sacramento delta
Case Study: Spatial-temporal Dynamics of Coupled Greenhouse Gas and Energy Fluxes in the California Delta
Temperate peatlands are hotspots of soil carbon storage and biological diversity, and are extremely vulnerable to management decisions that alter water levels. They provide key economic (grazing, peat production) and ecosystem (filters for upslope pollutants and nitrogen, carbon sequestration) services. They are also potentially important sinks of carbon dioxide or sources of carbon dioxide or methane. So interactions between terrestrial biogeochemistry and the hydrological cycle are likely determinants of their role in global warming.
We have a current NSF-funded project that uses experimental and modeling approaches to determine the biophysical processes that control coupled flues of carbon dioxide, water and methane in a temperate peatland in the California Delta: Sherman Island. We will quantify the land-atmosphere exchange of carbon and water, and integrate these fluxes across a spectrum of time and space through field-based measurements, remote sensing and spatial modeling.
Collaborators on this project include Dennis Baldocchi (PI) and Whendee Silver (Co-PI). Some of our recent papers are here.
Other information: the Delta Science Center.