The US Department of Energy is funding our $3.1M grant to study the neglected controls on peatland C cycling: bacterial predation by protists and viral infections. This grant is central to our ability to predict whether warming will beget further warming, through positive feedbacks on bacterial communities that release CO2, as their abundances may be controlled by temperature-dependent interactions with predatory protists and disease. Our understanding of how these moss-associated food webs, and food webs in general, may respond to changes in temperature, is nascent. This grant will thus fill a glaring gap in our current understanding as to how ecosystems may respond to rapid global climate change. In case you'd like to read more on food web responses to temperature, check out our new paper in Scientific Reports.
This is a collaborative grant with Jon Shaw (Duke), Dave Weston (Oak Ridge National Lab), Dale Pelletier (ORNL) and Steven Wilhelm (University of Tennessee-Knoxville) and will involve genomics, field and microcosm laboratory experiments, as well as mathematical modeling.
To learn more about the grant click here: "DUKE-LED TEAM WINS $3M GRANT TO STUDY PEATLANDS AND CLIMATE CHANGE"
This is a collaborative grant with Jon Shaw (Duke), Dave Weston (Oak Ridge National Lab), Dale Pelletier (ORNL) and Steven Wilhelm (University of Tennessee-Knoxville) and will involve genomics, field and microcosm laboratory experiments, as well as mathematical modeling.
To learn more about the grant click here: "DUKE-LED TEAM WINS $3M GRANT TO STUDY PEATLANDS AND CLIMATE CHANGE"