Jack McFarland
Science and Products
Arctic Biogeochemical Response to Permafrost Thaw (ABRUPT)
Warming and thawing of permafrost soils in the Arctic is expected to become widespread over the coming decades. Permafrost thaw changes ecosystem structure and function, affects resource availability for wildlife and society, and decreases ground stability which affects human infrastructure. Since permafrost soils contain about half of the global soil carbon (C) pool, the magnitude of C...
The biophysical role of water and ice within permafrost nearing collapse: Insights from novel geophysical observations
The impact of permafrost thaw on hydrologic, thermal, and biotic processes remains uncertain, in part due to limitations in subsurface measurement capabilities. To better understand subsurface processes in thermokarst environments, we collocated geophysical and biogeochemical instruments along a thaw gradient between forested permafrost and...
James, Stephanie R.; Minsley, Burke J; McFarland, Jack; Euskirchen, Eugenie S.; Edgar, Colin W.; Waldrop, Mark Life at the frozen limit: Microbial carbon metabolism across a Late Pleistocene permafrost chronosequence
Permafrost is an extreme habitat yet it hosts microbial populations that remain active over millennia. Using permafrost collected from a Pleistocene chronosequence (19 to 33 ka), we hypothesized that the functional genetic potential of microbial communities in permafrost would reflect microbial strategies to metabolize permafrost soluble organic...
Leewis, Mary-Cathrine; Berlemont, Renaud; Podgorski, David C.; Srinivas, Archana; Zito, Phoebe; Spencer, Robert G. M.; McFarland, Jack; Douglas, Thomas A.; Conaway, Christopher H.; Waldrop, Mark; Mackelprang, Rachel Geese mediate vegetation state changes with parallel effects on N cycling that leave nutritional legacies for offspring
Along the coastal fringe of the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta in southwestern Alaska, geese maintain grazing lawns dominated by a rhizomatous sedge that, when ungrazed, transitions to a taller, less palatable growth form that is taxonomically described as a different species. Nutrients recycled in goose feces, in conjunction with grazing, are...
Ruess, Roger W.; McFarland, Jack; Person, Brian T.; Sedinger, James S. Large loss of CO2 in winter observed across pan-arctic permafrost region
Recent warming in the Arctic, which has been amplified during the winter1,2,3, greatly enhances microbial decomposition of soil organic matter and subsequent release of carbon dioxide (CO2)4. However, the amount of CO2 released in winter is not known and has not been well represented by ecosystem models or empirically based estimates5,6. Here...
Natali, Susan M; Watts, Jennifer D.; Potter, Stefano; Rogers, Brendan M.; Ludwig, Sarah M.; Selbmann, Anne-Katrin; Sullivan, Patrick F.; Abbott, Benjamin W.; Arndt, Kyle A.; Birch, Leah; Bjorkman, Mats P.; Bloom, Anthony; Celis, Gerardo; Christiensen, Torben R.; Christiansen, Casper T.; Commane, Roisin; Cooper, Elisabeth J.; Crill, Patrick; Czimczik, Claudia; Davydov, Sergey; Du, Jinyang; Egan, Jocelyn E.; Elberling, Bo; Euskirchen, Eugenie S.; Friborg, Thomas; Genet, Helene; Gockede, Mathias; Goodrich, Jordan P.; Grogan, Paul; Helbig, Manuel; Jafarov, Elchin E.; Jastrow, Julie; Kalhori, Aram A.M.; Kim, Yongwon; Kimball, John S; Kutzbach, Lars; Lara, Mark J.; Larsen, Klaus S.; Loranty, Michael M; Lund, Magnus; Lupascu, Massimo; Madani, Nima; Malhorta, Avni; McFarland, Jack; McGuire, David A.; Michelson, Anders; Minions, Christina; Oechel, Walter C.; Olefeldt, David; Parmentier, Frans-Jan; Pirk, Norbert; Poulter, Benjamin; Quinton, William L.; Rezanezhad, Fereidoun; Risk, David; Sachs, Torsten; Schaefer, Kevin; Schmidt, Neils M.; Schuur, Edward A.G.; Semenchuk, Philipp R.; Shaver, Gaius; Sonnentag, Oliver; Starr, Gregory; Treat, Claire C.; Waldrop, Mark P.; Wang, Yihui; Welker, Jeffrey; Wille, Christian; Xu, Xiaofeng; Zhang, Zhen; Zhuang, Qianlai; Zona, Donatella 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...
McFarland, Jack; Waldrop, Mark P.; Strawn, Daniel; Creamer, Courtney; Lawrence, Corey R.; Haw, Monica Warming effects of spring rainfall increase methane emissions from thawing permafrost
Methane emissions regulate the near‐term global warming potential of permafrost thaw, particularly where loss of ice‐rich permafrost converts forest and tundra into wetlands. Northern latitudes are expected to get warmer and wetter, and while there is consensus that warming will increase thaw and methane emissions, effects of increased...
Neumann, Rebecca B.; Moorberg, C.J.; Lundquist, J.D.; Turner, J.C.; Waldrop, Mark P.; McFarland, Jack W.; Euskirchen, E.S.; Edgar, C.W.; Turetsky, M.R. Spatially explicit estimation of aboveground boreal forest biomass in the Yukon River Basin, Alaska
Quantification of aboveground biomass (AGB) in Alaska’s boreal forest is essential to the accurate evaluation of terrestrial carbon stocks and dynamics in northern high-latitude ecosystems. Our goal was to map AGB at 30 m resolution for the boreal forest in the Yukon River Basin of Alaska using Landsat data and ground measurements. We...
Ji, Lei; Wylie, Bruce K.; Brown, Dana R. N.; Peterson, Birgit E.; Alexander, Heather D.; Mack, Michelle C.; Rover, Jennifer R.; Waldrop, Mark P.; McFarland, Jack W.; Chen, Xuexia; Pastick, Neal J. Extreme CO2 disturbance and the resilience of soil microbial communities
Carbon capture and storage (CSS) technology has the potential to inadvertently release large quantities of CO2 through geologic substrates and into surrounding soils and ecosystems. Such a disturbance has the potential to not only alter the structure and function of plant and animal communities, but also soils, soil microbial communities,...
McFarland, Jack W.; Waldrop, Mark P.; Haw, Monica Estimating aboveground biomass in interior Alaska with Landsat data and field measurements
Terrestrial plant biomass is a key biophysical parameter required for understanding ecological systems in Alaska. An accurate estimation of biomass at a regional scale provides an important data input for ecological modeling in this region. In this study, we created an aboveground biomass (AGB) map at 30-m resolution for the Yukon Flats ecoregion...
Ji, Lei; Wylie, Bruce K.; Nossov, Dana R.; Peterson, Birgit E.; Waldrop, Mark P.; McFarland, Jack W.; Rover, Jennifer R.; Hollingsworth, Teresa N.