9814358 SMITH UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS The aims of this project are to conduct a series of ecosystem process studies at the Nevada Desert FACE Facility (NDFF), designed to provide an integrated description of responses to elevated CO2. The particular interest at this site is on interactions between water and N limitations in control of desert productivity, and how the nature of those interactions might change under high CO2. Processes to be documented include photosynthesis, above- and belowground plant growth and allocation, water use, and the fixation, volatilization, and nitrification of N. Integration is to be achieved through development of a simulation model. The location of the NDFF is the Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas, operated by DOE. The research is particularly important because desert ecosystems have been predicted to be among the most responsive to elevated CO2 and because the nature of the water-nutrient interaction is poorly understood and expected to be critical to understanding responses of these ecosystems.
