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METABOLIC RESPONSES OF AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS TO CLIMATE WARMING
Impact/Purpose:
The capacity for landscapes to sequester carbon and how landscape features regulate sequestration remain poorly understood under current and future climate conditions. The growing appreciation for the importance of aquatic ecosystems in understanding the capacity of watersheds to sequester carbon, and in fact the global carbon cycle, reinforces the need for improved understanding of their response to global change. Therefore, this research will evaluate how watershed context, by regulating both the physical template of aquatic ecosystems (e.g., temperature, light, hydrology) and the quality and amount of carbon delivered to them from the terrestrial landscape, influences the sensitivity of aquatic carbon cycling and metabolism to climate change.
Description:
There is increasing evidence that stream metabolic processes that increase CO2 flux to the atmosphere will be highly sensitive to rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and shifts in carbon loading from watersheds. In addition, preliminary data suggest that the thermal scaling of organic matter processing in these Alaskan watersheds correspond with watershed geomorphic features. This research aims to develop functional relationships between watershed-scale data and stream metabolism to include aquatic ecosystems in assessments of watershed carbon storage. This research also will incorporate state-of-the-art statistical approaches that enable formal uncertainty analysis of aquatic ecosystem metabolism estimates that are critical for the evaluation of ecosystem responses to environmental change at scales relevant to management and policy making.
Potential to Further Environmental/Human Health Protection
Climate change threatens human health and economies by altering the services provided by intact ecosystems such as food production, clean water and carbon storage. Freshwater ecosystems not only provide valuable food and water but also play a large role in the carbon balance of watersheds. Therefore, understanding how climate change will affect the carbon cycle in aquatic ecosystems will improve the ability to predict how watersheds and the carbon sequestration services they provide will respond to climate change.