Pollution scenarios and anthropogenic warming are familiar examples of human-caused stress on the environment. But human-driven loss of biodiversity itself robs ecosystems of essential players and services, damaging ecosystem function. Ecoss research examined the effects of various environmental stressors on plant growth and decomposition, two crucial processes in any ecosystem. Read more…
Rising global temperatures and CO2 levels are increasing the amount of global-warming methane (the flaming red molecule depicted here) produced by rice farming: with more CO2 in the air to pull in for photosynthesis, rice plants grow faster and supply soil microbes with more sugars seeped from their roots. In Read more…
Researchers at Ecoss helped to uncover a potent offset to carbon “drawdown” by plants: with more CO2 available to fuel photosynthesis in the air above, soil microbes consume more sugars oozing from the roots of the faster-growing plants and increase their own greenhouse-gas emissions during respiration. These emissions offset the Read more…
Albedo, the reflectance of sunlight from earth’s surface, is an important moderator of climate because it determines whether solar energy is locally absorbed or re-radiated to space. Ecoss-associated research characterized the albedo and other energy fluxes of various landscapes to demonstrate that human land-use decisions can alter surface energy fluxes Read more…
Management of forests for carbon uptake is an important tool in the effort to slow the increase in atmospheric CO2 and global warming. However, some current policies governing forest carbon credits actually promote avoidable CO2 release and punish actions that would increase long-term carbon storage. In fire-prone forests, management that Read more…
Longstanding land-management policies of complete wildfire suppression on wild lands were intended to prevent catastrophic wildfires through constant human monitoring and intervention. However, when combined with policies that prohibit logging or thinning in protected areas, total fire suppression can lead to giant conflagrations anyhow, as the buildup of fuel materials Read more…