Year 2

Methane cycling in northern forests

photo by Dave Hollinger

In the second year of our research on the biophysical drivers of methane in a northern forest, our team:

  1. Collected long-term flux data across the footprint of the eddy covariance tower.
Student researcher sinclair strong caries equipment through forest

Partnership Education Program student Sinclair Strong measures greenhouse gases at the Howland Research Forest. Photo by Valeria Briones.

  1. Initiated a soil wetting experiment to look at moisture as a driver of methane fluxes.
blue tape on the ground marks a research plot in a forest. inside the marked square are circular instruments that measure greenhouse gases fluxing from the earth

Instruments to measure methane fluxes are set up in a forest study plot. Photo by

  1. Hosted a workshop on methane fluxes: Understanding the drivers and magnitudes of CH4 source-sink transitions in climate sensitive ecosystems
  2. Presented our work at the Fall 2024 AGU meeting in Washington DC.

 

Fall 2024 AGU talks

  • Invited talk by Jennifer Watts: Climate Tipping Point? The Uncertain Role of Methane in Rapidly Warming Arctic-boreal Systems.
  • Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Jana Taeume , Kathleen Savage, Shawn Fraver, Jennifer Watts, Zoe Dietrich, Valeria Briones, Roel Ruzol, Christian Hettwer, Dana Kahn, Andrew Ouimette, Xiaofeng Xu, and Debjani Sihi. High Spatial Variability of GHG fluxes is linked to microbial community composition in sub boreal conifer forest

 

Student-led posters

  • Dana Kahn, Kathleen Savage, Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Shawn Fraver, Jennifer Watts, Xiaofeng Xu, and Debjani Sihi. Quantifying Gross Rates of Methane Production and Consumption in a Northern Forest.
  • Elias Neitlich, Jennifer Watts, Kathleen Savage, Andrew Ouimette, Shawn Fraver, Avion Brown, Sinclair Strong,Christian Hettwer, Eric Sproles, Dana Kahn, Valeria Briones, Debjani Sihi, Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Xiaofeng Xu. Understanding the role of methane in ecosystem carbon budgets within a sub- boreal conifer forest.
  • Christian Hettwer, Shawn Fraver, Kathleen Savage, Andrew Ouimette, Jennifer Watts, Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Debjani Sihi, Xiaofeng Xu. Methane flux from living and dead tree stems in a northern conifer forest, Maine, USA.