Modeling Carbon Cycling in Subtropical Wetland Watersheds

Funded by the US Department of Energy-Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Program

Using a hydrologic gradient of landforms in the Greater Everglades watershed, we are using a series of eddy covariance towers, closed chambers, ground penetrating radar, and in-situ monitoring studies to evaluate the climate-driven response of low-latitude wetland carbon cycling to develop and parameterize Earth System Model elements for the inclusion of these watersheds.

Fire and Carbon Cycling in the Everglades

Fire is an important ecological force in the Everglades wetlands; however, little is known of the controls on ecosystem vulnerability and response to shifting environmental conditions. Working with USGS scientists and local land management agencies, we are assessing controls on organic soil combustion and emissions, historic and future fire behavior, and the recovery of vegetation following fire to better understand its role in the restoration and conservation of the Everglades.

Smouldering combustion of the moist, dense organic peat soils found in boreal peatlands during wildfires has the potential to release large quantities of carbon to the atmosphere. In particular, it can release fine particulate matter and “black” carbon that can increase atmospheric warming as well as health and safety risks to local human populations. Working with researchers at the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station Fire Sciences Laboratory, Michigan Tech, University of Minnesota, University of Idaho, Rochester Institute of Technology, and land managers at USFWS Seney National Wildlife Refuge, we are using prescribed fires and controlled combustion tests to measure the amount and type of fire radiative energy and carbon emissions from smouldering peat fuels in response to fuel moisture.

Land managers need reliable targets for evaluating ecosystem health and the effectiveness of management practices. Working with staff at the A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, we are using experimental treatments and establishing reference monitoring points for tracking habitat change in response to fire and treatment of the invasive plant Melaleuca quinquenervia across the Refuge.