Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Lakes Northern Forests CESU
The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for project titled: ���Tidal marsh elevation response to long-term fertilization and impacts for resilience to sea level rise���. Many coastal areas are vulnerable to the direct effects of global warming, depending on the ability of coastal wetlands to maintain elevation relative to rising sea level. The preservation and accumulation of organic carbon in sediments is recognized to be an important mechanism by which many coastal wetlands keep pace with rising sea level. Low nutrient loadings are a characteristic of many coastal wetlands and this suggests that nutrient availability may be a determinant of organic carbon preservation and maintenance of coastal wetland elevation in the face of sea level rise. The carbon balance of soils is the product of a complex set of parallel processes with both positive and negative effects. Increased nutrient loading decreases the proportion of production allocated to roots and may increase the mineralization of organic carbon, but it also stimulates total primary production. There is a need to understand the effects of increased nutrient loadings at a broad geographical scale on the carbon balance of sediments and wetland elevation dynamics. The evaluation of wetland response to nutrient addition should also be used to provide insights about the ability of increased production to offset the effects of rising sea level. Products should include statistical and modeling evaluations of long-term fertilization experiments at broad latitudinal scales and a better understanding of the simultaneous effects of fertilization on different wetland processes.
Office: Geological Survey
fgraves@usgs.gov
