Current research
With funding from the National Science Foundation, we are examining the effects of saltwater intrusion on carbon and nitrogen cycling within North Carolina's largest wetlands mitigation project, a 400ha former agricultural field that was converted to a wetland in 2006. Our work combines field measurements of solute and gas fluxes, laboratory measurements of wetland soil anaerobic pathways, mesocosms, and simulation modeling of wetland hydrology and biogeochemical dynamics. Former postdoctoral associate Ashley Helton (now at UConn) leads the field and biogeochemical modeling components of this work. Collaborators include Amy Burgin (University of Nebraska), Geoff Poole, Clem Izurieta, and Rob Payn (Montana State University), and Marcelo Ardon (East Carolina University).
Previous funding from the Department of Energy's National Institute of Climate Change Research, the Great Dismal Swamp Mitigation Bank, LLC, the NC Water Resources Research Institute and the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources focused on understanding the consequences of converting formerly cultivated and fertilized farmland to wetland with respect to promoting denitrification vs. generating dissolved phosphorus and greenhouse gas pollutants. Former postdoctoral associate Marcelo Ardon and PhD student Jen Morse led these efforts. This work was in collaboration with Martin Doyle (Duke), Geoff Poole (Montana State University).
Previous funding from the Department of Energy's National Institute of Climate Change Research, the Great Dismal Swamp Mitigation Bank, LLC, the NC Water Resources Research Institute and the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources focused on understanding the consequences of converting formerly cultivated and fertilized farmland to wetland with respect to promoting denitrification vs. generating dissolved phosphorus and greenhouse gas pollutants. Former postdoctoral associate Marcelo Ardon and PhD student Jen Morse led these efforts. This work was in collaboration with Martin Doyle (Duke), Geoff Poole (Montana State University).