Research Objectives:
This project is one of two soil productivity components of McMurdo LTER (Ross Virginia, B-423-M, and Diana Wall, B-424-M). This season the group will focus on:
+ The influence of climate and edaphic factors on carbon and nitrogen cycling in terrestrial ecosystems of the Antarctic Dry Valleys.
+ The influence of climate and soil chemistry on the distribution and abundance of soil biodiversity in the antarctic Dry Valleys.
+ Understanding the linkages between soil biological communities and underlying ecosystem functioning.
+ Evaluating the influence of changes in climate on terrestrial ecosystems and invertebrate communities.
Activities include
+ Sampling and maintaining core LTER soil experiments in cooperation with Diana Wall's research group,
+ Investigating response of soil biota to climate change and substrate additions.
+ Studying relationships between soil biodiversity and ecosystem function by measuring in situ carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorus flux through a combination of gas flux, buried bag and resin exchange membrane techniques.
Project team members will make brief trips to the Dry Valleys for monitoring, maintenance and sampling of long term experiments, and sampling of soil to support developing work on the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles and turnover of organic matter in the field. They will return to the Crary Laboratory at McMurdo Station for sample processing and initial analysis, as well as to perform incubation assays on selected soils.
