Tag: Nitrogen

Top Ten of 2020

by Jennifer Moore Myers and Sarah Farmer  • 
As 2020 comes to an end, it is a good time to gather our most-read CompassLive stories from the past year. Each one highlights the work of USDA Forest Service scientists at the Southern Research Station. We hope you enjoy reading this collection, which includes the most popular of 2020 plus a few more that…  More 

Carbon Pools and Fluxes in Southern Appalachian Forests

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
An estimated 35 percent of the global terrestrial carbon is stored in soil and biotic carbon pools, such as forests. These pools can store or release carbon. Because forests store immense amounts of carbon, forest management is becoming part of efforts to increase carbon sequestration and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Long-term research from the USDA…  More 

Black Locust & Drought

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
With its symbiotic bacteria, black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) makes its own nitrogen fertilizer – and can share it with other tree species. “In early successional temperate forests, symbiotic nitrogen fixation is often the main source of new nitrogen,” says USDA Forest Service scientist Chelcy Miniat. But drought could slow the rate of symbiotic nitrogen fixation,…  More 

Carbon Storage in Longleaf Pine Roots

by Jennifer Moore Myers, SRS Science Communications  • 
“Longleaf roots are pretty legendary,” says USDA Forest Service scientist Peter Anderson. “It’s common to hear that you can dig up a really old stump and use it as a quick, reliable kindling.” Pines contain oleoresins, a sticky liquid mix of oil and resin (or rosin). “There are companies today that buy and dig old…  More 

Long-Term Research Yields Understanding and Insights

by Jennifer Moore Myers, SRS Science Communications  • 
Gaze at a painting for long enough, and you may notice details that you didn’t see right away: light, movement, and texture. This happens with research data, too. “At Coweeta, we all talk about how everything fits together,” says USDA Forest Service scientist Jennifer Knoepp. “We have been analyzing long-term watershed data for more than…  More 

30 Years of Nitrogen Fertilization in Spruce-Fir Forest

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
Rocks and sediments bind up almost 98 percent of all nitrogen. The remaining 2 percent is in motion, part of a global chemical cycle that includes humans, bacteria, plants, and the atmosphere. “Plants need nitrogen to grow,” says U.S. Forest Service research ecologist Steve McNulty. “However, excess nitrogen can harm plants.” Nitrogen and sulfur can…  More 

Black Locust & Drought Tolerance

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
By affecting plant growth, drought could potentially affect the nitrogen cycle too. “Some plants – with help from their bacterial companions – can fix atmospheric nitrogen,” says U.S. Forest Service researcher and project leader Chelcy Miniat. Atmospheric nitrogen gas, or N2, is plentiful. This form of nitrogen is inaccessible to most plants. However, legumes such…  More 

Forests, Farms, or Houses?

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
Molecules relentlessly cycle from one form to another. “Simple human activities, such as building homes, can affect these cycles,” says U.S. Forest Service research soil scientist Jennifer Knoepp. For example, trees growing near streams affect the way nitrogen and other nutrients move from the land to the water. “Riparian zones play a critical role in…  More 

Mount Ascutney Visitors Enjoy the View and Learn Something, Too

by Stephanie Worley Firley, EFETAC  • 
Over the past decade, countless visitors on southeastern Vermont’s Mount Ascutney have read the words on two interpretive panels describing ongoing research that began as a graduate student’s research project there. Through the years, the panels have faded and weathered, but now they are new again after U.S. Forest Service researchers installed updated replacements in…  More 

Scientists Find Evidence of Regime Shift in Forest Watershed Cut in the 1970s

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
After disturbances, healthy ecosystems are usually resilient enough to return to a pre-disturbance state. However, some disturbances are extreme enough to permanently shift an ecosystem, a phenomenon known as a regime shift. “Ecosystem regime shifts have been well documented in lakes, streams, and oceans,” says Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientist Jennifer Knoepp. “We…  More