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Flux Tower Study Group Website
| Name: Name: Dr. Tom Kolb |
Research Interests: Tree ecophysiology, forest ecology
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Research Description:
Tree ecophysiology focuses on understanding environmental controls on the distribution, abundance, and productivity of forest plants from a physiological perspective. We address a broad range of basic and applied research questions, such as: How does plant competition affect resource availability, tree stress, and resistance to insects? Why are some trees resistant to insect attacks? How does fire affect growth and resource availability to trees? How do restoration thinning and other silvicultural treatments affect tree growth and water use? How does climate change affect tree growth? What factors lead to degradation of forests? Dr. Kolb and colleagues address these questions using a combination of field, greenhouse, and laboratory studies.
Facilities: Dr. Kolb's lab includes modern equipment for measuring photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, water stress, leaf area, tree growth, tissue- and soil-nutrient levels, light quantity and quality, and site environment. Dr. Kolb and colleagues are currently managing three eddy flux tower sites (on unmanaged, restored and wildfire-burned ponderosa pine sites) on the Centennial Forest in northern Arizona. |
Facilities:
Dr. Kolb's lab and associated labs in the School of Forestry
include modern equipment for measuring photosynthesis, respiration,
transpiration, water stress, leaf area, tree growth, tissue- and soil-nutrient
levels, light quantity and quality, and site environment characterisitcs. Dr.
Kolb and colleagues are currently managing three eddy flux tower sites (on
unmanaged, restored and wildfire-burned ponderosa pine sites) on the
Centennial Forest and Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona. |
How Research Complements NEON:
Current research by Dr. Kolb and colleagues provide "sites of opportunity" associated with the proposed Core site at Beaver Creek to investigate impacts of ecosystem disturbances and forest management activities on carbon and water fluxes and energy balance in forests dominated by ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), the most widely distributed pine in western North America. Understanding and forecasting fluxes of carbon and water is a major goal of NEON's Integrative Research Program. The proposed core wildland site at Beaver Creek would enhance NEON's role in expanding the present Ameriflux network of tower sites in order to improve representation of the Colorado Plateau. |
| Name: Dr. Stephen Hart |
Research Interests: Ecosystem Ecology, Forest Soils, Global Climatic Change, Microbial Ecology, Restoration Ecology, Riparian Ecology |
Research Description:
Ecosystem Ecology is a sub-discipline of ecology that uses ecosystems as the observational unit, and attempts to understand the biotic and abiotic factors that regulate ecosystem structure and function. Our laboratory group focuses on both basic and applied ecosystem research primarily in forests of the western U.S. Current projects include assessing: the influence of the genetics of a dominant plant on ecosystem processes; the efficacy of using the natural abundance of 15N in the microbial biomass as an integrator of N cycling processes; the role of nitrate in the internal nitrogen cycle of forests; the effects of forest restoration treatments (e.g., thinning or prescribed fire) and wildfire on soil microbial communities, belowground processes, and ecosystem carbon pools; the impact of climatic change on soil-plant-atmosphere interactions; the biotic and geochemical controls on ecosystem development along a three million year soil chronosequence; how insect herbivory alters ecosystem processes; the utility of insect communities as indicators of forest ecosystem health
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Facilities:
Dr. Hart and colleagues are currently managing three eddy flux tower sites (on unmanaged, restored and wildfire-burned ponderosa pine sites) on the Centennial Forest in northern Arizona.
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How Research Complements NEON:
Current research by Dr. Hart and colleagues provide "sites of opportunity" associated with the proposed Core site at Beaver Creek to investigate impacts of ecosystem disturbances and forest management activities on carbon and water fluxes and energy balance in forests dominated by ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), the most widely distributed pine in western North America. Understanding and forecasting fluxes of carbon and water is a major goal of NEON's Integrative Research Program. The proposed core wildland site at Beaver Creek would enhance NEON's role in expanding the present Ameriflux network of tower sites in order to improve representation of the Colorado Plateau.
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| Name: Dr. George Koch |
Research Interests: Plant ecophysiology |
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| Name: Dr. Bruce Hungate |
Research Interests: Biogeochemistry, Global Change Biology, Ecosystem Ecology, General Ecology |
Research Description:
Research Dr. Hungate’s group focuses on ecosystem processes, especially carbon, water, and nutrient cycling. I study biogeochemical responses to global changes, such as rising atmospheric CO2, climate change, N deposition, and altered land use. For example, I am currently studying how altered precipitation and warming alter carbon and nitrogen cycling in Arizona's ecosystems, how elevated CO2 alters nitrogen cycling and hydrology of scrub oak woodlands, and how increased temperature influences the nitrogen cycle in grasslands. In addition to understanding ecosystem responses to such perturbations, I am interested in how ecosystem responses can feed back to alter the pace and even direction of future global changes. A second major thrust of my research addresses how single species can affect ecosystem processes, for example, how infestation with the piñon-needle scale alters the water budget of piñon-juniper woodlands, or how mycorrhizae influence decomposition of fine roots. I teach courses in general ecology, microbial ecology, ecosystem ecology, and stable isotope techniques.
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Facilities:
Based at Northern Arizona University (NAU), the Colorado
Plateau Stable Isotope Laboratory (CPSIL) is designed to serve undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty at NAU who require carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen stable-isotope analyses for their research. Additionally, scientists from other institutions are welcome to send us their samples for isotope analysis. CPSIL is affiliated with the Merriam-Powell
Center for Environmental Research.
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