Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID KY_2023_Moon

Predicting greenhouse gas fluxes in bottomland hardwood wetlands across levels of spatial soil complexity and hydrogeomorphic setting.

Institute: Kentucky
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2023-09-01 End Date: 2024-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $19,995 Total Non-Federal Funds: $20,862

Principal Investigators: Jessica B. Moon

Project Summary: Bottomland hardwood wetlands, common in western Kentucky headwaters, play a significant role in the landscape. They remove nutrients, such as nitrogen, which would otherwise enter adjacent streams, and store carbon in deep soil organic matter pools. However, these systems are also expected to be significant sources of greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Our ability to predict the balance between these benefits and costs is still lacking due to incomplete field data across hydrogeomorphic (HGM) settings and incomplete model descriptions of (1) CH4 and N2O production in soils and (2) transport pathways from soils, through woody structures, to the atmosphere. We aim to improve predictions of CH4 and N2O emissions from soils and woody structures of Bald cypress in bottomland hardwood wetlands of western Kentucky for use in climate models and to inform the site selection process and management practices used by Kentucky’s Wetland Reserve Easement Program. Our objectives are three-fold: (1) determine if soils and bald cypress stems and exposed woody root structures (“knees”) are conduits of CH4 and N2O to the atmosphere, and whether their emissions vary with HGM setting; (2) determine if soil microbial habitat complexity varies with HGM setting; and (3) identifying whether soil microbial habitat complexity influences CH4 and N2O emissions. Our research plan invests in graduate and undergraduate students, providing a unique immersive learning opportunity that combines field, experimental, and modeling approaches across ecological and environmental science disciplines.