationships that exist between plants, their herbivores and the herbivores’ natural enemies. This study takes advantage of an open-top CO2 fertilization experiment in a Florida scrub oak community at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, consisting of eight chambers […]
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased dramatically over the last century and continuing increases are expected to have significant, though currently unpredictable, effects on ecosystems. One important process that may be affected by elevated CO2 is leaf litter decomposition. We investigated the interactions among atmospheric CO2, herbivory, and litter quality within […]
Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) often stimulates the growth of fine roots, yet there are few reports of responses of intact root systems to long-term CO2 exposure. We investigated the effects of elevated CO2 on fine root growth using open top chambers in a scrub oak ecosystem at Kennedy Space […]
The effects of elevated CO2 on plant growth and insect herbivory have been frequently investigated over the past 20 years. Most studies have shown an increase in plant growth, a decrease in plant nitrogen concentration, an increase in plant secondary metabolites and a decrease in herbivory. However, such studies have […]
Sunrise over the subtropical oak woodland, elevated CO2 experiment at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The experiment used open-top chambers to increase CO2 concentrations, with paired chambers with no extra CO2 serving as controls. The experiment ran from 1996-2007. Photo credit: Bert Drake.