Search Results for: peri pl

Permafrost Carbon Network Logo showing the north portion of the globe in red, yellow and orange.

Global Change Synthesis

Permafrost Carbon Network Logo showing the north portion of the globe in red, yellow and orange.

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…)

Artist's rendering of the Carbon locked up inside a plant's roots.

Meta-Analysis

Overview Over the past several decades, scientists have conducted hundreds of experiments investigating responses of ecosystems to global environmental change. Ecoss synthesizes many of these responses using a statistical technique called meta-analysis. This approach considers all the measurements together and quantifies the overall response, testing whether responses vary among ecosystems, […]

Early morning at the Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Project (CiPEHR) in Alaska with permafrost in the foreground, mountains in the background.

Future Ecosystems

Early morning at the Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Project (CiPEHR) in Alaska with permafrost in the foreground, mountains in the background.

Early morning at the Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Project (CiPEHR) in Alaska

Global change affects plants and soil in ecosystems across the globe. By doing so, it can alter the composition of ecosystems and the functions they provide. For instance, even small changes in plant growth and soil properties can have a large impact on the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. At Ecoss, we use field experiments to manipulate the temperature, rainfall and other environmental factors in various ecosystems. This allows us to mimic future conditions, and helps us understand how future ecosystems will differ from the ones today. (more…)

Green microscopic microbes, both tubular and round.

The Role of Soil Processes in the Global Carbon Cycle

When new carbon enters soil, especially carbon that is easily assimilated and decomposed by soil microorganisms, a chain reaction occurs leading to the breakdown of older soil carbon, carbon that would otherwise have remained stable. Current theory does not explain this chain reaction, sometimes called the “priming effect.” But understanding […]