Ecosystem ecologist, Rosanne, shows her interest in the impacts of global change on plant-soil interactions. Her research focuses on the role of snow cover and the impacts of changing precipitation regimes on carbon and nutrient cycling in oceanic-alpine habitats, particularly alpine snowbeds.
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I am an ecosystem ecologist interested in the impacts of global change on plant-soil interactions. In the past I’ve worked in boreal peatlands, where I focused on how fire severity affected post-fire moss colonisation. Currently my research focuses on the role of snow cover and the impacts of changing precipitation regimes on biogeochemical cycling in oceanic-alpine habitats, particularly alpine snowbeds.
I’ve recently submitted my thesis ‘Impacts of climate change on carbon and nutrient cycling in oceanic-alpine ecosystems’. Mountains are global reservoirs of biodiversity, water, and soil carbon, but are warming at greater than average rates than low elevation ecosystems, resulting in reduced snow cover duration and changing rainfall regimes. These changes in snow and rain may alter biogeochemical cycling, impacting the fate of soil carbon.
My thesis aimed to improve understanding of carbon and nitrogen cycling in oceanic-alpine ecosystems and potential impacts of climate change. I conducted surveys across snow melt gradients and elevations, to explore the relationships between snow cover duration, vegetation community, and soil carbon store. In the field, I manipulated snow cover to examine the effects of altered snow cover duration on microbial activity, while in laboratory experiments, I examined effects of drought and rewetting intensity on carbon and nitrogen fluxes.
My notebooks are often filled with doodled diagrams similar to this piece showing the movement of carbon through ecosystems and how it may change seasonally or under disturbance. Plant communities in alpine snowbeds often contain Sphagnum mosses and other bryophytes, and vascular plants such as Nardus stricta and Narthecium ossifragum.
Moving top down, the first two arrows represent carbon coming into the system via fixation by plants, and the release of carbon due to plant and microbial respiration. The two spiralled arrows represent the breakdown of carbon compounds by microbes. The horizontal arrow represents the movement of carbon downslope as leachate. The final arrow pointing down represents the formation of large stores of soil carbon.
Rosanne Broyd / @rosannebroyd