Corey Lawrence
I am a Research Geologist at the Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center in Denver, CO. The overarching objectives of my research are to (1) describe and quantify natural biogeochemical processes at the Earth's surface and (2) determine how these processes will respond to climate and/or landuse change.
Many biogeochemical processes are often dominated by exchanges between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. Over long timescales, the flux of matter and energy shapes both the physical structure and chemical composition of the Critical Zone and over shorter timescales, these features determine how the system responds to disturbances. Developing a mechanistic understanding of the processes controlling these fluxes is essential for predicting and managing the function of environmental resources and the sustainability of agricultural systems.
Professional Experience
Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, 2009-2011
Postdoctoral Research Affiliate, U.S. Geological Survey, Moab, UT, 2009
Research Assistant, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 2004-2009
Research Assistant, The Ecosystems Centers, Woods Hole, MA, 2002-2004
Undergraduate Researcher, Toolik Lake LTER, Toolik Lake, AK, 2001
Research Assistant, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, 2000
Research Intern, Atmospheric Science Research Center, Wilmington, NY, 1999
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 2009
B.S., Environmental Science & Policy, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, 2002
B.S., Biology, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, 2002
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 30
An open source database for the synthesis of soil radiocarbon data: ISRaD version 1.0
Radiocarbon is a critical constraint on our estimates of the timescales of soil carbon cycling that can aid in identifying mechanisms of carbon stabilization and destabilization and improve the forecast of soil carbon response to management or environmental change. Despite the wealth of soil radiocarbon data that have been reported over the past 75 years, the ability to apply these data to global-
Authors
Corey R. Lawrence, Jeffrey Beem-Miller, Alison Hoyt, Grey Monroe, Carlos Sierra, Shane Stoner, Katherine Heckman, Joseph Blankinship, Susan Crow, Gavin McNichol, Susan Trumbore, Paul Levine, Olga Vinduśková, Katherine Todd-Brown, Craig Rasmussen, Caitlin Hicks Pries, Christina Schadel, Karis McFarlane, Sebastian Doetterl, Christine Hatté, Yujie He, Claire C. Treat, Jennifer W. Harden, Margaret S. Torn, Cristian Estop-Aragonés, Asmeret A. Berhe, Marco Keiluweit, Agatha Della Rosa Kuhnen, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Aaron Thompson, Zheng Shi, Joshua P. Schimel, Lydia J.S. Vaughn, Sophie F. von Fromm, Rota Wagai
The landscape of soil carbon data: Emerging questions, synergies and databases
Soil carbon has been measured for over a century in applications ranging from understanding biogeochemical processes in natural ecosystems to quantifying the productivity and health of managed systems. Consolidating diverse soil carbon datasets is increasingly important to maximize their value, particularly with growing anthropogenic and climate change pressures. In this progress report, we descri
Authors
Avni Malhotra, Katherine Todd-Brown, Luke Nave, Niels Batjes, James Holmquist, Alison Hoyt, Colleen Iversen, Robert B. Jackson, Kate Lathja, Corey R. Lawrence, Olga Vinduśková, William Wieder, Matt Williams, Gustaf Hugelias, Jennifer Harden
Root-driven weathering impacts on mineral-organic associations in deep soils over pedogenic time scales
Plant roots are critical weathering agents in deep soils, yet the impact of resulting mineral transformations on the vast deep soil carbon (C) reservoir are largely unknown. Root-driven weathering of primary minerals may cause the formation of reactive secondary minerals, which protect mineral-organic associations (MOAs) for centuries or millennia. Conversely, root-driven weathering may also trans
Authors
Mariela Garcia Arredondo, Corey Lawrence, Marjorie S. Schulz, Malak M. Tfaily, Ravi K. Kukkadapu, Morris E. Jones, Kristin Boye, Marco Keiluweit
Mineralogy dictates the initial mechanism of microbial necromass association
Soil organic matter (SOM) improves soil fertility and mitigates disturbance related to climate and land use change. Microbial necromass (the accumulated cellular residues of microorganisms) comprises the majority of soil C, yet the formation and persistence of necromass in relation to mineralogy is poorly understood. We tested whether soil minerals had different microbial necromass association mec
Authors
Courtney Creamer, Andrea L. Foster, Corey Lawrence, Jack McFarland, Marjorie S. Schulz, Mark Waldrop
Modeling transient soil moisture limitations on microbial carbon respiration: A cost-performance comparison
Soil microorganisms are known to survive periods of aridity and to recover rapidly after wetting events, with the ability to transition between a dormant state in dry conditions and an active state in wet conditions. Though this dynamic behavior has been previously incorporated into soil carbon respiration modeling frameworks, a direct comparison between this active-dormant transition mechanism an
Authors
Yuchen Liu, Corey R. Lawrence, Mathew Winnick, Hsiao-Tieh Hsu, Katherine Maher, Jennifer Druhan
Biological and mineralogical controls over cycling of low molecular weight organic compounds along a soil chronosequence
Low molecular weight organic compounds (LMWOC) represent a small but critical component of soil organic matter (SOM) for microbial growth and metabolism. The fate of these compounds is largely under microbial control, yet outside the cell, intrinsic soil properties can also significantly influence their turnover and retention. Using a chronosequence representing 1200 ka of pedogenic development, w
Authors
Jack McFarland, Mark P. Waldrop, Daniel Strawn, Courtney Creamer, Corey R. Lawrence, Monica Haw
Improving understanding of soil organic matter dynamics by triangulating theories, measurements, and models
Soil organic matter (SOM) turnover increasingly is conceptualized as a tension between accessibility to microorganisms and protection from decomposition via physical and chemical association with minerals in emerging soil biogeochemical theory. Yet, these components are missing from the original mathematical models of belowground carbon dynamics and remain underrepresented in more recent compartme
Authors
Joseph C. Blankinship, Susan E. Crow, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Jennifer L. Druhan, Katherine A. Heckman, Marco Keiluweit, Corey R. Lawrence, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Craig Rasmussen, Christina Schadel, Joshua P. Schmiel, Carlos A. Sierra, Aaron Thomson, Rota Wagai, William R. Weider
Beyond clay: Towards an improved set of variables for predicting soil organic matter content
Improved quantification of the factors controlling soil organic matter (SOM) stabilization at continental to global scales is needed to inform projections of the largest actively cycling terrestrial carbon pool on Earth, and its response to environmental change. Biogeochemical models rely almost exclusively on clay content to modify rates of SOM turnover and fluxes of climate-active CO2 to the atm
Authors
Craig Rasmussen, Katherine Heckman, William R. Wieder, Marco Keiluweit, Corey R. Lawrence, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Joseph C. Blankinship, Susan E. Crow, Jennifer Druhan, Caitlin E. Hicks Pries, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Christina Schadel, Joshua P. Schmiel, Carlos A. Sierra, Aaron Thompson, Rota Wagai
A molecular investigation of soil organic carbon composition across a subalpine catchment
The dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and turnover are a critical component of the global carbon cycle. Mechanistic models seeking to represent these complex dynamics require detailed SOC compositions, which are currently difficult to characterize quantitatively. Here, we address this challenge by using a novel approach that combines Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and
Authors
Hsiao-Tieh Hsu, Corey R. Lawrence, Matthew J. Winnick, John R. Bargar, Katharine Maher
Networking our science to characterize the state, vulnerabilities, and management opportunities of soil organic matter
Soil organic matter (SOM) supports the Earth's ability to sustain terrestrial ecosystems, provide food and fiber, and retains the largest pool of actively cycling carbon. Over 75% of the soil organic carbon (SOC) in the top meter of soil is directly affected by human land use. Large land areas have lost SOC as a result of land use practices, yet there are compensatory opportunities to enhance prod
Authors
Jennifer W. Harden, Gustaf Hugelius, Anders Ahlström, Joseph C. Blankinship, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Corey Lawrence, Julie Loisel, Avni Malhotra, Robert B. Jackson, Stephen M. Ogle, Claire Phillips, Rebecca Ryals, Katherine Todd-Brown, Rodrigo Vargas, Sintana E. Vergara, M. Francesca Cotrufo, Marco Keiluweit, Katherine Heckman, Susan E. Crow, Whendee L. Silver, Marcia DeLonge, Lucas E. Nave
A sequential selective dissolution method to quantify storage and stability of organic carbon associated with Al and Fe hydroxide phases
Stabilization of SOM (soil organic matter) is regulated in part by sorption and desorption reactions happening at mineral surfaces, as well as precipitation and dissolution of organo-metal complexes. Fe and Al hydroxides play a particularly significant role in SOM stabilization in soils due to their ubiquitous distribution and their highly reactive surface properties. Iron and Al hydroxides exist
Authors
Katherine Heckman, Corey R. Lawrence, Jennifer W. Harden
Expanding the role of reactive transport models in critical zone processes
Models test our understanding of processes and can reach beyond the spatial and temporal scales of measurements. Multi-component Reactive Transport Models (RTMs), initially developed more than three decades ago, have been used extensively to explore the interactions of geothermal, hydrologic, geochemical, and geobiological processes in subsurface systems. Driven by extensive data sets now availabl
Authors
Li Li, Kate Maher, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler, Jennifer Druhan, Christof Meile, Corey Lawrence, Joel Moore, Julia Perdrial, Pamela Sullivan, Aaron Thompson, Lixin Jin, Edward W. Bolton, Susan L. Brantley, William E. Dietrich, K. Ulrich Mayer, Carl Steefel, Albert J. Valocchi, John M. Zachara, Benjamin D. Kocar, Jennifer McIntosh, Benjamin M. Tutolo, Mukesh Kumar, Eric Sonnenthal, Chen Bao, Joe Beisman
Non-USGS Publications**
Lawrence, C.R., Neff, J.C., and Farmer, G.L., 2011, The accretion of aeolian dust in soils of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA: Journal of Geophysical Research, 116(F2). doi:10.1029/2010JF001899
Ballantyne, A.P., Brahney, J., Fernandez, D., Lawrence, C.R., Saros, J., and Neff, J.C., 2011, Biogeochemical response of alpine lakes to a recent increase in dust deposition in the Southwestern, US: Biogeosciences, 8, 2689-2706. doi:10.5194/bg-8-2689-2011
Lawrence, C.R., Painter, T.H., Landry, C.C., and Neff, J.C., 2010, Contemporary geochemical composition and flux of aeolian dust to the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, United States: Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, G03007, doi:10.1029/2009JG001077.
Lawrence, C.R. and Neff, J.C., 2009, The contemporary physical and chemical flux of aeolian dust: A synthesis of direct measurements of dust deposition: Chemical Geology 267: 46-63.
Lawrence, C.R., Neff, J.C. and Schimel, J.S., 2009, Does adding microbial mechanisms of decomposition improve soil organic matter models? A comparison of four models using data from a pulsed rewetting experiment: Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 41: 1923-1934.
Neff, J.C., Ballantyne, A.P., Farmer, G.L., Mahowald, N., Conroy, J.L., Landry, C.C., Overpeck, J.T., Painter, T.H., Lawrence, C.R. and Reynolds, R.L., 2008, Increasing eolian dust deposition in the Western United States linked to human activity: Nature Geoscience, 1(3): 189-195.
Painter, T.H., Barrett, A.P., Landry, C.C., Neff, J.C., Cassidy, M.P., Lawrence, C.R., McBride, K.E. and Farmer, G.L., 2007, Impact of disturbed desert soils on duration of mountain snow cover: Geophysical Research Letters, 34(12).
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
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- Publications
Filter Total Items: 30
An open source database for the synthesis of soil radiocarbon data: ISRaD version 1.0
Radiocarbon is a critical constraint on our estimates of the timescales of soil carbon cycling that can aid in identifying mechanisms of carbon stabilization and destabilization and improve the forecast of soil carbon response to management or environmental change. Despite the wealth of soil radiocarbon data that have been reported over the past 75 years, the ability to apply these data to global-AuthorsCorey R. Lawrence, Jeffrey Beem-Miller, Alison Hoyt, Grey Monroe, Carlos Sierra, Shane Stoner, Katherine Heckman, Joseph Blankinship, Susan Crow, Gavin McNichol, Susan Trumbore, Paul Levine, Olga Vinduśková, Katherine Todd-Brown, Craig Rasmussen, Caitlin Hicks Pries, Christina Schadel, Karis McFarlane, Sebastian Doetterl, Christine Hatté, Yujie He, Claire C. Treat, Jennifer W. Harden, Margaret S. Torn, Cristian Estop-Aragonés, Asmeret A. Berhe, Marco Keiluweit, Agatha Della Rosa Kuhnen, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Aaron Thompson, Zheng Shi, Joshua P. Schimel, Lydia J.S. Vaughn, Sophie F. von Fromm, Rota WagaiThe landscape of soil carbon data: Emerging questions, synergies and databases
Soil carbon has been measured for over a century in applications ranging from understanding biogeochemical processes in natural ecosystems to quantifying the productivity and health of managed systems. Consolidating diverse soil carbon datasets is increasingly important to maximize their value, particularly with growing anthropogenic and climate change pressures. In this progress report, we descriAuthorsAvni Malhotra, Katherine Todd-Brown, Luke Nave, Niels Batjes, James Holmquist, Alison Hoyt, Colleen Iversen, Robert B. Jackson, Kate Lathja, Corey R. Lawrence, Olga Vinduśková, William Wieder, Matt Williams, Gustaf Hugelias, Jennifer HardenRoot-driven weathering impacts on mineral-organic associations in deep soils over pedogenic time scales
Plant roots are critical weathering agents in deep soils, yet the impact of resulting mineral transformations on the vast deep soil carbon (C) reservoir are largely unknown. Root-driven weathering of primary minerals may cause the formation of reactive secondary minerals, which protect mineral-organic associations (MOAs) for centuries or millennia. Conversely, root-driven weathering may also transAuthorsMariela Garcia Arredondo, Corey Lawrence, Marjorie S. Schulz, Malak M. Tfaily, Ravi K. Kukkadapu, Morris E. Jones, Kristin Boye, Marco KeiluweitMineralogy dictates the initial mechanism of microbial necromass association
Soil organic matter (SOM) improves soil fertility and mitigates disturbance related to climate and land use change. Microbial necromass (the accumulated cellular residues of microorganisms) comprises the majority of soil C, yet the formation and persistence of necromass in relation to mineralogy is poorly understood. We tested whether soil minerals had different microbial necromass association mecAuthorsCourtney Creamer, Andrea L. Foster, Corey Lawrence, Jack McFarland, Marjorie S. Schulz, Mark WaldropModeling transient soil moisture limitations on microbial carbon respiration: A cost-performance comparison
Soil microorganisms are known to survive periods of aridity and to recover rapidly after wetting events, with the ability to transition between a dormant state in dry conditions and an active state in wet conditions. Though this dynamic behavior has been previously incorporated into soil carbon respiration modeling frameworks, a direct comparison between this active-dormant transition mechanism anAuthorsYuchen Liu, Corey R. Lawrence, Mathew Winnick, Hsiao-Tieh Hsu, Katherine Maher, Jennifer DruhanBiological and mineralogical controls over cycling of low molecular weight organic compounds along a soil chronosequence
Low molecular weight organic compounds (LMWOC) represent a small but critical component of soil organic matter (SOM) for microbial growth and metabolism. The fate of these compounds is largely under microbial control, yet outside the cell, intrinsic soil properties can also significantly influence their turnover and retention. Using a chronosequence representing 1200 ka of pedogenic development, wAuthorsJack McFarland, Mark P. Waldrop, Daniel Strawn, Courtney Creamer, Corey R. Lawrence, Monica HawImproving understanding of soil organic matter dynamics by triangulating theories, measurements, and models
Soil organic matter (SOM) turnover increasingly is conceptualized as a tension between accessibility to microorganisms and protection from decomposition via physical and chemical association with minerals in emerging soil biogeochemical theory. Yet, these components are missing from the original mathematical models of belowground carbon dynamics and remain underrepresented in more recent compartmeAuthorsJoseph C. Blankinship, Susan E. Crow, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Jennifer L. Druhan, Katherine A. Heckman, Marco Keiluweit, Corey R. Lawrence, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Craig Rasmussen, Christina Schadel, Joshua P. Schmiel, Carlos A. Sierra, Aaron Thomson, Rota Wagai, William R. WeiderBeyond clay: Towards an improved set of variables for predicting soil organic matter content
Improved quantification of the factors controlling soil organic matter (SOM) stabilization at continental to global scales is needed to inform projections of the largest actively cycling terrestrial carbon pool on Earth, and its response to environmental change. Biogeochemical models rely almost exclusively on clay content to modify rates of SOM turnover and fluxes of climate-active CO2 to the atmAuthorsCraig Rasmussen, Katherine Heckman, William R. Wieder, Marco Keiluweit, Corey R. Lawrence, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Joseph C. Blankinship, Susan E. Crow, Jennifer Druhan, Caitlin E. Hicks Pries, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Christina Schadel, Joshua P. Schmiel, Carlos A. Sierra, Aaron Thompson, Rota WagaiA molecular investigation of soil organic carbon composition across a subalpine catchment
The dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and turnover are a critical component of the global carbon cycle. Mechanistic models seeking to represent these complex dynamics require detailed SOC compositions, which are currently difficult to characterize quantitatively. Here, we address this challenge by using a novel approach that combines Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) andAuthorsHsiao-Tieh Hsu, Corey R. Lawrence, Matthew J. Winnick, John R. Bargar, Katharine MaherNetworking our science to characterize the state, vulnerabilities, and management opportunities of soil organic matter
Soil organic matter (SOM) supports the Earth's ability to sustain terrestrial ecosystems, provide food and fiber, and retains the largest pool of actively cycling carbon. Over 75% of the soil organic carbon (SOC) in the top meter of soil is directly affected by human land use. Large land areas have lost SOC as a result of land use practices, yet there are compensatory opportunities to enhance prodAuthorsJennifer W. Harden, Gustaf Hugelius, Anders Ahlström, Joseph C. Blankinship, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Corey Lawrence, Julie Loisel, Avni Malhotra, Robert B. Jackson, Stephen M. Ogle, Claire Phillips, Rebecca Ryals, Katherine Todd-Brown, Rodrigo Vargas, Sintana E. Vergara, M. Francesca Cotrufo, Marco Keiluweit, Katherine Heckman, Susan E. Crow, Whendee L. Silver, Marcia DeLonge, Lucas E. NaveA sequential selective dissolution method to quantify storage and stability of organic carbon associated with Al and Fe hydroxide phases
Stabilization of SOM (soil organic matter) is regulated in part by sorption and desorption reactions happening at mineral surfaces, as well as precipitation and dissolution of organo-metal complexes. Fe and Al hydroxides play a particularly significant role in SOM stabilization in soils due to their ubiquitous distribution and their highly reactive surface properties. Iron and Al hydroxides existAuthorsKatherine Heckman, Corey R. Lawrence, Jennifer W. HardenExpanding the role of reactive transport models in critical zone processes
Models test our understanding of processes and can reach beyond the spatial and temporal scales of measurements. Multi-component Reactive Transport Models (RTMs), initially developed more than three decades ago, have been used extensively to explore the interactions of geothermal, hydrologic, geochemical, and geobiological processes in subsurface systems. Driven by extensive data sets now availablAuthorsLi Li, Kate Maher, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler, Jennifer Druhan, Christof Meile, Corey Lawrence, Joel Moore, Julia Perdrial, Pamela Sullivan, Aaron Thompson, Lixin Jin, Edward W. Bolton, Susan L. Brantley, William E. Dietrich, K. Ulrich Mayer, Carl Steefel, Albert J. Valocchi, John M. Zachara, Benjamin D. Kocar, Jennifer McIntosh, Benjamin M. Tutolo, Mukesh Kumar, Eric Sonnenthal, Chen Bao, Joe BeismanNon-USGS Publications**
Lawrence, C.R., Neff, J.C., and Farmer, G.L., 2011, The accretion of aeolian dust in soils of the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA: Journal of Geophysical Research, 116(F2). doi:10.1029/2010JF001899Ballantyne, A.P., Brahney, J., Fernandez, D., Lawrence, C.R., Saros, J., and Neff, J.C., 2011, Biogeochemical response of alpine lakes to a recent increase in dust deposition in the Southwestern, US: Biogeosciences, 8, 2689-2706. doi:10.5194/bg-8-2689-2011Lawrence, C.R., Painter, T.H., Landry, C.C., and Neff, J.C., 2010, Contemporary geochemical composition and flux of aeolian dust to the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, United States: Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, G03007, doi:10.1029/2009JG001077.Lawrence, C.R. and Neff, J.C., 2009, The contemporary physical and chemical flux of aeolian dust: A synthesis of direct measurements of dust deposition: Chemical Geology 267: 46-63.Lawrence, C.R., Neff, J.C. and Schimel, J.S., 2009, Does adding microbial mechanisms of decomposition improve soil organic matter models? A comparison of four models using data from a pulsed rewetting experiment: Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 41: 1923-1934.Neff, J.C., Ballantyne, A.P., Farmer, G.L., Mahowald, N., Conroy, J.L., Landry, C.C., Overpeck, J.T., Painter, T.H., Lawrence, C.R. and Reynolds, R.L., 2008, Increasing eolian dust deposition in the Western United States linked to human activity: Nature Geoscience, 1(3): 189-195.Painter, T.H., Barrett, A.P., Landry, C.C., Neff, J.C., Cassidy, M.P., Lawrence, C.R., McBride, K.E. and Farmer, G.L., 2007, Impact of disturbed desert soils on duration of mountain snow cover: Geophysical Research Letters, 34(12).**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.