This award will support Dr. Antoni W.H. Damman of the University of Connecticut to conduct collaborative research with Dr. K. Ito of the University of Hokkaido and Dr. S. Kojima of Toyama University in Japan. The project will include an eight-month stay in Japan by Dr. Damman. Fundamental questions of decay, nitrogen dynamics and element retention in peat bogs will be studied. The peat bogs in northern Japan are particularly suitable for this project because they exist in the form of stratified structures of alternating peat and volcanic ash layers. In addition to the chronological control the stratification permits, the peat also shows the effects of volcanic ash over hundreds of years. The effects of nutrient additions to the peat in the years between volcanic erup- tions, as well as those of sulfur and phosphorus additions during the eruptions, will be studied by layer core measurements as well as atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The experience of the Japanese laboratories in ongoing studies of native bogs and mires will complement that of the Principal Investigator in vegetation analysis and the study of vegetation-soil relationships.
