Emory news center drivers#

“ Howland Research Forest is the ideal location to conduct this research. The study site is also situated at the southern limit of what is considered to be boreal forests, which makes it especially vulnerable to climate change.

Emory news center drivers#

With the support of the NSF grant, a group of researchers led by Jennifer Watts, assistant scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, will explore the biophysical drivers of methane fluxes through an on-site moisture manipulation experiment in central Maine’s Howland Research Forest, which has already demonstrated methane source–sink transitions and has existing long-term methane flux data from 2012 to the present. Previous studies have shown that whether methane is emitted or consumed depends primarily on soil moisture, which makes understanding changes in moisture essential to learning more about methane fluxes in these ecosystems. This lack of understanding leads to inaccurate climate modeling, which is especially concerning given the fact that methane emissions are increasingly important to understanding the climate future. The factors controlling these shifts in methane emissions or sinks, however, are poorly understood. Boreal and sub-boreal forests - the northernmost forests, which also make up the largest land-based biome - can shift between emitting methane to the atmosphere and removing it. Methane is second only to carbon dioxide in terms of its overall contribution to climate change.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $1.65 million across a team of researchers at five institutions that includes Shawn Fraver, associate professor of forest ecology at the University of Maine School of Forest Resources, to study methane sinks in Northern Forests.