PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Secondary successional ecosystems are widespread across the southeastern US and, as a whole, comprise a substantial terrestrial sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide. Despite the important role of successional ecosystems in carbon cycling and other ecological processes, considerable uncertainty remains concerning the spatial and temporal dynamics of these ecosystems.  With this in mind, the principle goal of this project is to understand the status of and controls on successional ecosystem characteristics in the southeastern US through development and analysis of coupled remotely sensed and ground based data. The project will use new and existing datasets to evaluate successional characteristics and ecological processes within and among five separate landscapes in North Carolina.  This work will lay the framework for future research on carbon cycling, hydrological process, and climate-vegetation feedbacks within this region and other regions where landscapes are characterized by secondary successional ecosystems.  This work also seeks to broaden participation of underrepresented students in ecological sciences by collaborating with the Ecological Society of America’s Strategies for Ecology Education, Development and Sustainability (SEEDS) program to recruit undergraduate students from minority-serving and other institutions to participate in training, fieldwork, and numerical analysis related to secondary ecosystem succession.  We are recruiting students from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, Livingstone College in Salisbury, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Western Carolina University to participate in the project beginning May 2010.  Download the flyer (PDF) for more information.

COLLABORATORS:

Teresa Mourad, ESA-SEEDS

Joe Fail, JCSU

Leon Jernigan, UNCP

Brian Kloeppel, WCU

Sashi Sabaratnam, LC

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This collaborative project with Brian McGlynn at Montana State University (Bozeman, MT) was recently funded by the National Science Foundation and seeks to investigate the role of spatially heterogeneous vegetation in runoff generation and streamflow process at hillslope and catchment scales.  Field sites in Montana and North Carolina will be used to explore influences of climate and vegetation function on hydrological processes.  As part of this project, we will offer a field course in mountain ecohydrology for students at Appalachian State and Montana State.  The field trip will take place in August 2010 for credit during the Fall 2010 semester.  For more information, see the field course website.

COLLABORATOR:

Brian McGlynn, Montana State University

STUDENTS:

Fabian Nippgen (Ph.D. Student, MSU)

Anna Hazen (Undergraduate, ASU)

Alex Moody (Undergraduate, ASU)

COAUTHORED PRESENTATIONS

Emanuel RE, McGlynn BL (2009) “Interpreting the propagation and filtering of hydrological and biogeochemical signals in forested watersheds through the intersection of vegetation organization and topography” Eos Transactions AGU, 90(53), Fall Meeting Supplement, Abstract H34E-04. (Invited Talk)

George Hazen A, Emanuel RE, McGlynn BL, Jencso KG (2009) “Joint topographic and vegetation controls on hillslope water table dynamics in a forested, northern Rocky Mountain watershed” Eos Transactions AGU, XX(XX), Fall Meeting Supplement, Abstract H33B-0867.

CATCHMENT-SCALE CARBON AND WATER FLUXES

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This project is based on intensive field measurements in central Montana and has been ongoing since 2004.  The field site is part of the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest, administered by the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station.  Emanuel is part of a collaborative effort led by researchers from U.Va., Montana State, and the Canaan Valley Institute to understand carbon and water cycling in the northern Rockies using a combination of field-based and modeling investigations.

Project website: http://watershed.montana.edu/hydrology/Carbon.html

Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest website: http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/ecology/demo/tenderfoot/

COLLABORATORS

Howard Epstein, University of Virginia

Brian McGlynn, Montana State University

Daniel Welsch, Canaan Valley Institute

Diego Riveros-Iregui, University of Colorado

COAUTHORED PRESENTATIONS

McGlynn BL, Riveros-Iregui DA, Marshall LA, Welsch DL, Emanuel RE, Epstein HE (2009) “The Role of Spatially Variable Soil Moisture in Modeling Landscape-Scale Soil Respiration” Eos Transactions AGU, 90(53), Fall Meeting Supplement, Abstract B51B-0314.  

Riveros-Iregui DA, McGlynn BL, Epstein HE, Welsch DL, Emanuel RE, Muth DJ (2009) “Landscape Structure Controls Soil CO2 Efflux Variability in Complex Terrain: Scaling from Point Observations to Watershed-Scale Fluxes”  2nd North American Carbon Program All-Investigators Meeting, February 17-20, San Diego, CA. 

Emanuel RE, D’Odorico P, Epstein HE (2008) “Effects of Spatially Heterogeneous Vegetation Water Stress on Hydrological Processes within a Forested, Mountain Watershed” Eos Transactions AGU, 89(53), Fall Meeting Supplement, Abstract H11C-0774.

McGlynn, B.L., Riveros-Iregui, D.A., Emanuel, R.E., Muth, D.J., Epstein, H.E., Welsch, D.L., Pacific, V.J., and Wraith, J.M., (2007). Diurnal Hysteresis between Soil CO2 and Soil Temperature is controlled by Soil Water Content. Eos Trans. AGU, 87(52), Fall Meeting Supplement.

Muth, D.J., Epstein, H.E., Emanuel, R.E., McGlynn, B.L., Welsch, D.L..  (2007) Net Ecosystem Exchange in a Forested Montane Watershed: Trends and Trials in Complex Terrain. Eos Trans. AGU, 88(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract B21D-06.

Riveros-Iregui, D.A., McGlynn, B.L., Epstein, H.E., Welsch, D.L., Pacific, V.J., Muth, D.J., Emanuel, R.E., Jencso, K.G., Wraith, J.M. (2007).  Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest, Montana: Measuring and modeling carbon and water fluxes from point to watershed scales (Part I).  AmeriFlux Annual Meeting, October 17-19, Boulder, CO.

Riveros-Iregui, D.A., McGlynn, B.L., Epstein, H.E., Welsch, D.L., Pacific, V.J., Muth, D.J., Emanuel, R.E., Jencso, K.G., Wraith, J.M. (2007). Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest, Montana: Measuring and modeling carbon and water fluxes from point to watershed scales (Part II). AmeriFlux Annual Meeting, October 17-19, Boulder, CO.

McGlynn, B.L., H. Epstein, D. Welsch, M. Gooseff, D. Riveros, V. Pacific, D. Muth, R. Emanuel, K. Jencso, R. Payn, J. Wraith,  L. Marshall, M. Skidmore, W. McCaughey. Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest, Montana:  Measuring and modeling carbon and water fluxes from point to watershed scales. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. Fall, 2006.

Muth DJ, Epstein HE, Emanuel RE, McGlynn B, Welsch D (2006) “Estimating Net Ecosystem Exchange in Complex Terrain: A Case Study from a Subalpine, Montane Forest System.” Eos Transactions AGU, 87(52), Fall Meeting Supplement, Abstract B52B-05.

Emanuel RE, D’Odorico P, Epstein HE, Muth DJ (2006) “Data assimilation for a watershed-scale model of transpiration and vegetation water stress.” Eos Transactions AGU, 87(36) Joint Assembly Supplement, Abstract H43B-05. 

COAUTHORED PUBLICATIONS

Riveros-Iregui, DA, Emanuel RE, Muth DJ, McGlynn BL, Epstein HE, Welsch DL, Pacific VJ, Wraith JM. 2007. Diurnal hysteresis between soil temperature and soil CO2 is controlled by soil water content. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L17404, doi:10.1029/2007GL030938.

NORTH CAROLINA CLIMATE-GROUNDWATER INTERACTIONS

This project seeks to understand the role of interannual climate oscillations in determining the availability of water resources (primarily groundwater at this time) in the  southeastern US.  So far, we have identified a correlation between El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and groundwater in eastern North Carolina driven by ENSO-related changes in precipitation and modulated by geological conditions.

COLLABORATOR

Bill Anderson, ASU Geology

COAUTHORED PRESENTATIONS

Anderson WP, Emanuel RE (2008) “Role of interannual climate oscillations on coastal groundwater conditions in North Carolina.”  Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 40(5), p. 212.

Motsinger A, Emanuel RE, Anderson WP (2008) “Effects of El Niño/Southern Oscillation on hydrological conditions in North Carolina.” Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 40(4), p. 74. (*Student)

COAUTHORED PUBLICATIONS

Anderson WP, Emanuel RE (2010) Effect of interannual climate oscillations on rates of submarine groundwater discharge. Water Resources Research doi:10.11029/2009WR008212.

Anderson WP, Emanuel RE (2008) Role of interannual and interdecadal climate oscillations on groundwater in North Carolina. Geophysical Research Letters 35:L23402 doi:10.1029/2008GL036054.

APPALACHIAN ATMOSPHERIC INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH (APPALAIR)

This is a collaborative project between researchers in the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Geology and Physics at ASU.  The research aims to better understand the atmospheric environment of the southern Appalachians, including regional climate, land-atmosphere interaction and air pollution.  Research is conducted at a 33 m tower in Boone, NC and ancillary field sites across northwestern NC.

The primary, 34 m tower was constructed near the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center on the ASU campus in June 2008.  It is  a free-standing AN Wireless communication tower with a PVC aerosol sampling stack and meteorological instrument mast.  A climate controlled instrument shed at the base of the tower (constructed in August 2008) contains analytical and datalogging equipment connected to the ASU network.  This facility recently joined the NOAA-ESRL aerosol monitoring network as the sole regional monitoring station in southeastern North America.

My primary role in this collaboration is characterizing carbon and water fluxes over landscapes of the southern Appalachians.  I am currently using eddy covariance to assess carbon and water cycling on a Christmas tree (Fraser fir) plantation in Allegany County, NC after measuring fluxes for one year on another farm near Roan Mountain, NC using a 6 m tripod-based system.

COLLABORATORS

Howard Neufeld, ASU Biology

Baker Perry, ASU Geography

Jim Sherman, ASU Physics

Brett Taubman, ASU Chemistry

COAUTHORED PRESENTATIONS

Taubman BF, Sherman JP, Sheridan PJ, Perry LB, Neufeld HS, Emanuel RE, Tashakkori R, Bowman D, Long C (2009) “Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing in the Southern Appalachian Mountains: Initial Results from the Appalachian Atmospheric Interdisciplinary Research (AppalAIR) Facility” Eos Transactions AGU, 90(53), Fall Meeting Supplement, Abstract A53B-0261.

COAUTHORED REPORTS

Soulé PT, Emanuel RE, Neufeld HS, Perry LB, Sherman JP, Taubman BF (2008) Report from the Appalachian State University Global Climate Change Committee to the North Carolina General Assembly.