Plant-Microbe-Mineral Interactions
Climate change is making carbon stored in permafrost soils vulnerable to decomposition and is leading to changes in vegetation on the landscape. Modeling these processes is crucial for predicting global carbon budgets following warming however measurements and models disagree about the impacts of these changes for carbon cycling.
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Building Lab Infrastructure - Isotope labeling chamber
One of the best ways to trace the fate of carbon through an ecological system is with the use of isotopes. By introducing carbon-13 into a controlled system, we can see where that carbon ends up which can help to answer questions related to soil carbon formation and long term stabilization. To facilitate our plant-microbe-mineral project the Ernakovich lab has built an isotope labeling chamber based on designs in Butler, J., & Eickhoff, C. P. (1979).
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EMERGE Biology Integration Institute
Rapid warming in the Arctic is driving permafrost thaw, and new availability of formerly-frozen soil carbon for cycling and release to the atmosphere, representing a potentially large but poorly constrained accelerant of climate change. The National Science Foundation-funded EMergent Ecosystem Responses to ChanGE (EMERGE) Biology Integration Institute aims to develop a framework for understanding how different biological systems, such as those involved in permafrost thaw, interact over time by integrating research, training, and high-resolution field and laboratory measurements across 15 scientific subdisciplines–including ecology, physiology, genetics, biogeochemistry, remote sensing, and modeling–across 14 institutions, in order to understand ecosystem-climate feedbacks in Stordalen Mire, a thawing permafrost peatland in arctic Sweden.
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Permafrost microbiome in a changing climate
Arctic permafrost soils—soil that remains frozen year-round—are thawing at an ever increasing rate due to global climate change. When permafrost thaws, previously frozen carbon becomes accessible to microbes which can be decomposed by and released back into the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gases. During thaw, microbial communities undergo significant changes in community membership which can affect decomposition rates and thus, greenhouse gas production.
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Soil health in NH agriculture - a microbial perspective
Soil microorganisms play integral roles in controlling decomposition, thus determining how nutrients are cycled and how carbon moves into and out of soils. While we know that agricultural management (i.e. fertilizer inputs, plant cover, tillage) alters microbial community membership and function, however we lack an understanding of how this affects soil function and ecosystem health more broadly.
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