Research

Task 1

Whole-Soil Experiments and Biogeochemistry

Develop a longterm whole-soil warming experiment in a temperate forest. This setup will be used by both U.S. and international scientists.
Explore and explain, quantitatively, the effect of warming on microbial decomposition, CO2 production, and the physico-chemical state of soil organic carbon (SOC) over multiple seasons and years.
Understand the processes that affect the vulnerability of surface soils, and how it might differ from that of deep soil organic matter.

Microbial Responses and Feedbacks

Using genomes, understand more deeply how environment—temperature, moisture, substrate properties, and mineral interactions—shapes microbial trait distributions and biogeochemical cycling.
Analyze through experimental observation how microbial communities respond to perturbation, and how that impacts longterm carbon storage.
Develop and document computational workflow to derive quantitative microbial traits from metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs). We will offer these to the public.

Organic Geochemical Controls on Soil Organic Matter Cycling

Characterize in detail how soil organic carbon functional groups and compounds vary with depth. Examine how they respond to vulnerability.
Evaluate the impact of metal complexation on carbon decomposition: how it performs as a stabilization mechanism, and affects formation of mineral-organic associations (MOA).
Synthesize how multiple temperature-dependent abiotic processes combine to drive the temperature dependence of substrate availability.

Soil Biogeochemistry and Carbon Cycle Modeling

Develop a coupled plant-soil-climate model that incorporates microbial and mineral processes.
Investigate how climate change will affect carbon balances for soil and total ecosystem. Include microbial, mineral-surface and nitrogen interactions, which currently are not represented in IPCC models.
Produce strategies for better understanding and modeling ecosystem responses to perturbations across time scales.
As models and strategies are developed, we will offer them to the public, including training and scenario projections.