Science and Products
Digital Database and Maps of Quaternary Deposits in East and Central Siberia
This digital database is the product of collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Potsdam, Foothill College GeoSpatial Technology Certificate Program, and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska. The primary goal for creating this digital database is to enhance current estimates of organic carbon stored in deep permaf
Filter Total Items: 134
The trajectory of soil development and its relationship to soil carbon dynamics
It has been postulated that the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) associated with soil minerals exhibits a threshold relationship in response to effective soil moisture (estimated as precipitation less evapotranspiration). To better characterize the role of moisture in influencing mechanisms of SOC storage during pedogenesis, we compare soils from two different chronosequence sites: the Santa Cr
Authors
Corey Lawrence, Marjorie S. Schulz, Caroline Masiello, Oliver A. Chadwick, Jennifer W. Harden
Generalized models to estimate carbon and nitrogen stocks of organic soil horizons in Interior Alaska
Boreal ecosystems comprise one tenth of the world’s land surface and contain over 20 % of the global soil carbon (C) stocks. Boreal soils are unique in that its mineral soil is covered by what can be quite thick layers of organic soil. These organic soil layers, or horizons, can differ in their state of decomposition, source vegetation, and disturbance history. These differences result in varying
Authors
Kristen L. Manies, Mark Waldrop, Jennifer W. Harden
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
Beneath the arctic greening: Will soils lose or gain carbon or perhaps a little of both?
Ecosystem shifts related to climate change are anticipated for the next decades to centuries based on a number of conceptual and experimentally derived models of plant structure and function. Belowground, the potential responses of soil systems are less well known. We used geochemical steady state models, soil density fractionation, and soil radiocarbon data to constrain changes in soil carbon bas
Authors
Jennifer W. Harden, J.A. O’Donnell, K.A. Heckman, B.N. Sulman, C.D. Koven, C.L. Ping, G.J. Michaelson
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
A decade of boreal rich fen greenhouse gas fluxes in response to natural and experimental water table variability
Rich fens are common boreal ecosystems with distinct hydrology, biogeochemistry and ecology that influence their carbon (C) balance. We present growing season soil chamber methane emission (FCH4), ecosystem respiration (ER), net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and gross primary production (GPP) fluxes from a 9-years water table manipulation experiment in an Alaskan rich fen. The study included major floo
Authors
David Olefeldt, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer W. Harden, Evan S. Kane, A. David McGuire, Mark P. Waldrop, Merritt R. Turetsky
Rapid carbon loss and slow recovery following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands
Permafrost peatlands store one-third of the total carbon (C) in the atmosphere and are increasingly vulnerable to thaw as high-latitude temperatures warm. Large uncertainties remain about C dynamics following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands. We used a chronosequence approach to measure C stocks in forested permafrost plateaus (forest) and thawed permafrost bogs, ranging in thaw age from young
Authors
Miriam C. Jones, Jennifer W. Harden, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Kristen L. Manies, Torre Jorgenson, Claire C. Treat, Stephanie Ewing
Radiocarbon constraints imply reduced carbon uptake by soils during the 21st century
Soil is the largest terrestrial carbon reservoir and may influence the sign and magnitude of carbon cycle-climate feedbacks. Many Earth system models (ESMs) estimate a significant soil carbon sink by 2100, yet the underlying carbon dynamics determining this response have not been systematically tested against observations. We used 14C data from 157 globally distributed soil profiles sampled to 1 m
Authors
Yujie He, Susan E. Trumbore, Margaret S. Torn, Jennifer W. Harden, Lydia J.S. Vaughn, Steven D. Allison, J. T. Randerson
Decadal and long-term boreal soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration rates across a variety of ecosystems
Boreal soils play a critical role in the global carbon (C) cycle; therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms that control soil C accumulation and loss for this region. Examining C & nitrogen (N) accumulation rates over decades to centuries may provide additional understanding of the dominant mechanisms for their storage, which can be masked by seasonal and interannual variability when
Authors
Kristen L. Manies, Jennifer W. Harden, Christopher C. Fuller, Merritt Turetsky
Soil data for a vegetation gradient located at Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research Site, interior Alaska
Boreal soils play an important role in the global carbon cycle owing to the large amount of carbon stored within this northern region. To understand how carbon and nitrogen storage varied among different ecosystems, a vegetation gradient was established in the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, located in interior Alaska. The ecosystems represented are a black spruce (Picea m
Authors
Kristen L. Manies, Jennifer W. Harden, Christopher C. Fuller, Xiaomei Xu, John P. McGeehin
Estimating heterotrophic respiration at large scales: Challenges, approaches, and next steps
Heterotrophic respiration (HR), the aerobic and anaerobic processes mineralizing organic matter, is a key carbon flux but one impossible to measure at scales significantly larger than small experimental plots. This impedes our ability to understand carbon and nutrient cycles, benchmark models, or reliably upscale point measurements. Given that a new generation of highly mechanistic, genomic-specif
Authors
Ben Bond-Lamberty, Daniel Epron, Jennifer W. Harden, Mark E. Harmon, Forrest Hoffman, Jitendra Kumar, Anthony D. McGuire, Rodrigo Vargas
Science and Products
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Digital Database and Maps of Quaternary Deposits in East and Central Siberia
This digital database is the product of collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Potsdam, Foothill College GeoSpatial Technology Certificate Program, and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska. The primary goal for creating this digital database is to enhance current estimates of organic carbon stored in deep permaf - Multimedia
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 134
The trajectory of soil development and its relationship to soil carbon dynamics
It has been postulated that the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) associated with soil minerals exhibits a threshold relationship in response to effective soil moisture (estimated as precipitation less evapotranspiration). To better characterize the role of moisture in influencing mechanisms of SOC storage during pedogenesis, we compare soils from two different chronosequence sites: the Santa CrAuthorsCorey Lawrence, Marjorie S. Schulz, Caroline Masiello, Oliver A. Chadwick, Jennifer W. HardenGeneralized models to estimate carbon and nitrogen stocks of organic soil horizons in Interior Alaska
Boreal ecosystems comprise one tenth of the world’s land surface and contain over 20 % of the global soil carbon (C) stocks. Boreal soils are unique in that its mineral soil is covered by what can be quite thick layers of organic soil. These organic soil layers, or horizons, can differ in their state of decomposition, source vegetation, and disturbance history. These differences result in varyingAuthorsKristen L. Manies, Mark Waldrop, Jennifer W. HardenAn 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 WagaiBeneath the arctic greening: Will soils lose or gain carbon or perhaps a little of both?
Ecosystem shifts related to climate change are anticipated for the next decades to centuries based on a number of conceptual and experimentally derived models of plant structure and function. Belowground, the potential responses of soil systems are less well known. We used geochemical steady state models, soil density fractionation, and soil radiocarbon data to constrain changes in soil carbon basAuthorsJennifer W. Harden, J.A. O’Donnell, K.A. Heckman, B.N. Sulman, C.D. Koven, C.L. Ping, G.J. MichaelsonNetworking 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. HardenA decade of boreal rich fen greenhouse gas fluxes in response to natural and experimental water table variability
Rich fens are common boreal ecosystems with distinct hydrology, biogeochemistry and ecology that influence their carbon (C) balance. We present growing season soil chamber methane emission (FCH4), ecosystem respiration (ER), net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and gross primary production (GPP) fluxes from a 9-years water table manipulation experiment in an Alaskan rich fen. The study included major flooAuthorsDavid Olefeldt, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer W. Harden, Evan S. Kane, A. David McGuire, Mark P. Waldrop, Merritt R. TuretskyRapid carbon loss and slow recovery following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands
Permafrost peatlands store one-third of the total carbon (C) in the atmosphere and are increasingly vulnerable to thaw as high-latitude temperatures warm. Large uncertainties remain about C dynamics following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands. We used a chronosequence approach to measure C stocks in forested permafrost plateaus (forest) and thawed permafrost bogs, ranging in thaw age from youngAuthorsMiriam C. Jones, Jennifer W. Harden, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Kristen L. Manies, Torre Jorgenson, Claire C. Treat, Stephanie EwingRadiocarbon constraints imply reduced carbon uptake by soils during the 21st century
Soil is the largest terrestrial carbon reservoir and may influence the sign and magnitude of carbon cycle-climate feedbacks. Many Earth system models (ESMs) estimate a significant soil carbon sink by 2100, yet the underlying carbon dynamics determining this response have not been systematically tested against observations. We used 14C data from 157 globally distributed soil profiles sampled to 1 mAuthorsYujie He, Susan E. Trumbore, Margaret S. Torn, Jennifer W. Harden, Lydia J.S. Vaughn, Steven D. Allison, J. T. RandersonDecadal and long-term boreal soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration rates across a variety of ecosystems
Boreal soils play a critical role in the global carbon (C) cycle; therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms that control soil C accumulation and loss for this region. Examining C & nitrogen (N) accumulation rates over decades to centuries may provide additional understanding of the dominant mechanisms for their storage, which can be masked by seasonal and interannual variability whenAuthorsKristen L. Manies, Jennifer W. Harden, Christopher C. Fuller, Merritt TuretskySoil data for a vegetation gradient located at Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research Site, interior Alaska
Boreal soils play an important role in the global carbon cycle owing to the large amount of carbon stored within this northern region. To understand how carbon and nitrogen storage varied among different ecosystems, a vegetation gradient was established in the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, located in interior Alaska. The ecosystems represented are a black spruce (Picea mAuthorsKristen L. Manies, Jennifer W. Harden, Christopher C. Fuller, Xiaomei Xu, John P. McGeehinEstimating heterotrophic respiration at large scales: Challenges, approaches, and next steps
Heterotrophic respiration (HR), the aerobic and anaerobic processes mineralizing organic matter, is a key carbon flux but one impossible to measure at scales significantly larger than small experimental plots. This impedes our ability to understand carbon and nutrient cycles, benchmark models, or reliably upscale point measurements. Given that a new generation of highly mechanistic, genomic-specifAuthorsBen Bond-Lamberty, Daniel Epron, Jennifer W. Harden, Mark E. Harmon, Forrest Hoffman, Jitendra Kumar, Anthony D. McGuire, Rodrigo Vargas
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government