New Leaf Fwd: [ClimateChange] Final Fantastic Friday Nov 30: Characterizing the Biogeochemical Impacts of Wildfires on Arctic Tundra Ecosystems

[Sara Brown]

On Friday Nov 30, for the final Fantastic Friday of the semester, current
Hampshire students, Natalie Baillargeon and Rhys MacArthur, present
*Characterizing
the Biogeochemical Impacts of Wildfires on Arctic Tundra Ecosystems.*

*Abstract: *In the wake of a changing and warming climate, the Arctic is
experiencing the most dynamic increase of average surface temperature
globally, which is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of
wildfires in the region. Wildfires are changing the biogeochemical
functions of the Arctic ecosystem; however, this change is not fully
understood. This summer, Natalie Baillargeon and Rhys MacArthur traveled to
the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, a region that has experienced wildfires
in 2015 and 1972. There, they had the opportunity to investigate the
impacts of wildfires on the composition of aboveground biomass, plant
stoichiometry, and nitrogen cycling.

*Natalie Baillargeon,* a second-year at Hampshire, studies environmental
science with application to public policy and economics. Her research is
investigating the impacts of wildfires, specifically on plant stoichiometry
and nitrogen cycling, in the Arctic. Wildfires are expected to increase in
frequency and severity due to global climate change and are changing the
biogeochemical functions of the Arctic ecosystem; however, these changes
are not fully understood.

*Rhys MacArthur* is currently in her last semester of Division II at
Hampshire College where she studies Ecology and Environmental Justice.
Her research is focused around the effects wildfires have on the
above-ground biomass of arctic tundra ecosystems and the ecological
processes that drive vegetation composition. Vegetation plays a key role in
the carbon feedback loop set off by thawing arctic permafrost and the
frequency of arctic wildfires is expected to increase as global climate
change continues. However, very little is currently understood by the
scientific community about how fire changes arctic vegetation, thus
changing the ability of the landscape to sequester carbon.


_______________________________________________
ClimateChange mailing list
ClimateChange at lists.hampshire.edu
https://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/climatechange
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.hampshire.edu/pipermail/newleaf/attachments/20181126/062a8277/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 2018-11-30 Characterizing Biogeochem. Impacts of Fire.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 515816 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.hampshire.edu/pipermail/newleaf/attachments/20181126/062a8277/attachment-0001.jpeg>