Digital repeat photography and near-surface remote sensing have been used by environmental scientists to study environmental change for nearly a decade. However, a user-friendly, reliable, and robust platform to extract color-based statistics and time series from a large stack of images is still lacking. Here, we present an interactive open-source […]
Manual chamber-based measurements of CO2 (and H2O) fluxes are important for understanding ecosystem carbon metabolism. Small opaque chambers can be used to measure leaf, stem and soil respiration. Larger transparent chambers can be used to measure net ecosystem exchange of CO2, and small jars often serve this purpose for laboratory […]
The concentration–carbon feedback (β), also called the CO2 fertilization effect, is a key unknown in climate–carbon-cycle projections. A better understanding of model mechanisms that govern terrestrial ecosystem responses to elevated CO2 is urgently needed to enable a more accurate prediction of future terrestrial carbon sink. We conducted C-only, carbon–nitrogen (C–N) […]
Labile carbon (C) input to soil can accelerate or slow the decomposition of soil organic matter, a phenomenon called priming. However, priming is difficult to predict, making its relationship with C input elusive. To assess this relationship, we added 13C-glucose at five levels (8 to 1606 μg C g−1 week−1) to the soil from […]
During the 2016-2017 academic year, Ecoss teamed up with STEM City to serve as a Flagstaff community STEM partner in the Scientists in the Classroom Program (http://www.flagstaffstemcity.com/scientists-in-the-classroom.html). Each month, Ecoss students, postdocs, faculty, and staff members visited Ms. Kathryn Wertz’s 6th grade science class at Sinagua Middle School to share […]
Permafrost soils store nearly half of global soil carbon (C), and therefore permafrost thawing could lead to large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions via decomposition of soil organic matter. When ice-rich permafrost thaws, it creates a localized surface subsidence called thermokarst terrain, which changes the soil microenvironment. We used soil […]
One of the most important changes in high-latitude ecosystems in response to climatic warming may be the thawing of permafrost soil. In upland tundra, the thawing of ice-rich permafrost can create localized surface subsidence called thermokarst, which may change the soil environment and influence ecosystem carbon release and uptake. We […]
Organisms acquire some elements from the environment with ease. Diffusion alone often provides enough carbon dioxide, oxygen and water. But getting other elements requires more effort, spurring unique evolutionary adaptations: instead of taking up nutrients from the soil, some plants in acidic bogs trap insects to obtain nitrogen and phosphorus […]
We’ve got your number: Tracing the source of invasive Japanese beetles March 9, 2016 Sonya Daw news.nau.edu Like a Southern drawl popping up on the West Coast, our accents mark us as newcomers. With time they fade, leaving only traces of our past in the occasional slip of a word. […]
Permafrost Carbon Network
Thousands of researchers worldwide are studying how global change affects ecosystems. Using models and field experiments, they add to our understanding of this area each day. However, individual studies sometimes only tell part of the whole story. By combining results from large numbers of studies, we can discern large-scale patterns across ecosystems, and make better estimates of how global change will affect our environment. Our work on global change synthesis combines several statistical techniques with modeling approaches. (more…)