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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2011

  • Title: Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles at Harvard Forest
  • Primary Author: Adrien Finzi (Boston University)
  • Abstract:

    Coupled biogeochemical cycles are a fundamental part of ecosystem function. Perturbations to any biogeochemical cycle invariably entrain a change in other biogeochemical cycles in the ecosystem. The Harvard Forest is home to a number of long-term, large-scale ecosystem manipulation experiments where aspects of the carbon and nitrogen cycles have been measured. As such there is potential to use information from the different experiments to understand how different perturbations affect the coupled cycles of carbon and nitrogen. In this talk I focus on changes in surface soil respiration and net mineralization as sentinel observations of the carbon and nitrogen cycles. In looking through the database, there were very few observations on P pools and fluxes, yet P is a very important to primary production. Similarly, the measurement intervals and techniques used to measure respiration and net mineralization differed from study to study making inter-comparisons challenging. There is also overlap in experiments, particularly those related to warming. As the LTER moves forward, it would make sense to engage in data synthesis across experiments to use the present and recent past as a guide to future ecosystem-scale experiments, and greater emphasis should be placed on P cycling and integrating biosphere-atmosphere studies with studies of the hydrosphere.

  • Research Category: Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics