Tree Mortality and Ecosystem Processes
This project investigates how tree mortality changes carbon, water and nutrient cycling
in forests. We have documented that ecosystem processes recover faster than expected
from other disturbances such as fire or timber harvesting because tree mortality occurs
in patches that accelerate succession. We are confronting an ecosystem process model,
using high performance computing tools in a Bayesian framework, with these data to
test which mechanisms are most crucial to predict the accelerated succession and recovery
of ecosystem processes. Funding for this work is from NSF Hydrological Processes and
EPSCoR and the Wyoming Water Development Commission.
Role of Plant Genotypes in Crop Response to Stress
This project is testing our predictive understanding of the connections between allelic
variation and plant function in crops. The work includes the use of plants such as
Brassica species, Arabidopsis thaliana and Beta vulgaris. We have successfully connected
crucial plant functional traits including biomass partitioning and photosynthesis
to quantitative trait loci tested in Recombinant Inbred Line (RIL) sets to begin
the search for candidate genes. We are developing novel high throughput phenotyping
to further test the gene to function relationships and then testing these relationships
in a mechanistic plant growth model. The model tests the relationships using a parsimony
analysis is a Bayesian framework. Funding for this work is from NSF Plant Genome and
USDA NIFA.
Panama Ecohydrology
This project investigates the role of bioturbation through plants roots to increase
soil infiltration and soil storage in the seasonal tropics. The former process potentially
decreases flooding in the wet season and the latter process potentially increases
streamflow in the dry season. Both of these processes are crucial ecosystem services
of forests. We are now testing whether the increasing evapotranspiration from older
forests results in a tradeoff in ecosystem services because of potentially reduced
overall streamflow. Funding for this work is from NSF Water Society and Climate through
Hydrological Processes and INFEWS.
Rocky Mountain Ecohydrology
This project investigates the water budgets of Rocky Mountain ecosystems in an elevation
gradient from sagebrush in basins, through multiple forest types in mid elevations
to the alpine tundra. Our work uses measurement of water fluxes and storage in soil,
saprolite, vegetation and the atmosphere to test how well the water budget can be
closed using hierarchical Bayesian analyses. Funding for this work is from NSF Hydrological
Processes and EPSCoR and the Wyoming Water Development Commission.
