Ambient nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from Great Boiling Spring (GBS) in the US Great Basin depended on temperature, with the highest flux, 67.8 ± 2.6 μmol N2O-N m−2 day−1, occurring in the large source pool at 82 °C. This rate of N2O production contrasted with negligible production from nearby soils and was similar to rates from […]
At 6 A.M. on the first day of winter break, a van full of high school stu- dents and teachers set out for Fossil Creek in Arizona to conduct measurements for an ongoing environmental project (which monitors changes to the creek). The group had a long day ahead—hiking about 7 […]
Permafrost soils contain more than 1300 Pg of carbon (C), twice the amount of C in the atmosphere. Temperatures in higher latitudes are increasing, inducing permafrost thaw and subsequent microbial decomposition of previously frozen C, which will most likely feed back to climate warming through release of the greenhouse gases CO2 […]
Invasive species alter ecosystems, threaten native and endangered species, and have negative economic impacts. Knowing where invading individuals are from and when they arrive to a new site can guide management. Here, we evaluated how well the stable hydrogen isotope composition (δ2H) records the recent origin and time since arrival […]
Permafrost soils currently store approximately 1672 Pg of carbon (C), but as high latitudes warm, this temperature-protected C reservoir will become vulnerable to higher rates of decomposition. In recent decades, air temperatures in the high latitudes have warmed more than any other region globally, particularly during the winter. Over the coming […]
Alexander Fleming famously warned that the ignorant may someday misuse his life-saving discovery—penicillin—and select for resistant bacteria (1). This was prescient given the widespread use of subtherapeutic antibiotics by food-animal producers today. According to the findings of Van Boeckel et al. (2) in PNAS, the proliferation of ignorance is only […]
High daily temperature range of soil (DTRsoil) negatively affects soil microbial biomass and activity, but its interaction with seasonal soil moisture in regulating ecosystem function remains unclear. For our 5-year field study in the Chihuahuan Desert, we suspended shade cloth 15 cm above the soil surface to reduce daytime temperature […]
In Mediterranean-type ecosystems, nitrogen (N) accumulates in soil during dry summer months and rapidly becomes available during early season rain events. The availability of early season N could depend on the size of rainfall events, soil microbial activity, and phenology of the plant community. However, it is poorly understood how […]
Structural and physiological changes that occur as trees grow taller are associated with increased hydraulic constraints on leaf gas exchange, yet it is unclear if leaf-level constraints influence whole-tree growth as trees approach their maximum size. We examined variation in leaf physiology, leaf area to sapwood area ratio (L/S), and […]
Climate models predict that the southwestern United States will experience an increase in drought frequency and intensity with global climate change. We tested the hypothesis that leaf litter produced under natural drought conditions would have an altered litter chemistry profile and affect decomposition rates and macro invertebrate colonization compared to […]