by Alain | Oct 5, 2024
In 2020, University of Pennsylvania contracted with energy developer AES to build a utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) array on 1,600 acres of agricultural land in Central Pennsylvania as part of its commitment to reducing carbon emissions associated with the University’s energy use. The Great Cove solar project will produce approximately 420,000 MWh of clean electricity per year. This project provides an opportunity to explore relationships between the benefits of clean energy production and the impacts (positive or negative) on landscape carbon stocks, land use productivity and soil heath, using the Great Cove project as a site-specific case study. The project is collaboration between the Plante Lab, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and AES Solar.
by Alain | Sep 6, 2024
An important legacy of past coal mining in central Pennsylvania, is a massive amount of anthracite coal fines/spoils that were eroded and transported into the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers. This anthracite coal has accumulated in thick deposits in riparian soils. This project seeks to determine the extent of these soils (e.g., Gibraltar series), to quantify and characterize the organic carbon in soil profiles to determine the contribution of coal to total soil carbon, and assess the potential of these soils to serve as sources or sinks for metals.
by Alain | May 22, 2016
Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory: The Role of Hot Spots and Hot Moments in Tropical Landscape Evolution and Functioning of the Critical Zone
National Science Foundation, Division of Earth Sciences, Award #1331841
Co-Principal Investigator (PI: William McDowell, University of New Hampshire)
10/2013-9/2018
The structure and function of the critical zone (CZ) plays a central role in sustaining Earth’s life support system. During the first phase of the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory (LCZO1), investigators identified differences in rock type, deep weathering, geomorphology, and topography as the dominant drivers of key CZ processes such as nutrient supply, greenhouse gas emissions, and water quantity and quality. Building on this foundation, LCZO2 will evaluate the role of “hot spots and hot moments” in the CZ: locations or time periods that disproportionately impact the environment as a whole. “Hot spots and hot moments” are particularly relevant to humid tropical environments such as the LCZO, which are characterized by high physical, geochemical, and biological diversity in space and time. Critical zone processes can occur at very small to very large spatial scales. For example, bedrock weathering occurs at a millimeter spatial scale, while wholesale changes in vegetation and carbon cycling occur over several kilometers such as along elevation gradients. Critical zone processes can also vary over time; oxidation-reduction reactions occur in soils on the scale of minutes, and catastrophic events such as hurricanes and landslides occur at decadal time scales. Investigators will identify, quantify, and model the role of “hot spots and hot moments” in a range of CZ processes and use that knowledge to predict the rates of CZ processes across the Luquillo Mountains and in other montane areas with high temperature and rainfall. Specific focal areas include: 1) the importance of knickpoints and landscape position as hot spots for weathering, soil development, and biogeochemical cycling; 2) the role of “hot spots and hot moments” in redox fluctuations and mineral weathering for C and nutrient retention and loss; 3) the role of “hot spots” for sediment production and “hot moments” in stream flow for the transport of sediment, C, and nutrients from mountains to the sea; and 4) the development of climate and hydrologic models to scale up “hot spots and hot moments” in time and space. The data collected and synthesized will transform the understanding of the controls on key CZ processes such as weathering, soil development, C and nutrient storage and loss, soil and sediment transport, and ultimately landscape evolution and the effects of climate change. The project will provide an unprecedented level of detail on “hot spots and hot moments” in a tropical system. The results of this research will allow us to accurately and precisely ‘earthcast’ the effects of environmental change on important environmental processes such as flooding, erosion, and landslides. Because all critical zones have “hot spots and hot moments” of significant environmental processes, the development of the “hot spots and hot moments” concept in the CZ context will promote cross-site integration, the development of conceptual models of the CZ, and provide a venue for the Earth science community to develop and test novel approaches to CZ science.
The LCZO2 will continue to collaborate with University of Puerto Rico (UPR) students and scientists to enhance the participation of underrepresented groups in the Earth and environmental sciences. LCZO2 will also contribute to an existing ‘Schoolyard’ environmental education program at high schools in Puerto Rico. This program has a successful record of incorporating new data and research techniques into the curriculum and provides professional development for the teachers in addition to research opportunities for students. The diverse group of co-PIs, senior personnel, and collaborators will provide strong role models for research students and postdocs. Our robust collaborations with local and federal agencies and educational institutions provide access to policy makers and other stakeholders that will help us to translate science into policy-relevant findings. Informal forums will be used to share our research findings and to emphasize the significance of CZ research to environmental decision makers dealing with questions such as soil erosion that can fill reservoirs, water quality that degrades water supply and coral reefs, and carbon storage that counteracts the effects of global increases in carbon dioxide. An inclusive and comprehensive engagement plan will encourage participation by scientists not yet affiliated with the LCZO2. The plans for cross-CZO modeling, open sharing of data and samples, and cyberseminars that are open to the public will strengthen the CZO network as a whole and enhance the availability of CZ science to the public and decision-makers.
by Alain | May 22, 2016
Soil organic matter dynamics: a cross-ecosystem approach – support for a cross-LTER workshop
LTER Network Office,
10/2010
Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Kate Lajtha, Oregon State University)
Organized a 2-day meeting in 2010 bring together scientists from several LTER sites interested in comparative SOM analysis. Our goal was to discuss the various tools and techniques that could and should be used in experimental SOM studies as well as to plan additional cross-site comparisons. The goal was to have scientists conducting quite different experiments, such as N fertilization studies, harvest or biodiversity studies, alien plant invasion measurements, or even DIRT studies, but who all wanted to examine soil organic matter as a response variable, could agree on some standard analytical techniques so that data set could be used in synthetic studies. We also wanted a time when the PIs of the different DIRT experiments could meet for a few hours to plan joint publication of existing data as well as to standardize other measurements to allow for future comparative analysis and publication. Thus participants included faculty and students involved in the Harvard Forest chronic N analysis, all the DIRT site lead scientists, an emerging scientist studying shrub invasions in grasslands, and forest clearing experiments.
by Alain | May 22, 2016
Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory
National Science Foundation, Division of Earth Sciences, Award #0722476
10/2009-9/2013
Principal Investigator (Former PI: Fred Scatena)
This project will establish a monitoring network in two watersheds of the Luquillo National Forest in Puerto Rico to evaluate the physical, chemical, hydrological and biological processes involved in weathering of bedrock and the evolution of the soil environment. This will be an addition to the Critical Zone Observatories (CZO) that are being initiated at various locations in North America. The Luquillo CZO will use the natural laboratory of the Luquillo Mountains to quantify and contrast how critical zone processes in watersheds underlain by granodiorite and volcaniclastic bedrock are affected by climatic conditions and hydrologic, geochemical and biogeochemical cycles. A set of interrelated hypothesis, sampling sites, and a unified data management system will allow critical zone processes to be contrasted by bedrock, landscape position (ridge, hillslope, riparian), depth (surface to bedrock), forest type (Tabonuco, Colorado, Cloud) and location (upland to coastal).
Changing climate affects many processes, and the breakdown of rocks into soil; is one of the most important. In addition, there may be changes in water flow in rivers, as well as erosion of surficial materials. Sediment is already the nation’s largest water quality pollutant and modern land uses are eroding soils and sculpting bedrock in unprecedented ways. The Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory will provide the infrastructure and baseline studies needed to evaluate short and long-term impacts of this erosion on soil and water resources. The Observatory will also support integrated, multi-institutional and multicultural exchanges among a diverse cadre of scientists, who will collaborate to determine the effects of climate change on the terrestrial environment.
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