The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a national-scale research platform for assessing the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecosystem structure and function.

Primary production in arid and semiarid systems is predominantly limited by water availability. Precipitation is a strong predictor of primary production at broad scales in these systems. However, due to local variability in soil-water availability associated with landscape position, soil characteristics, and species composition, precipitation can be a pore predictor of production at finer scales. Thus, measured soil moisture content should provide a better predictor of primary production at fine scales.

The McMurdo Dry Valleys have no rainfall and most snowfall sublimates before wetting the soils significantly. Glacial melt streams are also seasonal, flowing for only 4 to 6 weeks per year. Consequently, hydrology does not provide significant connections among ecosystem components. Conversely, wind is a persistent daily feature of the McMurdo Dry Valleys environment throughout the year. In summer, cool air from the ice-covered oceans flows into the relatively warm valleys creating a strong thermal gradient in the valleys.

Woody encroachment and its effects on terrestrial ecosystems have been well-studied. However, the effect on riparian and aquatic ecosystems, specifically denitrification, has been lacking. Riparian areas of headwater prairie streams were historically dominated by grasses, but have become increasingly covered by woody vegetation. To determine potential consequences of woody plant invasion on denitrification, three adjacent reaches were delineated from two branches of King’s Creek, which drains Konza Prairie Biological Station.

Diverse plant litter mixtures frequently decompose substantially differently than expected, compared to the average of the individual component species. These strong “non-additive” effects constitute an important way in which biodiversity influences key components of below-ground ecosystem function like soil C and N cycling, and it remains unclear which plant traits drive diversity effects on soil C and N cycling.

Appropriate quantification of the spatial distribution of lead (Pb) in urban soils requires an understanding of the influence that individual landscape features have on soil Pb concentrations as well as the importance of the larger landscape context. In order to examine patterns of residential soil Pb concentrations we employed a sampling scheme that addressed both landscape context and individual landscape features predicted to affect Pb retention. The larger landscape context was considered by examining the distance to major road networks and housing age.

The distinct rhizomorphic mats formed by Piloderma fungi are significant features of the organic soil horizons of coniferous forests throughout the Pacific Northwest. These ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungal mats have been found to cover over 40% of the forest floor in some Douglas-fir stands and are associated with a variety of physical and biochemical properties that distinguish them from the surrounding non-mat soils. As part of an NSF-funded Microbial Observatory at the H.J.

Long-term base cation depletion from soils appears to be detrimental to the health and productivity of hardwood forests in the northeastern U.S. Understanding and predicting forest responses to acidic deposition and changes in soil chemistry would benefit from better knowledge of limitations to soil microorganisms, given their critical role mediating the supply of essential nutrients to plants.

The Detritus Inputs and Removal Treatments (DIRT) were established at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest to examine the effects of organic matter manipulations on soil organic matter (SOM) chemistry and nutrient cycling. In 2007, after ten years of manipulations, isotope dilution methods were used to estimate gross N mineralization and nitrification rates among the six treatments that control the rate and quality of SOM inputs (control, double wood, double litter, no roots, no litter, and no inputs).