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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Boise, Idaho » Northwest Watershed Research Center » Research » Research Project #431459

Research Project: Reynolds Creek Carbon Critical Zone Observatory

Location: Northwest Watershed Research Center

Project Number: 2052-13610-012-027-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Apr 1, 2018
End Date: Nov 30, 2022

Objective:
The objectives of the proposed research are to answer the following 6 questions. 1) How much carbon is stored in soils under a wide range of conditions? 2) What are the current SC fluxes? 3) What is the current soil environment? 4) What are the critical environmental controls on SC processes? 5) What are the effects of management on SC storage and flux? 6) Can we link basic SC processes to larger scale models?

Approach:
Research will be conducted in two phases. Within the context of a Reynolds Creek CZO, we propose that the research proceed in two, overlapping phases. Phase I is directed towards deployment of instrumentation and data collection required to address the questions listed above. This involves 1) inventory of SC stocks, 2) enhancement of current data collection and 3) monitoring, development of spatially distributed atmospheric forcing data sets and management treatments. Phase II is directed towards process level research, hypothesis testing, manipulative experiments and model testing.