[Enviro-lunch] Enviro-Lunch (4/4): Dr. Hannah Naughton from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab on soil redox processes

[Kyungjin Min]

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Hello all,



Next Monday (4/4) Dr. Hannah Naughton from Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory will present redox processes in soils. Please join us between
12-1 pm (pacific) via zoom.



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





*Title:* Determining landscape drivers of redox anomalies in upland and
floodplain soils



*Abstract*: Soils vary vastly in architecture and chemical composition at
the landscape scale (km) and microscale (cm), resulting in variable
responses to hydrologic events.  Within aerobic upland soils, high organic
matter and limited oxygen diffusion result in local anoxia ranging in
spatial scale from microns to centimeters.  These redox anomalies can
heavily skew predictions of carbon and greenhouse gas cycling made based on
bulk soil information.  I will explain how soil structure-imposed redox
gradients control soil carbon quality and potential for preservation in
upland soils using laboratory soil reactors and then highlight similar
findings in a series of hydrologically unique sites along a subalpine
floodplain.  Because soil structure occurs over small scales relative to
those at which ecosystem processes like carbon and nitrogen fluxes are
modeled, I will explain how these and other biogeochemical patterns
resulting from structured soil may be underrepresented in landscape models.
Finally, I will introduce an experimental design testing whether remotely
sensible landscape features can proxy for soil structure and thus help
predict soil redox heterogeneity and function.  Here I discuss my ongoing
research at a hillslope meadow in the East River valley in Colorado testing
for the presence of anaerobic microsites associated with plant roots and
topographic position – two factors known to affect soil architecture and
wetness, which both control soil redox heterogeneity.  This work seeks to
illuminate new drivers of redox anomaly hot spots in soils with the
ultimate goal of tying remotely sensible features of plant community and
topography to soil redox heterogeneities for improving carbon stock and
cycling predictions.


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*Bio: *Hannah is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow working in the Climate
and Ecosystem Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
under Dr. Eoin Brodie.  Her expertise is in soil biogeochemistry with a
focus on microbial carbon processing.  She studies how the physical
heterogeneity of soil environments affects local chemistry and ability of
microorganisms to decompose and respire organic carbon, thus linking the
terrestrial and atmospheric carbon cycles.  Hannah’s ultimate goal is to
improve predictions of microbial carbon processing from spatially and
temporally short timescales using field and laboratory work to landscape
scales using machine learning and remote sensing.

Hannah received a Ph.D. in Earth System Science from Stanford University in
2020 after completing an M.S. degree in Conservation Ecology from the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2014 with a focus on biodiversity and
ecosystem function.  Her alma mater is the College of William & Mary, where
she received a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology in 2012.  She has
assistant-taught inorganic, physical and organic chemistry in addition to
soil science courses and has mentored teachers, high school and
undergraduate students in both research and professional development
contexts.  Outside of lab, she enjoys playing the piano, climbing and
walking through nature.





Sincerely,

co-host: KJ Min & Manisha Dolui

Faculty coordinator: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

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Spring 2022 Enviro-Lunch Schedule

*date*

*speaker*

*title*

*1/31*

Mariela Garcia Arrendondo
@ Umass-Amherst

Root-mediated weathering

*2/7*

Michael Philben
@ Hope College

Rethinking carbon and nitrogen isotope fractionation during soil organic
matter decomposition

*2/14*

Alyssa Griffin*
@ UC Davis

The role of coastal marine sediments in carbon cycling from local to global
scales

*2/21*

Presidents’ day



*2/28*

Katherine Heckman
@ USDA

Density fractionation and soil carbon stabilization

*3/7*

Bhavna Arora
@ LBNL

Reactive transport modeling

*3/14*

Darian Smercina
@ PNNL

Free N fixing under switchgrass (Linking microbial scale processes to
ecosystem function)

*3/21*

spring break



*3/28*

Meng Zhao
@ Stanford U

Plant-water relationship (evapotranspiration) modeling

*4/4*

Hannah Naughton
@ LBNL

Root vs. topographic generation of redox anomalies on a subalpine hillslope
and floodplain

*4/11*

Michael Rowley
@ LBNL

Ca-mediated soil organic carbon stabilization

*4/18*

Weiyu Li*
@ Stanford U

Data-driven hydraulic modeling

*4/25*

Daniel Zuleta

@ Smithsonian Institute

Tree mortality in tropical ecosystems

*5/2*

Genevieve Noyce
@ Smithsonian Institute

Greenhouse gas emissions from wetland with climate change
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