Forests in a changing world
Forest ecology, global change, and ecosystem responses to environmental stress.
RESEARCH
The connections
beneath the canopy.
Combining field observations, controlled experiments, and soil and plant analyses to understand ecological responses across scales.
Soils & nutrient cycling
Acid deposition, soil acidification, phosphorus dynamics, and rhizosphere microbial communities.
Plant strategies & adaptation
Water–nutrient interactions, root functional traits, and plant ecophysiological responses.
ONGOING RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Questions taking shape.
Research plans, working notes, and figures
Rainfall timing and the fate of retained nitrogen in warming forests
Project summary
This project will test whether nitrogen retained during dry periods remains available to forest plants or is released during subsequent rainfall pulses. It will combine controlled rainfall timing, high-frequency gas measurements, nitrogen isotope tracing, and a model that tracks both present conditions and antecedent drought. The central comparison will hold cumulative water input constant while changing its timing. This separates a change in rainfall sequence from a change in total water supply.
Central comparisonSame cumulative water input. Different rainfall timing.