Earth Sciences Commons^™

Lotic-Sipco2: Adaptation Of An Open-Source Co2 Sensor System And Examination Of Associated Emission Uncertainties Across A Range Of Stream Sizes And Land Uses, Andrew L. Robison, Lauren E. Koenig, Jody D. Potter, Lisle E. Snyder, Christopher W. Hunt, William H. Mcdowell, Wilfred M. Wollheim

Faculty Publications

River networks play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, as relevant sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. Advancements in high-frequency monitoring in aquatic environments have enabled measurement of dissolved CO2 concentration at temporal resolutions essential for studying carbon variability and evasion from these dynamic ecosystems. Here, we describe the adaptation, deployment, and validation of an open-source and relatively low-cost in situ pCO2 sensor system for lotic ecosystems, the lotic-SIPCO2. We tested the lotic-SIPCO2 in 10 streams that spanned a range of land cover and basin size. Key system adaptations for lotic environments included prevention of biofouling, …

Reply To: Beyond Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency, Feng Tao, Johannes Lehmann, Ying-Ping Wang, Lifen Jiang, Bernhard Ahrens, Kostiantyn Viatkin, Stefano Manzoni, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Yuanyuan Huang, Bruce A. Hungate, Serita D. Frey, Michael W. I. Schmidt, Markus Reichstein, Nuno Carvalhais, Philippe Ciais, Umakant Mishra, Gustaf Hugelius, Toby D. Hocking, Xingjie Lu, Zheng Shi, Ronald Vargas, Yusuf Yigini, Christian Omuto, Ashish A. Malik, Guillermo Peralta, Rosa Cuevas-Corona, Luciano E. Di Paolo, Isabel Luotto, Cuijuan Liao, Yi-Shuang Liang, Vinisa S. Saynes, Xiaomeng Huang

Faculty Publications

In their commentary, Xiao et al. cautioned that the conclusions on the critical role of microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) in global soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in a paper by Tao et al. (2023) might be too simplistic. They claimed that Tao et al.’s study lacked mechanistic consideration of SOC formation and excluded important datasets. Xiao et al. brought up important points, which can be largely reconciled with our findings by understanding the differences in expressing processes in empirical studies and in models.

What Is Microbial Dormancy, Mark D. Mcdonald, Carlos Owusu-Ansah, Jared B. Ellenbogen, Zachary D. Malone, Michael P. Ricketts, Steve E. Frolking, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Michael Ibba, Sarah C. Bagby, J. L. Weissman

Faculty Publications

Life can be stressful. One way to deal with stress is to simply wait it out. Microbes do this by entering a state of reduced activity and increased resistance commonly called ‘dormancy’. But what is dormancy? Different scientific disciplines emphasize distinct traits and phenotypic ranges in defining dormancy for their microbial species and system-specific questions of interest. Here, we propose a unified definition of microbial dormancy, using a broad framework to place earlier discipline-specific definitions in a new context. We then discuss how this new definition and framework may improve our ability to investigate dormancy using multi-omics tools. Finally, we …

Reply To: Contribution Of Carbon Inputs To Soil Carbon Accumulation Cannot Be Neglected, Feng Tao, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Serita D. Frey, Johannes Lehmann, Stefano Manzoni, Yuanyuan Huang, Lifen Jiang, Umakant Mishra, Bruce A. Hungate, Michael W. I. Schmidt, Markus Reichstein, Nuno Carvalhais, Philippe Ciais, Ying-Ping Wang, Bernhard Ahrens, Gustaf Hugelius, Toby D. Hocking, Xingjie Lu, Zheng Shi, Kostiantyn Viatkin, Ronald Vargas, Yusuf Yigini, Christian Omuto, Ashish A. Malik, Guillermo Peralta, Rosa Cuevas-Corona, Luciano E. Di Paolo, Isabel Luotto, Cuijuan Liao, Yi-Shuang Liang, Vinisa S. Saynes, Xiaomeng Huang, Yiqi Luo

Faculty Publications

In the accompanying Comment1, He et al. argue that the determinant role of microbial carbon use efficiency in global soil organic carbon (SOC) storage shown in Tao et al. (2023)2 was overestimated because carbon inputs were neglected in our data analysis while they suggest that our model-based analysis could be biased and model-dependent. Their argument is based on a different choice of independent variables in the data analysis and a sensitivity analysis of two process-based models other than that used in our study. We agree that both carbon inputs and outputs (as mediated by microbial processes) matter when predicting SOC …

Season, Not Long-Term Warming, Affects The Relationship Between Ecosystem Function And Microbial Diversity, Melissa S. Shinfuku, Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta, Mallory J. Choudoir, Serita D. Frey, Kristen M. Deangelis

Faculty Publications

Across biomes, soil biodiversity promotes ecosystem functions. However, whether this relationship will be maintained under climate change is uncertain. Here, using two long-term warming experiments, we investigated how warming affects the relationship between ecosystem functions and microbial diversity across seasons, soil horizons, and warming duration. The soils in these warming experiments were heated +5 °C above ambient for 13 or 28 years. We measured seven different ecosystem functions representative of soil carbon cycling, soil nitrogen cycling, or nutrient pools. We also surveyed bacterial and fungal community diversity. We found that the relationship between ecosystem function and bacterial diversity and the …

The Emergence Of Convergence, Shana M. Sundstrom, David G. Angeler, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Jorge H. Garcia, Joseph A. Hamm, Orville Huntington, Craig R. Allen

Faculty Publications

Science is increasingly a collaborative pursuit. Although the modern scientific enterprise owes much to individuals working at the core of their field, humanity is increasingly confronted by highly complex problems that require the integration of a variety of disciplinary and methodological expertise. In 2016, the U.S. National Science Foundation launched an initiative prioritizing support for convergence research as a means of “solving vexing research problems, in particular, complex problems focusing on societal needs.” We discuss our understanding of the objectives of convergence research and describe in detail the conditions and processes likely to generate successful convergence research. We use our …

Short-Term Responses Of Soil Carbon, Nitrogen, And Microbial Biomass To Cover Crop Mixtures And Monocultures, Igor Alexandre De Souza, Amanda B. Daly, Jorg Schnecker, Nicholas D. Warren, Adalfredo Rocha Lobo Jr., Richard G. Smith, Andre Fonseca Brito, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

Increasingly, cover crops are being adopted for the purpose of improving soil health, yet the timescale and magnitude by which living annual cover crops might modify soil chemical and biological aspects of soil health is not well understood. At the same time, there is growing interest among farmers in cover crop mixtures due to perceptions that species-rich cover crop communities will enhance soil health relative to monocultures. In a field experiment in southeast New Hampshire, we investigated how groups of cover crops grown as monocultures and mixtures for specific seasonal niches (winter/spring, summer, and fall) influenced levels of soil nitrogen …

Marine Anoxia Initiates Giant Sulfur-Bacteria Mat Proliferation And Associated Changes In Benthic Nitrogen, Sulfur, And Iron Cycling In The Santa Barbara Basin, California Borderland, David J. Yousavich, De'marcus Robinson, Xuefeng Peng, Sebastian J.E. Krause, Frank Wenzhoefer, Felix Janßen, Na Liu, Jonathan Tarn, Frank Kinnaman, David L. Valentine, Tina Treude

Faculty Publications

The Santa Barbara Basin naturally experiences transient deoxygenation due to its unique geological setting in the southern California Borderland and seasonal changes in ocean currents. Long-term measurements of the basin showed that anoxic events and subsequent nitrate exhaustion in the bottom waters have been occurring more frequently and lasting longer over the past decade. One characteristic of the Santa Barbara Basin is the seasonal development of extensive mats of benthic nitrate-reducing sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, which are found at the sediment–water interface when the basin's bottom waters reach anoxia but still provide some nitrate. To assess the mat's impact on the benthic …

Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency Promotes Global Soil Carbon Storage, Feng Tao, Yuanyuan Huang, Bruce A. Hungate, Stefano Manzoni, Serita D. Frey, Michael W. I. Schmidt, Markus Reichstein, Nuno Carvalhais, Philippe Ciais, Lifen Jiang, Johannes Lehmann, Ying-Ping Wang, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Bernhard Ahrens, Umakant Mishra, Gustaf Hugelius, Toby D. Hocking, Xingjie Lu, Zheng Shi, Kostiantyn Viatkin, Ronald Vargas, Yusuf Yigini, Christian Omuto, Ashish A. Malik, Guillermo Peralta, Rosa Cuevas-Corona, Luciano E. Di Paolo, Isabel Luotto, Cuijuan Liao, Yi-Shuang Liang, Vinisa S. Saynes, Xiaomeng Huang, Yiqi Luo

Faculty Publications

Soils store more carbon than other terrestrial ecosystems1,2. How soil organic carbon (SOC) forms and persists remains uncertain1,3, which makes it challenging to understand how it will respond to climatic change3,4. It has been suggested that soil microorganisms play an important role in SOC formation, preservation and loss5,6,7. Although microorganisms affect the accumulation and loss of soil organic matter through many pathways4,6,8,9,10,11, microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is an integrative metric that can capture the balance of these processes12,13. Although CUE has the potential to act as a predictor of variation in SOC storage, the role of CUE in SOC …

Trait-Based Assembly Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Communities Determines Soil Carbon Formation And Retention, Caitlyn C. A. Horsch, Pedro M. Antunes, Catherine Fahey, A. Stuart Grandy, Cynthia M. Kallenbach

Faculty Publications

Fungi are crucial for soil organic carbon (SOC) formation, especially for the more persistent mineral-associated organic C (MAOC) pool. Yet, evidence for this often overlooks arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) communities and how their composition and traits impact SOC accumulation.

We grew sudangrass with AMF communities representing different traits conserved at the family level: competitors, from the Gigasporaceae family; ruderals, from the Glomeraceae family; or both families combined. We labeled sudangrass with 13C-CO2 to assess AMF contributions to SOC, impacts on SOC priming, and fungal biomass persistence in MAOC.

Single-family AMF communities decreased total SOC by 13.8%, likely due to fungal …

Meridional Survey Of The Central Pacific Reveals Iodide Accumulation In Equatorial Surface Waters And Benthic Sources In The Abyssal Plain, Rintaro Moriyasu, Kenneth M. Bolster, Dalton S. Hardisty, David C. Kadko, Mark P. Stephens, James W. Moffett

Faculty Publications

The distributions of iodate and iodide were measured along the GEOTRACES GP15 meridional transect at 152°W from the shelf of Alaska to Papeete, Tahiti. The transect included oxygenated waters near the shelf of Alaska, the full water column in the central basin in the North Pacific Basin, the upper water column spanning across seasonally mixed regimes in the north, oligotrophic regimes in the central gyre, and the equatorial upwelling. Iodide concentrations are highest in the permanently stratified tropical mixed layers, which reflect accumulation due to light-dependent biological processes, and decline rapidly below the euphotic zone. Vertical mixing coefficients (K …

Soil Microbial Legacies Influence Freeze–Thaw Responses Of Soil, Melissa A. Pastore, Aimee T. Classen, Marie E. English, Serita D. Frey, Melissa A. Knorr, Karin Rand, E. Carol Adair

Faculty Publications

Warmer winters with less snowfall are increasing the frequency of soil freeze–thaw cycles across temperate regions. Soil microbial responses to freeze–thaw cycles vary and some of this variation may be explained by microbial conditioning to prior winter conditions, yet such linkages remain largely unexplored. We investigated how differences in temperature history influenced microbial community composition and activity in response to freeze–thaw cycles.

We collected soil microbial communities that developed under colder (high elevation) and warmer (low elevation) temperature regimes in spruce-fir forests, then added each of these soil microbial communities to a sterile bulk-soil in a laboratory microcosm experiment. The …

Diversifying And Perennializing Plants In Agroecosystems Alters Retention Of New C And N From Crop Residues, Marshall D. Mcdaniel, Jeffrey A. Bird, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Tom M. Schmidt, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

Managing soils to retain new plant inputs is key to moving toward a sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Management practices, like diversifying and perennializing agroecosystems, may affect the decomposer organisms that regulate how new residue is converted to persistent soil organic matter. Here we tested whether 12 years of diversifying/perennializing plants in agroecosystems through extended rotations or grassland restoration would decrease losses of new plant residue inputs and, thus, increase retention of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in soil. We tracked dual-labeled (13C and 15N), isotopically enriched wheat (Triticum aestivum) residue in situ for 2 years as it decomposed in three …

Us Scientific Leadership Addressing Energy, Ecosystems, Climate, And Sustainable Prosperity: Report In Brief From The Berac Subcommittee On International Benchmarking, Maureen Mccann, Patrick Reed, Ana Alonso, Ludmilla Aristilde, Massie S. Ballon, Crysten Blaby, Allison A. Campbell, Kenneth James Davis, Brian H. Davison, Ben Evans, Robert F. Fischetti, Serita D. Frey, Ann M. Fridlind, Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, Ramon Gonzalez, Michael N. Gooseff, Nathan Hillson, Janet Jansson, Klaus Keller, Markus Kleber, Costas Maranas, Gerald A. Meehl, Himadri Pakrasi, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Kristala Prather, Johannes Quaas, G. Philip Robertson, Alistair Rogers, Tim Scheibe, Thomas R. Schneider, Gary Stacey, Margaret S. Torn, Kerstin Kleese Van Dam, Detlef Vuuren, John Weyant, Stan Wullschleger, Shaocheng Xie, Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee, Huimin Zhao

Faculty Publications

This document presents the subcommittee’s overarching and domain-specific findings and recommendations for the next decade, identified by consensus across the full BERAC subcommittee and experts interviewed for this assessment.

Substrate Availability And Not Thermal Acclimation Controls Microbial Temperature Sensitivity Response To Long-Term Warming, Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta, Grace Pold, Hailey Erb, David Sebag, Eric Verrecchia, Trent Northen, Katherine Louie, Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh, Christa Pennacchio, Melissa A. Knorr, Serita D. Frey, Jerry M. Melillo, Kristen M. Deangelis

Faculty Publications

Microbes are responsible for cycling carbon (C) through soils, and predicted changes in soil C stocks under climate change are highly sensitive to shifts in the mechanisms assumed to control the microbial physiological response to warming. Two mechanisms have been suggested to explain the long-term warming impact on microbial physiology: microbial thermal acclimation and changes in the quantity and quality of substrates available for microbial metabolism. Yet studies disentangling these two mechanisms are lacking. To resolve the drivers of changes in microbial physiology in response to long-term warming, we sampled soils from 13- and 28-year-old soil warming experiments in different …

Soil Microbial Communities Vary In Composition And Functional Strategy Across Soil Aggregate Size Class Regardless Of Tillage, Lukas T. Bernhardt, Richard G. Smith, Andrew S. Grandy, Jessica E. Mackay, Nicholas D. Warren, Kevin M. Geyer, Jessica G. Ernakovich

Faculty Publications

The physicochemical environment within aggregates controls the distribution of carbon and microbial communities in soils. Agricultural management, such as tillage, can disrupt aggregates and the microscale habitat provided to microorganisms, thus altering microbial community dynamics. Categorizing microbial communities into life history strategies with shared functional traits—as has been done to understand plant community structure for decades—can illuminate how the soil physicochemical environment constrains the membership and activity of microbial communities. We conducted an aggregate scale survey of microbial community composition and function through the lens of the yield–acquisition–stress (Y–A–S) tolerator life history framework. Soils collected from a 7-year tillage experiment …

Permafrost And Climate Change: Carbon Cycle Feedbacks From The Warming Arctic, Edward A. G. Schuur, Benjamin W. Abbott, Roisin Commane, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Eugenie Euskirchen, Gustaf Hugelius, Guido Grosse, Miriam Jones, Charlie Koven, Victor Leshyk, David Lawrence, Michael M. Loranty, Marguerite Mauritz, David Olefeldt, Susan Natali, Heidi Rodenhizer, Verity Salmon, Christina Schadel, Jens Strauss, Claire C. Treat, Merritt Turetsky

Faculty Publications

Rapid Arctic environmental change affects the entire Earth system as thawing permafrost ecosystems release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Understanding how much permafrost carbon will be released, over what time frame, and what the relative emissions of carbon dioxide and methane will be is key for understanding the impact on global climate. In addition, the response of vegetation in a warming climate has the potential to offset at least some of the accelerating feedback to the climate from permafrost carbon. Temperature, organic carbon, and ground ice are key regulators for determining the impact of permafrost ecosystems on the global carbon …

Microtopography Matters: Belowground Ch4 Cycling Regulated By Differing Microbial Processes In Peatland Hummocks And Lawns, Clarice R. Perryman, Carmody K. Mccalley, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Louis J. Lamit, Joanne H. Shorter, Erik Lilleskov, Ruth K. Varner

Faculty Publications

Water table depth and vegetation are key controls of methane (CH4) emissions from peatlands. Microtopography integrates these factors into features called microforms. Microforms often differ in CH4 emissions, but microform-dependent patterns of belowground CH4 cycling remain less clearly resolved. To investigate the impact of microtopography on belowground CH4 cycling, we characterized depth profiles of the community composition and activity of CH4-cycling microbes using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, incubations, and measurements of porewater CH4 concentration and isotopic composition from hummocks and lawns at Sallie's Fen in NH, USA. Geochemical proxies of methanogenesis and methanotrophy indicated that microforms differ in dominant microbial …

We Must Stop Fossil Fuel Emissions To Protect Permafrost Ecosystems, Benjamin W. Abbott, Michael Brown, Joanna C. Carey, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Jennifer M. Frederick, Laodong Guo, Gustaf Hugelius, Raymond M. Lee, Michael M. Loranty, Robie Macdonald, Paul J. Mann, Susan M. Natali, David Olefeldt, Pam Pearson, Abigail Rec, Martin Robards, Verity G. Salmon, Sara Sayedi, Christina Schadel, Edward A. G. Schuur, Sarah Shakil, Arial J. Shogren, Jens Strauss, Suzanne E. Tank, Brett F. Thornton, Rachael Treharne, Merritt Turetsky, Carolina Voigt, Nancy Wright, Yuanhe Yang, Jay P. Zarnetske, Qiwen Zhang, Scott Zolkos

Faculty Publications

Climate change is an existential threat to the vast global permafrost domain. The diverse human cultures, ecological communities, and biogeochemical cycles of this tenth of the planet depend on the persistence of frozen conditions. The complexity, immensity, and remoteness of permafrost ecosystems make it difficult to grasp how quickly things are changing and what can be done about it. Here, we summarize terrestrial and marine changes in the permafrost domain with an eye toward global policy. While many questions remain, we know that continued fossil fuel burning is incompatible with the continued existence of the permafrost domain as we know …

Microbiome Assembly In Thawing Permafrost And Its Feedbacks To Climate, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Robyn A. Barbato, Virginia I. Ritch, Christina Schadel, Rebecca E. Hewitt, Stacey J. Doherty, Emily D. Whalen, Benjamin Abbott, Jiri Barta, Christina Biasi, Chris L. Chabot, Jenni Hultman, Christian Knoblauch, Maggie C. Y. Lau Vetter, Mary-Cathrine Leewis, Susanne Liebner, Rachel Mackelprang, Tullis C. Onstott, Andreas Richter, Ursel M. E. Schutte, Henri M. P. Siljanen, Neslihan Tas, Ina Timling, Tatiana A. Vishnivetskaya, Mark P. Waldrop, Matthias Winkel

Faculty Publications

The physical and chemical changes that accompany permafrost thaw directly influence the microbial communities that mediate the decomposition of formerly frozen organic matter, leading to uncertainty in permafrost–climate feedbacks. Although changes to microbial metabolism and community structure are documented following thaw, the generality of post-thaw assembly patterns across permafrost soils of the world remains uncertain, limiting our ability to predict biogeochemistry and microbial community responses to climate change. Based on our review of the Arctic microbiome, permafrost microbiology, and community ecology, we propose that Assembly Theory provides a framework to better understand thaw-mediated microbiome changes and the implications for community …

Ocean-Atmosphere Variability In The Northwest Atlantic Ocean During Active Marine Heatwave Years, Lydia D. Sims, Bulusu Subrahmanyam, Corinne B. Trott

Faculty Publications

The Northwest (NW) Atlantic has experienced extreme ecological impacts from Marine Heatwaves (MHWs) within the past decade. This paper focuses on four MHW active years (2012, 2016, 2017, and 2020) and the relationship between Sea Surface Temperature anomalies (SSTA), Sea Surface Salinity anomalies (SSSA), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Geopotential Height anomalies (ZA), and anomalous Jet Stream positions (JSPA). Multichannel singular spectrum analysis (MSSA) reveals the strongest temporal covariances between SSSA and SSTA, and JSPA and SSTA for all years, particularly for 2020 (SSSA–SSTA: 50%, JSPA–SSTA: 51%) indicating that this active MHW year was more atmospherically driven, followed by 2012, which …

Soil Volatile Organic Compound Emissions In Response To Soil Warming And Nitrogen Deposition, A. L. Romero-Olivares, C. L. Davie-Martin, M. Kramshoj, R. Rinnan, Serita D. Frey

Faculty Publications

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play crucial roles in ecosystems at multiple scales, ranging from mediating soil microbial interactions to contributing to atmospheric chemistry. However, soil VOCs and how they respond to environmental change remains understudied. We aimed to assess how 2 abiotic global change drivers, soil warming and simulated nitrogen (N) deposition, impact soil VOC emissions over time in a temperate forest. We characterized the effect of warming, N deposition, and their interaction on the composition and emissions of soil VOCs during the growing season of 2 consecutive years. We found that chronic warming and N deposition enhanced total …

Controls On Buffering And Coastal Acidification In A Temperate Estuary, Christopher W. Hunt, Joseph Salisbury, Douglas Vandemark

Faculty Publications

Estuaries may be uniquely susceptible to the combined acidification pressures of atmospherically driven ocean acidification (OA), biologically driven CO2 inputs from the estuary itself, and terrestrially derived freshwater inputs. This study utilized continuous measurements of total alkalinity (TA) and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) from the mouth of Great Bay, a temperate northeastern U.S. estuary, to examine the potential influences of endmember mixing and biogeochemical transformation upon estuary buffering capacity (β–H). Observations were collected hourly over 28 months representing all seasons between May 2016 and December 2019. Results indicated that endmember mixing explained most of the observed variability …

Flood Depth Estimation During Hurricane Harvey Using Sentinel-1 And Uavsar Data, Sananda Kundu, Venkat Lakshmi, Raymond Torres

Faculty Publications

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey was one of the most destructive storms to make landfall in the Houston area, causing loss of life and property. Temporal and spatial changes in the depth of floodwater and the extent of inundation form an essential part of flood studies. This work estimates the flood extent and depth from LiDAR DEM (light detection and ranging digital elevation model) using data from the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)–Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) and satellite sensor—Sentinel-1. The flood extent showed a decrease between 29–30 August and 5 September 2017. The flood depths estimated using the …

Fast-Decaying Plant Litter Enhances Soil Carbon In Temperate Forests But Not Through Microbial Physiological Traits, Matthew E. Craig, Kevin M. Geyer, Katilyn V. Beidler, Edward R. Brzostek, Serita D. Frey, A. Stuart Grandy, Chao Liang, Richard P. Phillips

Faculty Publications

Conceptual and empirical advances in soil biogeochemistry have challenged long-held assumptions about the role of soil micro-organisms in soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics; yet, rigorous tests of emerging concepts remain sparse. Recent hypotheses suggest that microbial necromass production links plant inputs to SOC accumulation, with high-quality (i.e., rapidly decomposing) plant litter promoting microbial carbon use efficiency, growth, and turnover leading to more mineral stabilization of necromass. We test this hypothesis experimentally and with observations across six eastern US forests, using stable isotopes to measure microbial traits and SOC dynamics. Here we show, in both studies, that microbial growth, efficiency, and …

Initial Soil Conditions Outweigh Management In A Cool-Season Dairy Farm's Carbon Sequestration Potential, Kyle A. Arndt, Eleanor E. Campbell, Chris D. Dorich, A. Stuart Grandy, Timothy S. Griffin, Peter Ingraham, Apryl L. Perry, Ruth K. Varner, Alexandra R. Contosta

Faculty Publications

Pastures and rangelands are a dominant portion of global agricultural land and have the potential to sequester carbon (C) in soils, mitigating climate change. Management intensive grazing (MIG), or high density grazing with rotations through paddocks with long rest periods, has been highlighted as a method of enhancing soil C in pastures by increasing forage production. However, few studies have examined the soil C storage potential of pastures under MIG in the northeastern United States, where the dairy industry comprises a large portion of agricultural use and the regional agricultural economy. Here we present a 12-year study conducted in this …

Microbial Feedbacks On Soil Organic Matter Dynamics Underlying The Legacy Effect Of Diversified Cropping Systems, Maria Mooshammer, A. Stuart Grandy, Francisco Calderon, Steve Culman, Bill Deen, Rhae A. Drijber, Kari Dunfield, Virginia L. Jin, R. Michael Lehman, Shannon L. Osborne, Marty Schmer, Timothy M. Bowles

Faculty Publications

Crop rotations have well-known aboveground and belowground benefits. At regional to continental scales, the unifying mechanisms of how diversified rotations alter soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics have not been demonstrated. We assessed how increasing crop rotational diversity across a soil-climate gradient affected the integrated response of SOM chemistry, microbial community composition, and its enzymatic potential to degrade SOM. Agroecosystems with the same crop rotational diversity (all sampled during the corn phase) shared similarities in molecular SOM patterns with a strong microbial signature, pointing to common transformation processes. Differences in SOM chemistry between rotations were mainly characterized by shifts in microbial …

Dominance Of Diffusive Methane Emissions From Lowland Headwater Streams Promotes Oxidation And Isotopic Enrichment, Andrew L. Robison, Wilfred M. Wollheim, Clarice R. Perryman, Annie R. Cotter, Jessica E. Mackay, Ruth K. Varner, Paige Clarizia, Jessica G. Ernakovich

Faculty Publications

Inland waters are the largest natural source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere, yet the contribution from small streams to this flux is not clearly defined. To fully understand CH4 emissions from streams and rivers, we must consider the relative importance of CH4 emission pathways, the prominence of microbially-mediated production and oxidation of CH4, and the isotopic signature of emitted CH4. Here, we construct a complete CH4 emission budgets for four lowland headwater streams by quantifying diffusive CH4 emissions and comparing them to previously published rates of ebullitive emissions. We also examine the isotopic composition of CH4 along with the …

Future Of Winter In Northeastern North America: Climate Indicators Portray Warming And Snow Loss That Will Impact Ecosystems And Communities, Elizabeth Burakowski, Alix Contosta, Danielle Grogan, Sarah Nelson, Sarah Garlick, Nora Casson

Faculty Publications

Winters in northeastern North America have warmed faster than summers, with impacts on ecosystems and society. Global climate models (GCMs) indicate that winters will continue to warm and lose snow in the future, but uncertainty remains regarding the magnitude of warming. Here, we project future trends in winter indicators under lower and higher climate-warming scenarios based on emission levels across northeastern North America at a fine spatial scale (1/16°) relevant to climate-related decision making. Under both climate scenarios, winters continue to warm with coincident increases in days above freezing, decreases in days with snow cover, and fewer nights below freezing. …

Crop Rotational Complexity Affects Plant-Soil Nitrogen Cycling During Water Deficit, Timothy M. Bowles, Andrea Jilling, Karen Moran-Rivera, Jorg Schnecker, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

One of the biggest environmental challenges facing agriculture is how to both supply and retain nitrogen (N), especially as precipitation becomes more variable with climate change. We used a greenhouse experiment to assess how contrasting histories of crop rotational complexity affect plant-soil-microbe interactions that govern N processes, including during water stress. With higher levels of carbon and N cycling hydrolytic enzymes, higher mineral-associated organic matter N concentrations, and an altered microbial community, soils from the most complex rotation enabled 80% more corn N uptake under two moisture regimes, compared to soil from monoculture corn. Higher levels of plant N likely …