Collaborative Research: A biotic awakening: How do invertebrates, microbes, and plants determine soil organic matter responses to release from nutrient limitation in arctic tundra?

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The goal of this project is to determine how plants, microbes and soil invertebrates interact to drive changes in soil organic matter and carbon sequestration with ambient and increased soil nutrient availability in the dominant upland arctic tundra ecosystem in northern Alaska. The proponents will use a combination of field observation, experimental, laboratory, and modeling approaches to address four research objectives that include:1. Understanding how well-documented changes in the plant community alter plant inputs to soils (roots and litter)2. Determining how soil microbial and invertebrate communities respond to these inputs3. Investigating if the loss of SOM occurs in response to an increase in soil activities and/or a change in community structure, and 4. Developing a model of soil pedogenesis based on the DAYCENT model (Parton et al. 2001) that incorporates the roles of plants, microbes, and invertebrates. This work will be conducted at the Toolik Lake Long-Term Ecological Research site and will utilize a suite of long-term nutrient-addition plots (some extending back over 30 years) as well as more recently manipulated sites. A postdoctoral researcher, at least two graduate students, and several undergraduates will be trained as part of this project. The PIs will also conduct teacher development workshops and other K-12 outreach programs.