Carbon allocation and non-structural carbon

Solar-induced fluorescence and photosynthesis

Carbon dynamics of a forested wetland

My Ph.D. project investigated carbon dynamics, mainly respiratory processes, of a coastal forested wetland. Coastal forested wetlands differ from upland forests in many aspects. ‘Coastal’ means that they are located in the coastal area, and the sea level rise is (likely) a threat to these ecosystems under climate change; ‘forested wetlands’ means that the trees are generally flooding-tolerant; the combination of ‘coastal’ and ‘forested wetlands’ means that the trees may have to deal with the salinity stress as well.

My study site is located in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Special management plans have been carried out in some areas of the refuge to slow down the intrusion of seawater. While this area might be threatened by the sea level rise, it has been experiencing longer dry periods that cause the exposure of soils with high organic matter content to the atmosphere. As a result, the wetland soils that usually are under anoxic conditions and store carbon belowground may accelerate releasing the carbon into the atmosphere, implying positive feedback to global warming. Overall, this type of ecosystem is vulnerable to climate change, and its role of being carbon stock could also be changed rapidly under climate change. The goal of this study is thus to understand and quantify the interaction between the coastal forested wetlands and climate change.

  • Miao et al. 2013. The effect of water table fluctuation on soil respiration in a lower coastal plain forested wetland in the southeastern US. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 118, 1748-1762, 10.1002/2013JG002354
  • Miao et al. 2017. Hydrology and microtopography control carbon dynamics in wetlands: Implications in partitioning ecosystem respiration in a coastal plain forested wetland. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 247, 343-355, 10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.08.022
  • Minick et al. 2019. Microtopography alters hydrology, phenol oxidase activity, and nutrient availability in organic soils of a coastal freshwater forested wetland. Wetlands, 39, 263-273, 10.1007/s13157-018-1107-5
  • Li et al. 2020. Effects of microtopography on absorptive and transport fine root biomass, necromass, production, mortality, and decomposition in a coastal freshwater forested wetland, Southeastern USA. Ecosystems, 23, 1294-1308, 10.1007/s10021-019-00470-x
  • Aguilos et al. 2021. Long-term carbon flux and balance in managed and natural coastal forested wetlands of the Southeastern USA. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 288-289, 108022, 10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108022