This Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award to Dr. Lindsay Brin is supported by both the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Office of International Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation. During the 24-month fellowship, Dr. Brin will work on a project titled, "Effects of climate change on winter N cycling and microbial communities in agricultural ecosystems," under the sponsorship of Dr. Claudia Goyer at the Potato Research Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
This project will investigate the effects of snowfall on the amount of fertilizer nitrogen (N) that is lost from agricultural fields during the winter and the following growing season. This loss can occur through leaching into the groundwater, which harms water quality, or through bacterial conversion to gaseous N or nitrous oxide (N2O), which is a strong greenhouse gas that causes global warming. Climate change may alter snowfall patterns, which could affect soil N cycling. To study these potential effects, Dr. Brin will conduct a 2-year field experiment to examine how snow depth affects N2O production, the amount of N in the soil, and the soil bacteria that produce N2O. She will also conduct a laboratory experiment to examine how snowmelt and refreezing affect soil N processes.
By adding to our knowledge of winter N cycling, this project may help managers in both the United States and Canada improve practices to avoid N losses from agricultural fields. Furthermore, results from this work may be useful for modeling climate change effects and feedbacks. Additionally, this study will involve undergraduate students from the University of New Brunswick, who will learn about soil processes and biogeochemical cycles.
This award provides a unique opportunity for a US scientist to collaborate with foreign scientists, and utilize the unique facilities, expertise and experimental conditions available abroad.
