DISSERTATION RESEARCH: EXPERIMENTAL WARMING EFFECTS ON LABILE AND RECALCITRANT SOIL ORGANIC MATTER DECOMPOSITION IN A SOUTHERN BOREAL FOREST ECOSYSTEM

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation improvement project will study how climate warming affects the movement of carbon dioxide from soils in boreal forests to the atmosphere. In particular, it will test whether warming affects the decomposition of decay resistant organic matter more than that of easily decomposed organic matter. This work will provide a more complete understanding of the processes by which organic carbon is sequestered in or released from boreal forest soils. Increased movement of carbon dioxide from terrestrial soils to the atmosphere in response to climate warming represents a potentially important feedback to climate change. Understanding the fate of soil carbon and how it is affected by warming temperatures is important for improving models of greenhouse gas inputs to the atmosphere.