The soil microbiome drives nutrient transformation in forest soils and plays a critical role in the carbon (C) cycle of these ecosystems. Wildfires cause significant disturbance to ecosystems and are known to alter C sources available to microbes in forest soils. Summer wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are of growing...
In this project I explore waste as a resource and demonstrate how it can be useful to reclaim for art because of its abundance and accessibility. I constructed 3 art pieces from waste products to demonstrate this concept. The gallery is called My Mosaics and it is a greater expression...
Increased globalization has greatly increased the ability for species to travel outside of their native range and reach all parts of the world. While most species do not have an impact in new habitats, a small percentage are able to establish a new population and spread, causing ecological damage and...
Soils, with their potential to store and stabilize carbon (C), are an essential resource for sustaining forest productivity, as well as for efforts to reduce atmospheric C concentrations. Protecting existing soil C and harnessing the sequestration potential of our soils require an improved understanding of the processes through which soil...
Soil is the largest terrestrial store of carbon (C) making it a critical component of the global C cycle. To model global carbon budgets more accurately we need to understand dynamics and turnover of the many different functional soil C pools that exist in soil. Many different methods are used...
Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) originates from organic matter. Climate and vegetation have been found to alter DOC production. The goal of this study was to determine where the differences in DOC production originate from. Mineral soil and substrate including maple leaves, needles, old wood, and sticks were collected from the...
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) flux is an important mechanism to convey soil carbon (C) from aboveground organic debris (litter) to deeper soil horizons and can influence the formation of stable soil organic carbon (SOC) compounds. Aboveground litter quantity and quality was manipulated for 20-years in an old-growth Douglas fir forest...
Soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a small but crucial part of the forest carbon cycle. Characterizing the relationship between detrital inputs and soil DOC chemistry is crucial to understanding the ultimate fate of root carbon, fallen wood and needles. Chemical differences in the DOC pool may help to explain...
How water moves through soils is of importance to studies of stream hydrology and biogeochemistry. Although translatory flow, which states how soil water is displaced by additional precipitation into streams, is a widely accepted model, Brooks et al. (2010) found evidence that challenged this model. They suggested that there are...
Emissions largely associated with the combustion of fossil fuels and agriculture has caused elevated atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) throughout much of the developed world. Increased atmospheric deposition of N and S can lead to soil and surface water acidification and affect forest soil nutrient supply. The...
:
________________________________________________________________________
Kate J. Lajtha
Emissions largely associated with the combustion of fossil fuels and