How will changing winter climate dynamics affect carbon storage across complex forest landscapes?
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As climate changes, winters with less snowfall are becoming more common in New England forests. Without a consistent layer of snowcover, which acts as an insulating blanket over soils, soil freeze-thaw cycles are likely to become more frequent. This could impair the soil's ability to store carbon by disrupting soil structure, damaging plant roots, and killing microbes.
I am investigating how changing wintertime climate in New England forests influences carbon cycling. Using long-term data, I am characterizing historical changes in climate and the frequency of soil freeze-thaw events resulting from a reduced snowpack layer, and how those changes are linked to losses of forest soil carbon. Using laboratory incubations, I am investigating how climate legacies affect microbially-mediated carbon losses during freeze-thaw cycles. Will microbes with a history of warmer soils be less tolerant of freeze-thaw cycles? If so, regions with historically persistent snowcover may be most vulnerable to carbon losses during winters that are warm and/or experience low snowfall. Understanding the ability of microbes to adapt to changing winter dynamics is crucial for projecting the carbon storage potential of New England forests. I am also working to identify "microrefugia" in montane forests that will enable species persistence and facilitate species range shifts as climate changes. In particular, I am interested in whether valleys and other low-lying areas that experience frequent "cold-air pooling" will preserve the tree species most vulnerable to climate change and the ecosystem functions they support, like soil carbon storage. Read more here! |
Soils for the lab freeze-thaw incubation were collected at high and low elevation spruce-fir forests at Camel's Hump State Park and Duxbury in Vermont.
Freeze-thaw lab experiment
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