Biography

I have worked at LBL for four years, where I have helped lead the field and biogeochemistry components of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Scientific Focus Area.

I received both a Masters Degree in Soil and Water Science and a Doctorate Degree in Biology from the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. For my Masters, I studied whether the sediments of restored seagrass and mangrove ecosystems were actively accumulating carbon and which plant sources were contributing to their soil carbon. For my PhD, my main project was partitioning ecosystem respiration of tundra undergoing permafrost thaw into plant and soil sources. Warming in the subarctic is causing permafrost to thaw, which causes increased ecosystem respiration rates, meaning more CO₂ is respired to the atmosphere where it can cause further warming. The source of that ecosystem respiration increase partly determines what the implications are for our climate. I found that both plant and respiration of old, deep soil carbon were increased with both natural permafrost thaw and experimentally-induced warming.