CASEY MCGRATH

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to humanity today. One of the greatest drivers of climate change is the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, meaning it traps heat inside the Earths atmosphere raising the global temperature. 

 

Soils hold more carbon than all vegetation and the atmosphere  combined. Tropical soils, although accounting for 12% of the worlds soils hold over 50% of the worlds carbon. This study will look at the relationship of soil warming under the impact of rising global temperatures from  climate change and the rates at which carbon dioxide is released from the soil from by soil respiration (breathing) of the microbes (bacteria and fungi) that live within it. This will be done by installing a manipulative experiment that raises the overall temperature of a tropical soil type called Andisols at a small site that is monitored by a sensor network taking information about temperature, soil respiration and other  relevant data. 

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 The research questions this project will ask are:

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1. How will soil warming effect the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the soil? 

2. How will warming effect the microbial community in the soil (bacteria and fungi)?

3. How will soil warming effect Andisol mineralogy (structure and chemical makeup?

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These three questions will be explored during a 2 year pilot study at the Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley on Oahu. Check out the site below for my information on the current Lyon Deep Soil Warming Project about the release of carbon in tropical soil!

 

Be sure to subscribe for updated blog posts pertaining to this research via the site link!

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