co-PIs: Drs. Rebecca Hewitt and Michelle Mack
(rebecca.hewitt at nau.edu; michelle.mack at nau.edu)
Belowground ecosystem properties are poorly understood, but likely one of the most important drivers of Arctic ecosystem response to climate change. We propose to bring together an interdisciplinary team of biologists and ecologists to synthesize what is known about root traits and rhizosphere processes in cold ecosystems with soil profiles dominated by thick organic horizons - tundra, boreal forest, and peatlands. We have solicited the involvement of belowground ecologists spanning molecular biologists investigating rhizosphere processes, to plant ecologists and evolutionary biologists that use a trait framework to understand vegetation patterns and function, to ecosystem ecologists measuring the interplay between terrestrial ecosystem function and the climate system. We have found great interest by these scientists in an “Arctic Underground” network to produce synthesis products on belowground Arctic ecosystem processes. We have four general areas of interest that we would like to use as a starting point for the network:
1) synthesizing the effects of soil warming experiments on root and rhizosphere processes;
2) examining the links between leaf and root traits for extrapolation and scaling of ecological processes in Arctic and Boreal ecosystems;
3) linking roots from cold soils to a “worldwide root economic spectrum”; and
4) integrating traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of belowground properties into our understanding of Arctic ecosystem change.
