Some experts estimate that a single mature oak tree produces between 200,000 and 1 million leaves each year—all of which fall from the tree in the autumn. Although “litter” from decaying leaves is sometimes viewed as a problem in urban and suburban settings, fallen leaves play a critical role in […]
Please join the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society and Flagstaff Arts Council Saturday, September 29 for the Flagstaff premier of “This Verse Business,” a play that offers a new window into Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Frost’s personal life and poetic works. Frost is portrayed by Emmy-winning Gordon Clapp from NYPD Blue. Written and directed by Andy Dolan. Tickets are $10 […]
When it comes to how climate change is impacting ecosystems, there’s no shortage of data out there. But finding enough people who know both ecology and how to interpret that data can be a different story. Ecoss affiliated professor Kiona Ogle leads the multi million dollar grant from the National […]
Ecoss ecologist Ted Schuur, who’s received a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a carbon observatory at Eight Mile Lake near Denali National Park in Alaska, calls the permafrost’s massive release of greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere a “wild card,” and potentially a tipping point, […]
Rain-fed peatlands are dominated by peat mosses (Sphagnum sp.), which for their growth depend on nutrients, water and CO2 uptake from the atmosphere. As the isotopic composition of carbon (12,13C) and oxygen (16,18O) of these Sphagnum mosses are affected by environmental conditions, Sphagnum tissue accumulated in peat constitutes a potential […]
Ecoss ecologist Yiqi Luo and collaborators in a multi-site research team have been awarded a 6-year, $6.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study dryland ecosystems at the Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research site in New Mexico. Luo and his team will be studying how the changing climate […]
Shifts in vegetation phenology are a key example of the biological effects of climate change. However, there is substantial uncertainty about whether these temperature-driven trends will continue, or whether other factors—for example, photoperiod—will become more important as warming exceeds the bounds of historical variability. Here we use phenological transition dates […]
New findings published in the journal Nature by Ecoss researcher Andrew Richardson offer some of the first experiment-based evidence that a warmer world will significantly shift ecosystem-wide growing seasons, putting plants at higher risk during extreme temperature swings. Richardson and a team of collaborators conducted a unique experiment in boreal […]
Land surface phenology (LSP) has been widely retrieved from time series of various satellite instruments in order to monitor climate change and ecosystem dynamics. However, any evaluation of the quality of LSP data sets is quite challenging because the in situ observations on a limited number of individual trees, shrubs, […]
Understanding drivers of straw decomposition is essential for adopting appropriate management practice to improve soil fertility and promote carbon (C) sequestration in agricultural systems. However, predicting straw decomposition and characteristics is difficult because of the interactions between many factors related to straw properties, soil properties, and climate, especially under future […]