This grant will fund doctoral dissertation research. Tussocks are carbon-containing structures that a diversity of plant species construct in tundra, sedge meadow, and grassland ecosystems around the world, but little is known about how they form or how much carbon they store. In eastern North American wetlands, the plant Carex stricta grows tussocks of 20 cm or more in height. To investigate C. stricta tussock formation, maintenance, and how these structures store carbon, the graduate student will use a combination of field surveys, an outdoor growth experiment, laboratory assays, and novel 14C methodology. She will (1) quantify the composition of tussocks collected from Wisconsin sedge meadows, (2) compare tussock formation under six water-level and two nutrient-addition treatments, (3) measure organic matter production and decay, and (4) determine the age of carbon compounds in field-grown tussocks. Together, the results will form the basis for restoring ecosystem services (i.e., carbon storage, community structure) to degraded sedge meadows and novel wetlands, such as stormwater basins. Research findings will be disseminated to scientists and managers as conference presentations, papers in the peer-reviewed literature, and leaflets for the general public. The graduate student is also collaborating with an undergraduate student and a high school biology teacher in the development of activities for low-income minority high school students that aim to enhance their understanding of ecosystem functioning.
