Responses of plant and microbial respiration sources to changing cold season climate drivers in the East River watershed

Responses of plant and microbial respiration

respiration

The process whereby living organisms consume CO², convert it to energy, and release it as O².

Source: EPA Environmental Protection Agency Source

sources to changing cold season climate drivers in the East River watershed

watershed

An area of land that channels rainfall and snowmelt to creeks, streams, and rivers, and eventually flows to the lowest point in a basin.

Source: USGS Source

Principal Investigator:  Dr. Mariah S. Carbone

Winter is changing in the western US mountains. There is less snowfall, snow is melting earlier in the spring, and the warm summers are becoming longer. These changes in winter and water availability impact forests. Belowground in the forest soil, microorganisms break down organic matter, releasing carbon dioxide (CO2),

carbon dioxide (CO2)

An important heat-trapping gas, also known as a greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), from wildfires, and natural processes like volcanic eruptions.

Source: NASA Source

an important greenhouse gas that is warming Earth. Plant roots produce CO2 also, via their metabolism.  Our research seeks to understand how changes in winter snowpack influence the amount of CO2 produced in soils in the East River watershed, near Crested Butte, Colorado. We will quantify the production of CO2 by microorganisms and plant roots across different elevations and seasons.  We will work in the two main forest types of the region, evergreen spruce/fir and deciduous aspen, applying unique experimental measurements. We will make use of existing long-term measurements to understand how past changes in snow amount and duration of cover have affected soil CO2. Information gathered from our experimental work and data analyses will be used to improve predictions of soil CO2 produced in the future using models. Our proposed work is motivated by the hypothesis that changing winter snow amounts will impact how microorganisms and roots function separately, and thus understanding these influences is necessary to predict how the ecosystems

ecosystem

A natural community of plants, animals, and other living organisms and the physical environment in which they live and interact.

Source: A student's guide to Global Climate Change Source

will respond to future climate.