Earth’s ability to absorb nearly a third of human-caused carbon emissions through plants could be halved within the next two decades at the current rate of warming, according to a new study in Science Advances by researchers at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Using […]
Plant functional traits can be used to predict ecosystem responses to climate gradients, yet precipitation explains very little variation for most traits. Soil water availability directly influences plant water uptake and thus may assist with the improvement of plant trait–water relationships. However, this promise remains poorly realized due to rare […]
Large-scale vegetation restoration projects pose threats to water resource security in water-limited regions. Thus, the quantification of how vegetation cover affects soil moisture is of key importance to support effective restoration schemes in drylands. However, the current understanding of such effects remains poor. For this study, an in-situ vegetation-removal experiment […]
In a year in which global temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide records were broken, experts from 20 colleges and universities will gather virtually November 17-19, 2020 at Northern Arizona University to discuss why carbon reduction is critical to their institutions’ futures, and how each is forging a path to zero […]
PhD and MS positions in Ecosystem Ecology are available in the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) at Northern Arizona University. Graduate student benefits include a stipend (teaching assistantship or research assistantship), tuition waiver, health insurance, and payment of non-tuition fees. The Ecoss mission is to conduct high-impact, innovative […]
In a warmer world, microbial decomposition of previously frozen organic carbon (C) is one of the most likely positive climate feedbacks of permafrost regions to the atmosphere. However, mechanistic understanding of microbial mediation on chemically recalcitrant C instability is limited; thus, it is crucial to identify and evaluate active decomposers […]
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 […]
Large-scale primary native broadleaf forests (BF) have been converted to secondary forests (SF) and plantation forests (PF) in subtropical China over the past decades. However, how and what magnitude of plant and soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) stocks and stoichiometry are affected by forest conversion is still […]
As Arctic soils warm, thawed permafrost releases nitrogen (N) that could stimulate plant productivity and thus offset soil carbon losses from tundra ecosystems. Although mycorrhizal fungi could facilitate plant access to permafrost-derived N, their exploration capacity beyond host plant root systems into deep, cold active layer soils adjacent to the […]