[Enviro-lunch] next Monday 12/06: Dr. E. Carol Adair at the University of Vermont on decomposition and soil carbon

[Toshiyuki Bandai]

Hello all,

Next Monday 12/06, we have the last speaker for the semester, Dr. E. Carol Adair at the University of Vermont, who will present about decomposition and soil carbon. The talk will be given in person in SRE 407 room from 12 pm. Zoom link is also available from 12 pm (PST). Please join us!

Zoom link: https://ucmerced.zoom.us/j/175736103

Title: Connecting litter and decomposition to soil carbon

Abstract: Here, I will give an overview of my past and current work on decomposition and soil carbon. Paradigms have changed a lot during this time and my work reflects those changes, answering but largely generating new questions about how plant litter, decomposition, and soil carbon are connected. While the historical perspective of decomposition generates models that predict decomposition (and often soil carbon) fairly accurately, they fail to predict relationships among plant litter production and soil organic carbon. This suggests that we lack a robust conceptual model for what happens during decomposition and how it contributes to soil carbon storage. My current work with the Berhe Lab aims to develop such a model, using 13C-NMR, FTIR and stable isotopes to characterize the composition of leaf and root litter as it decomposes over 10 years at sites in from the arctic to the tropics.

Bio: Carol is a quantitative biogeochemist and ecosystem ecologist and is currently an associate professor at the University of Vermont, a Gund Fellow, and the Director of the Aiken Forestry Sciences Lab. She received her PhD in 2005 from Colorado State Univeristy and spent time as a postdoc at the University of Minnesota and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara. Using a combination of quantitative and experimental methods, her lab focuses on how humans alter ecosystems, whether these alterations will feed back to further impact global change, and what this means for humans. Because human impacts on ecosystems are widespread and diverse, the lab works in a variety of environments including grasslands, forests, and agriculture. Current research projects in the lab focus on the molecular composition of decomposing plant litter, nutrient transport and loss during warming winters, greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural lands, and drivers of soil carbon storage across scales in forested and agricultural lands.

More info: https://adairlab.weebly.com/

Sincerely,

co-host: KJ Min, Manisha Dolui, Toshiyuki Bandai, Jennifer Alvarez

faculty coordinator: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe
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