Field work at the Woodlawn Fen. Steve and Ashley. Summer ’15.
Current Project: Tracking transient biological water availability in peat mosses using carbon stable isotopes in soluble sugars.
When dry, mosses go physiologically dormant, which occurs in wetland as well as dryland ecosystems. Consequently, annual growth and productivity are influenced by the schedule of dry—wet periods, but there are no useful indicators that track such cycles. We are developing a technique to monitor plant water availability that uses naturally occuring stable isotopes of carbon. The two forms (12C and 13C) get differentially incorporated into moss tissues in wet or dry conditions and we are exploring the use of the relative compostion of these isotopes in soluble sugars within the plant as a short-term (biweekly) indicator of bioavailable water.
