BE/CBC: Land-Water Interaction at the Catchment Scale: Linking Biogeochemistry and Hydrology

The project will involve an interdisciplinary study at the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research site that will use existing, state-of-the-art models of hydrology and biogeochemistry, and improve them with field studies of critical processes of plant production, microbial decomposition, and production rates of dissolved substances in soil water. The models will be eventually linked to determine how soil moisture, spatial connectivity, and the timing of meteorological drivers impact carbon-nitrogen cycling and catchment export. Dr. Stieglitz, and co-PIs, Drs. Griffin (Columbia), Hobbie (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole), Kling (Michigan), and Schimel (UCSB), will analyze C-N cycling at the catchment scale to answer questions related to element coupling, impact of strength and synchronicity of external forcing, and impacts of spatial heterogeneity of vegetation and hydrological connectivity. The PIs expect this research to advance understanding of land-use changes and eutrophication of coastlines, climate change and altered ecosystem function, and global processes such as sea-ice and deep water formation in the Arctic ocean.

This project is supported by the Biocomplexity in the Environment: Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles research program.