A new paper by Northern Arizona University professor Andrew Richardson published in the journal Scientific Data describes a vast network of digital cameras designed to capture millions of images documenting seasonal changes of vegetation across North America. The network, dubbed PhenoCam, is the result of a 10-year collaboration between Richardson, who […]
Ecological memory stored in a landscape can help an ecosystem recover from disturbances like fire and outbreaks of disease. But what happens when climate warming disrupts that process? How long before ecological memories stored in the warming Arctic are overwritten by new ones, and what does that mean for the […]
By the end of this century, permafrost in the rapidly warming Arctic will likely emit as much carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as a large industrial nation, and potentially more than the U.S. has emitted since the start of the industrial revolution. But that’s only one possible future […]
The flux of CO2 from the soil to the atmosphere (soil respiration, Rsoil) is a major component of the global carbon (C) cycle. Methods to measure and model Rsoil, or partition it into different components, often rely on the assumption that soil CO2 concentrations and fluxes are in steady state, implying that Rsoil is equal to […]
Research on the nitrogen biogeochemical cycle in terrestrial geothermal ecosystems has recently been energized by the discovery of thermophilic ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA). This chapter describes methods that have been used for measuring nitrification and denitrification in hot spring environments, including isotope pool dilution and tracer approaches, and the acetylene block […]
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 […]