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At least 955 records · Page 53
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Effects of warming on bacterial growth rates in a peat soil under ambient and elevated CO 2

Boreal peatlands are important global carbon reservoirs that are particularly vulnerable to predicted climate changes such as increasing CO 2 and temperature. Since microbial activities regulate the balance of carbon sequestered into soil organic matter or remineralized to CO 2 , characterizing their response to these environmental factors is critical to predicting how peatland ecosystems will affect climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. Here we examined in-situ taxon-specific variation in microbial growth under long-term elevated CO 2 and across a gradient of warming treatments in a northern Minnesota peat bog using quantitative stable isotope probing with 18 O-water. Across temperatures, bacterial taxa were grouped according to the excess atom fraction 18 O (EAF) of their genomes, a proxy for DNA replication and hence, growth. Taxon-specific growth across CO 2 and temperature treatments clustered into relatively few response patterns. While a large portion of taxa showed little to no growth under ambient CO 2 , many of the same taxa grew rapidly under elevated CO 2 . We found support for phylogenetic conservation of response patterns among Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria, the two most abundant phyla in our data. Our results suggest certain taxa may be primed for new climate conditions and have a greater influence on carbon cycling with implications for future climate mitigation strategies.

16S amplicon sequencing, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), pea↗
DOE OSTI2024

Integrated Effects of Site Hydrology and Vegetation on Exchange Fluxes and Nutrient Cycling at a Coastal Terrestrial‐Aquatic Interface

Abstract The complex interactions among soil, vegetation, and site hydrologic conditions driven by precipitation and tidal cycles control the biogeochemical transformations and bi‐directional exchange of carbon and nutrients across the terrestrial–aquatic interfaces (TAIs) in coastal regions. This study uses a highly mechanistic model, Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS)‐PFLOTRAN, to explore how these interactions affect exchanges of materials and carbon and nitrogen cycling. We used a transect in the Chesapeake Bay region that spans zones of open water, coastal wetland, transition, and upland forest. We designed several simulation scenarios to parse the effects of the individual controlling factors and the sensitivity of carbon cycling to reaction rate parameters derived from laboratory experiments. Our simulations reveal an active zone for carbon cycling under the transition zones between the wetland and the upland. Evapotranspiration is found to enhance the exchange fluxes between the surface and subsurface domains, resulting in a higher dissolved oxygen concentration in the TAIs. The transport of organic carbon derived from plant leaves and roots provide an additional source of organic carbon needed for the aerobic respiration and denitrification processes in the TAIs. The variability in reaction rate parameters associated with microbial activities is also found to play a dominant role in controlling the heterogeneity and dynamics of the simulated redox conditions. This modeling‐focused exploratory study enabled us to better understand the complex interactions among soil, water and microbes that govern the hydro‐biogeochemical processes at the TAIs, which is an important step toward representing coastal ecosystems in larger‐scale Earth system models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Climate change will reduce North American inland wetland areas and disrupt their seasonal regimes

Abstract Climate change can alter wetland extent and function, but such impacts are perplexing. Here, changes in wetland characteristics over North America from 25° to 53° North are projected under two climate scenarios using a state-of-the-science Earth system model. At the continental scale, annual wetland area decreases by ~10% (6%-14%) under the high emission scenario, but spatiotemporal changes vary, reaching up to ±50%. As the dominant driver of these changes shifts from precipitation to temperature in the higher emission scenario, wetlands undergo substantial drying during summer season when biotic processes peak. The projected disruptions to wetland seasonality cycles imply further impacts on biodiversity in major wetland habitats of upper Mississippi, Southeast Canada, and the Everglades. Furthermore, wetlands are projected to significantly shrink in cold regions due to the increased infiltration as warmer temperature reduces soil ice. The large dependence of the projections on climate change scenarios underscores the importance of emission mitigation to sustaining wetland ecosystems in the future.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Responses of soil organic carbon to climate extremes under warming across global biomes

The impact of more extreme climate conditions under global warming on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics remains unquantified. Here, in this study, we estimate the response of SOC to climate extreme shifts under 1.5 °C warming by combining a space-for-time substitution approach and global SOC measurements (0–30 cm soil). Most extremes (22 out of 33 assessed extreme types) exacerbate SOC loss under warming globally, but their effects vary among ecosystems. Only decreasing duration of cold spells exerts consistent positive effects, and increasing extreme wet days exerts negative effects in all ecosystems. Temperate grasslands and croplands negatively respond to most extremes, while positive responses are dominant in temperate and boreal forests and deserts. In tundra, 21 extremes show neutral effects, but 11 extremes show negative effects with stronger magnitude than in other ecosystems. Our results reveal distinct, biome-specific effects of climate extremes on SOC dynamics, promoting more reliable SOC projection under climate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Synergies and trade-offs of multi-use solar landscapes

Research on multi-use solar-combining solar energy with agriculture (agrivoltaics) or natural vegetation (ecovoltaics)-is developing rapidly, but interdisciplinary integration is needed to better address management issues and to guide future research. Agrivoltaics allows farmers to develop and manage microclimates, which can help to retain or expand agricultural production in the context of changing climate and land-water limitations. However, improvements in food-energy production and other co-benefits are often site-specific, depending on background climate, soil conditions and system design. In conclusion, to optimize multi-use systems, it is essential to consider local economic impacts, ecosystem services and stakeholder perspectives in design and implementation.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Bacterial population-level trade-offs between drought tolerance and resource acquisition traits impact decomposition

Microbes drive fundamental ecosystem processes, such as decomposition. Environmental stressors are known to affect microbes, their fitness, and the ecosystem functions that they perform; yet, understanding the causal mechanisms behind this influence has been difficult. We used leaf litter on soil surface as a model in situ system to assess changes in bacterial genomic traits and decomposition rates for 18 months with drought as a stressor. We hypothesized that genome-scale trade-offs due to investment in stress tolerance traits under drought reduce the capacity for bacterial populations to carry out decomposition, and that these population-level trade-offs scale up to impact emergent community traits, thereby reducing decomposition rates. We observed drought tolerance mechanisms that were heightened in bacterial populations under drought, identified as higher gene copy numbers in metagenome-assembled genomes. A subset of populations under drought had reduced carbohydrate-active enzyme genes that suggested—as a trade-off—a decline in decomposition capabilities. These trade-offs were driven by community succession and taxonomic shifts as distinct patterns appeared in populations. We show that trait–trade-offs in bacterial populations under drought could scale up to reduce overall decomposition capabilities and litter decay rates. Using a trait-based approach to assess the population ecology of soil bacteria, we demonstrate genome-level trade-offs in response to drought with consequences for decomposition rates.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Experimental testing of hypotheses for temperature‐ and pH ‐based niche specialization of ammonia oxidizing archaea and bacteria

Summary Investigation of niche specialization in microbial communities is important in assessing consequences of environmental change for ecosystem processes. Ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) present a convenient model for studying niche specialization. They coexist in most soils and effects of soil characteristics on their relative abundances have been studied extensively. This study integrated published information on the influence of temperature and pH on AOB and AOA into several hypotheses, generating predictions that were tested in soil microcosms. The influence of perturbations in temperature was determined in pH 4.5, 6 and 7.5 soils and perturbations in pH were investigated at 15°C, 25°C and 35°C. AO activities were determined by analysing changes in amoA gene and transcript abundances, stable isotope probing and nitrate production. Experimental data supported major predictions of the effects of temperature and pH, but with several significant discrepancies, some of which may have resulted from experimental limitations. The study also provided evidence for unpredicted activity of AOB in pH 4.5 soil. Other discrepancies highlighted important deficiencies in current knowledge, particularly lack of consideration of niche overlap and the need to consider combinations of factors when assessing the influence of environmental change on microbial communities and their activities.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Filling gaps in our understanding of belowground plant traits across the world: an introduction to a Virtual Issue

The belowground world is one of the final frontiers in terrestrial ecology. The tangling of plant roots with the surrounding soil below is a lifeline for the humble forbs and towering trees above, and roots play a key role in shaping ecosystem carbon, water and nutrient cycling (Bardgett et al., 2014). Ecologists have long sought to better understand the ecosystem-scale consequences of differing plant strategies, above- and belowground, by relating plant characteristics, or traits, to plant function (Grime, 1977; Pregitzer, 2002). While developing trait–function linkages is arguably more difficult for plant traits that are hidden belowground, root and rhizosphere ecologists continue to fan out across grasslands and forests with their shovels, isotopes, and specialized cameras, seeking a better understanding of the secret lives of roots. Over the years, New Phytologist has served as a virtual town square for scientists to discuss their hard-won observations on the interplay among belowground plant traits, microbial activity, and edaphic and environmental conditions from biomes around the world (Norby & Jackson, 2000; Pregitzer, 2002; Matamala & Stover, 2013; Norby & Iversen, 2017). In this Editorial we highlight the newest papers that update and add to our understanding of the role of root and rhizosphere traits in broader ecosystem processes. We focused on papers published in New Phytologist between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020 and extended this window to papers still in ‘early view’ up to the time of writing. Because of the overwhelming number of papers, we did not include those with a decidedly genomic focus or that served primarily as data syntheses, reviews, insights or commentaries.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Continuous snow depth and temperature measurements from dense network of above-ground distributed temperature profiling systems from 2021-09-23 to 2024-08-23, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

The dataset contains temperature measurements from distributed temperature profiling (DTP) systems (Dafflon et al., 2022; Wielandt et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2024a; Fiolleau et al., 2024) deployed vertically above the ground surface at a large number of locations from 2021 to 2024. The research is designed to improve understanding of the local heterogeneity in snow depth and snow thermal insulation dynamics, as well as their interactions in a discontinuous permafrost region (Wang et al., 2025). The DTP systems were deployed at 96 locations in a watershed along the Nome-Teller road at mile marker 27 (T27) and at 54 locations on a hillslope along the Kougarok road at mile marker 64 (K64) in the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The probe location information is stored in Probe_locations_T27.csv and Probe_locations_K64.csv. Temperature measurements were recorded at 15-minute intervals using high-precision digital sensors (accuracy: ±0.1°C, resolution: 0.0078°C). The temperature probes, either 1.4 m or 1.6 m long, contain sensors spaced every 5 cm or 10 cm along their length. The temperature data are stored in compressed files following the format: DTP_snow_air_temperature_(site)_(start)_(end).zip, where site is either T27 or K64, and start and end represent the time series period. Within each ZIP file, individual CSV files are named by probe ID and contain temperature records at different heights above the ground surface.This dataset also includes derived snow depth time series over three snow seasons, estimated from temperature measurements. Snow depth was estimated by identifying the consecutive sensor pair that exhibited the largest drop in high-frequency temperature fluctuations (detailed in the methods). These data are stored in: Snow_depths_flags_(site)_(start)_(end).csv, which includes snow depth time series and corresponding quality flags (defined in the methods) from different probes. Additionally, the dataset includes derived metrics and supporting measurements at selected locations over two snow seasons, contributing to the manuscript of Wang et al., 2025. These locations were chosen based on the availability of high-quality snow depth time series during both seasons. The additional data include: (1) Air temperature proxies measured from the top sensors on the pole when they were not buried by snow, stored in Air_temperature_proxies_(site)_(start)_(end).csv (2) Ground interface temperature, recorded at 3 cm above the ground, stored in Ground_interface_temperature_(site)_(start)_(end).csv (3) Site characteristics, including vegetation height, elevation, and the topographic position index (TPI) within a 50 m radius, stored in Selected_probe_locations_gps_vegheight_tpi_elevation_(site).csv. These metrics were derived from 1 m resolution summer LiDAR-based digital elevation models and digital surface models from Singhania et al., 2023, DOI:10.5440/1832016. Metadata files include data descriptions (_dd.csv) for tabular data. All included files are listed and described in xxxx_flmd.csv.This dataset is an updated version of a previous archive (Wang et al., 2024b, DOI: 10.15485/2475020), incorporating multiple seasons and improved snow depth estimation. Please note that due to large amount of information present in this dataset, many specificities associated with the acquisition of snow temperature, air temperature proxy and estimation of snow depth, and the future archiving of additional datasets on the soil temperature, thaw depth and soil characteristics at these locations, the author would welcome being contacted by people planning to use this dataset.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Methane dynamics described through vegetation-soil interactions in bald cypress and other bottomland hardwood forests

Past estimates of CH4 fluxes from forested swamps ranged from 10 to 106 mg C m-2 d-1 in temperate regions and 44 to144 mg C m-2 d-1 in subtropical and tropical regions. However, climate change could alter these rates in wetlands where efflux is predominantly controlled by water level, temperature, and plant composition. While the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley has experienced the largest loss of forested wetlands in the U.S, supporting 21 to 25 million acres of bottomland hardwoods before European settlement, an estimated 5 million acres remain. This landscapes remain under-studied from a CH4 flux perspective, particularly in determining woody vegetation contributions to landscape CH4 emissions. Our overarching objective are to (1) improve our understanding of the controls on CH4 fluxes in forested mineral soil wetlands, and (2) to better understand the effects of landscape position and forest composition on the CH4 fluxes between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. Our main goal is to elucidate the

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2008

Sensitivity of June Near-Surface Temperatures and Precipitation in the Eastern United States to Historical Land Cover Changes Since European Settlement

Land cover changes alter the near surface weather and climate. Changes in land surface properties such as albedo, roughness length, stomatal resistance, and leaf area index alter the surface energy balance, leading to differences in near surface temperatures. This study utilized a newly developed land cover data set for the eastern United States to examine the influence of historical land cover change on June temperatures and precipitation. The new data set contains representations of the land cover and associated biophysical parameters for 1650, 1850, 1920, and 1992, capturing the clearing of the forest and the expansion of agriculture over the eastern United States from 1650 to the early twentieth century and the subsequent forest regrowth. The data set also includes the inferred distribution of potentially water-saturated soils at each time slice for use in the sensitivity tests. The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System, equipped with the Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Feedback (LEAF-2) land surface parameterization, was used to simulate the weather of June 1996 using the 1992, 1920, 1850, and 1650 land cover representations. The results suggest that changes in surface roughness and stomatal resistance have caused present-day maximum and minimum temperatures in the eastern United States to warm by about 0.3 C and 0.4 C, respectively, when compared to values in 1650. In contrast, the maximum temperatures have remained about the same, while the minimums have cooled by about 0.1 C when compared to 1920. Little change in precipitation was found.

Strack, John E.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Ectomycorrhizal Plant-Fungal Co-invasions as Natural Experiments for Connecting Plant and Fungal Traits to Their Ecosystem Consequences

Introductions and invasions by fungi, especially pathogens and mycorrhizal fungi, are widespread and potentially highly consequential for native ecosystems, but may also offer opportunities for linking microbial traits to their ecosystem functions. In particular, treating ectomycorrhizal (EM) invasions, i.e., co-invasions by EM fungi and their EM host plants, as natural experiments may offer a powerful approach for testing how microbial traits influence ecosystem functions. Forests dominated by EM symbiosis have unique biogeochemistry whereby the secretions of EM plants and fungi affect carbon (C) and nutrient cycling; moreover, particular lineages of EM fungi have unique functional traits. EM invasions may therefore alter the biogeochemistry of the native ecosystems they invade, especially nitrogen (N) and C cycling. By identifying “response traits” that favor the success of fungi in introductions and invasions (e.g., spore dispersal and germination) and their correlations with “effect traits” (e.g., nutrient-cycling enzymes) that can alter N and C cycling (and affect other coupled elemental cycles), one may be able to predict the functional consequences for ecosystems of fungal invasions using biogeochemistry models that incorporate fungal traits. Here, we review what is already known about how EM fungal community composition, traits, and ecosystem functions differ between native and exotic populations, focusing on the example of EM fungi associated with species of Pinus introduced from the Northern into the Southern Hemisphere. We develop hypotheses on how effects of introduced and invasive EM fungi may depend on interactions between soil N availability in the exotic range and EM fungal traits. We discuss how such hypotheses could be tested by utilizing Pinus introductions and invasions as a model system, especially when combined with controlled laboratory experiments. Finally, we illustrate how ecosystem modeling can be used to link fungal traits to their consequences for ecosystem N and C cycling in the context of biological invasions, and we highlight exciting avenues for future directions in understanding EM invasion.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Shrub Seedling Experiment: Environmental Conditions, Vegetation Composition, and Seedling Recruitment, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 2018-2019

In June 2018, a manipulative seed-addition experiment was established at the Council Mile Marker 71 (CN_MM71), Quartz Creek Burn Area (Kougarok Mile Marker 86), and Quartz Creek Unburned (Kougarok Mile Marker 80) sites on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. At each site, 5 replicate blocks were established in disturbed and intact upland tussock tundra (a total of 40 plots). Disturbed plots at Council were located on thermo-erosional (thermokarst) slopes, while disturbed plots in Quartz Creek were in burned areas affected by the Mingvk Lake fire in 2015. Using a split-plot design, an additional manual disturbance treatment (scraping to remove the surface bryophyte layer) was implemented across all blocks in June 2018. Seeds of five erect, deciduous shrubs were broadcast seeded into each plot in June 2018, and seedlings were censused in August 2018 and August 2019. The dataset includes ancillary measurements of plot-level environmental conditions (soil temperature, moisture, chemistry, thaw depth, microtopography, substrate thickness) and vegetation composition (NDVI and estimated percent cover by species and plant functional type). Dataset contains 10 csv data files (five data files with corresponding data dictionaries and one file-level metadata file) and one pdf user guide. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska. Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

In Situ Non-Destructive Temporal Measurements of the Rhizosphere Microbiome ‘Hot-Spots’ Using Metaproteomics

Rhizosphere arguably embodies the most diverse microbial ecosystem on the planet, yet it is largely a functional ‘black box’ of belowground plant-microbiome interactions. The rhizosphere is the primary site of entry for subsurface injection of fixed carbon (C) into soil with impacts on local to global scale C biogeochemistry and ultimately Earth’s climate. While spatial organization of rhizosphere is central to its function, small scale and steep microbial and geochemical gradients within this dynamic region make it easily disrupted by sampling. The significant challenge presented by sampling blocks elucidation of discreet functions, drivers, and interactions within rhizosphere ecosystems. Here, we describe a non-destructive sampling method linked to metaproteomic analysis in order to measure temporal shifts in the microbial composition and function of rhizosphere. A robust, non-destructive method of sampling microbial hotspots within rhizosphere provides an unperturbed window into the elusive functional interactome of this system over time and space.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dynamics of Fungal and Bacterial Biomass Carbon in Natural Ecosystems: Site-level Applications of the CLM-Microbe Model

Explicitly representing microbial processes has been recognized as a key improvement to Earth system models for the realistic projections of soil carbon (C) and climate dynamics. The CLM-Microbe model builds upon the CLM4.5 and explicitly represents two major soil microbial groups, fungi and bacteria. Based on the compiled time-series data of fungal (FBC) and bacterial (BBC) biomass C from nine biomes, we parameterized and validated the CLM-Microbe model, and further conducted sensitivity analysis and uncertainty analysis for simulating C cycling. The model performance was evaluated with mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and coefficient of determination (R2) for relative change in FBC and BBC. The CLM-Microbe model is able to reasonably capture the seasonal dynamics of FBC and BBC across biomes, particularly for tropical/subtropical forest, temperate broadleaf forest, and grassland, with MAE < 0.49 for FBC and <0.36 for BBC and RMSE <0.52 FBC and <0.39 for BBC, while R2 values are relatively smaller in some biomes (e.g., shrub) due to small sample sizes. We found good consistencies between simulated and observed FBC (R 2 =0.70, P<0.001) and BBC (R 2 =0.26, P<0.05) on average across biomes, but the model is not able to fully capture the large variation in observed FBC and BBC. Sensitivity analysis shows the most critical parameters are turnover rate, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of fungi and bacteria, and microbial assimilation efficiency. This study confirms that the explicit representation of soil microbial mechanisms enhances model performance in simulating C variables such as heterotrophic respiration and soil organic C density. The further application of the CLM-Microbe model would deepen our understanding of microbial contributions to the global C cycle.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Continuous soil temperature measurements from 2019-10-4 to 2020-10-4, Teller road Mile 27, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

The dataset contains depth-resolved soil temperature measured at 45 discrete locations in a watershed located along the Nome-Teller road at Mile 27 in Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The dataset was generated to understand the local heterogeneity of soil thermal dynamics and their controls in a discontinuous permafrost region. At each location, temperatures were measured by a distributed temperature profiling probe designed based on Dafflon et al (2022). The dataset includes a description of the probe locations in the "Probe_locations.csv" file and the 45 data files (Soil_temperatures_*.csv). Metadata files include data descriptions (_dd.csv) for tabular data. All included files are listed and described in NGA513_flmd.csv.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Root traits reveal safety and efficiency differences in grasses and shrubs exposed to different fire regimes

Plant roots are important components of terrestrial ecosystems, but little is known about how root traits differ between plant species or vary across space in natural ecosystems. In this study, we investigated how root traits vary across grasses and woody shrubs in a tallgrass prairie located in Manhattan, KS, USA. Specifically, were interested in understanding how anatomical traits vary across these different plant groups, across different depths in the soil, and also across multiple areas of tallgrass prairie that are burned at different frequencies. We compared traits that allow roots to use soil water efficiently and those that help roots persist through extended periods of drought. We found that woody roots exhibited traits that allow them to use water efficiently in shallow soils but persist through drought in deeper soil. Here, these traits may allow shrubs to transport water from shallow soils to deeper soil after large rain events and resist extended periods without rain when soils become dry, which may allow woody plants to successfully compete for water in less frequently burned, more diverse plant communities. Grasses had traits that allow them to use water efficiently but also tolerate drought in shallow soils, regardless of fire treatment. This unique trait combination likely gives grasses a competitive advantage over other tallgrass prairie plants across different fire regimes. Together, these results show that anatomical root traits can be used to enhance mechanistic understanding of plant functioning in dynamic ecosystems.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗