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USGS Soil Carbon Research

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Eddy covariance tower at the well-drained, burned Delta Junction site Our Delta Tower Burn study site. This site burned during a 1999 wildfire. Click on the photo for an enlarged image.   Our field strategy involves a process-oriented study of upland and wetland systems using chronosequences of stand-age (time since fire). Across these chronosequences, we are determining carbon inputs by plants as well as carbon losses due to fire and decomposition. Our site matrix includes well drained (no permafrost) to poorly drained (with permafrost and high water tables) conditions. Fire emissions and the effects of fire on carbon and nutrient availability are also being addressed through work on wildland and experimental burns.

Together with non-USGS collaborators, we are measuring site conditions, inputs to soil carbon, mechanisms of soil carbon loss, and fire emissions. The U.S. Geological Survey is actively playing a role in the following studies:
  • Soil temperature and moisture (in collaboration with Kenji Yoshikawa, University of Alaska Fairbanks),
  • Net primary production (in collaboration with Michelle Mack, University of Florida),
  • Soil carbon, carbon isotopes, and nutrients (in collaboration with Michelle Mack, University of Florida, and Sue Trumbore, UC Irvine),
  • Standing dead and downed wood,
  • Transportation of dissolved organic carbon,
  • Mechanisms of carbon stabilization (e.g., charcoal).
Specific measurements of foliar, moss, woody, and soil components include extensive analyses of C, N, 13C, and 15N as well as selected sample analysis of 14C, P, and Hg. Such isotopic measurements allow us to refine models of CO2 emissions over the fire cycle. Our models then can be compared directly to carbon losses due to fire and carbon inputs by net primary production.
Our collaborators also are studying:
  • Respiration and net CO2 budgets: Jim Randerson (UC Irvine)
  • Heterotrophic and autotrophic respiration: Ted Schuur (University of Florida)
  • Role of fungi in nutrient cycling: Kathleen Treseder (UC Irvine)
  • Remote sensing of fire chronosequence attributes: Eric Kasischke (University of Maryland)
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Page Last Modified: Tuesday, 20-Mar-2007 19:21:38 EDT