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Changing precipitation dynamics and its impacts on soil carbon stock and chemistry in Mediterranean Grasslands

 

Precipitation is a key driver of ecosystems and is undergoing meaningful changes in amount and seasonality within the next century. Precipitation affects soil moisture, and there is still uncertainty about how changing soil moisture regimes will affect carbon and nitrogen cycling, and furthermore, how these climate change impacts will affect sequestration efforts. This dissertation work investigated how both changing amount and seasonality of precipitation affects soil organic matter through a natural precipitation gradient of California grasslands and through a long term precipitation manipulation experiment. The precipitation gradient focuses on three sites across California that range from a dry precipitation (~300 mm precipitation/year) to a wet precipitation regime (~2160 mm precipitation/year). The precipitation manipulation experiment has three treatments: ambient precipitation, additional precipitation in the winter, and additional precipitation in the spring. We collected samples from across natural precipitation gradient to 1m, and also at the precipitation experiment to 3m after 20 years of manipulation. We found key changes in stock across both the natural gradient of grasslands, as well as at the manipulation experiment. We also saw evidence of stabilization mechanisms changing with changing seasonality of precipitation. This study suggests that over decadal time scales, changing precipitation seasonality could affect soil organic matter stabilization in grassland ecosystems.

 

Leila is a PhD candidate at the University of California – Merced, and holds a BS from Rice University in Earth Science. Leila’s research interest centers around fundamental biogeochemistry questions regarding soil carbon and nitrogen and perturbations in their cycling due to climate change. Leila’s dissertation work has been funded by the Mathias Grant, Sigma Xi, the California Native Grasslands Association, and the Labor and Automation in California Agriculture research program. In her free time, Leila enjoys art, hiking, finding rivers and lakes in the Sierra Nevada to cool off in, and traveling back to her home state of Texas to be with family.

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