The article, is first-authored by Christiane Werner, Laura Meredith, and Nemiah Ladd, leaders of the Biosphere 2 Water, Atmosphere, and Life Dynamics Campaign (B2 WALD) and weaves together the overarching observations of the tropical forest response to drought, its recovery, and forest resilience. Entitled “Ecosystem fluxes during drought and recovery in an experimental forest”, it can be read in Science Magazine: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj6789 To learn more about the experiment, check out the RESEARCH page and additional news coverage and interviews.

Laura Meredith recognized for her early career success with a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award from the Atmospheric Chemistry (AGS) and Ecosystem Science (BIO) Programs entitled Unearthing the Role of Belowground Biology in Biosphere-Atmosphere Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Exchange #2045332. Read more about the award here.

With support from UA Research Innovation and Impact, the labs of Laura Meredith (School of Natural Resources and the Environment) and Marc Verhougstraete (School of Public Health) will investigate the risks and mitigation of pathogen invasion in soils in water-saving retention and reuse applications. Dr. Vanessa Buzzard, Senior Research Specialist in the Meredith Lab, will lead the research, which builds on her experience studying the impacts of green infrastructure on soil health and function.

NSF DEB # 2034192: SitS: Decoding microbial interactions in soil systems using subsurface sensors for volatile organic compounds Team: PI Laura Meredith (UA), Co-PI Jordan Krechmer (Aerodyne Research, Inc.), Co-PI David Hagan (QuantAQ, Inc.), Co-PI Malak Tfaily (UA), Eben Cross (QuantAQ, Inc.), J. Rob Roscioli (Aerodyne Research, Inc.), Joanne Shorter (Aerodyne Research, Inc.), Megan Claflin (Aerodyne Research, Inc.) We are hiring a postdoctoral researcher on this project to be based at Aerodyne in Boston, MA area – APPLY HERE.

NSF AGS Atmospheric Chemistry #1933280: Advancing Carbonyl Sulfide (OCS) as an Independent Atmospheric Tracer for Global Photosynthesis through Quantification of Microbial-mediated Sources and Sinks in Soils.  Team: PI Laura Meredith, Co-PI Jana U’Ren (UA), Co-PI Róisín Commane (Columbia University), Co-PI Ian Baker (Colorado State University), PhD Student C. Allison Newton (UA) Recent news story on project from UA BIO5 Institute: COVID-19 Forces a Change in Plans for Researchers Studying Global Photosynthesis Drs. Laura Meredith and Jana U’Ren pivoted their scheduled field work trip to Alaska to infer the impact of terrestrial carbon loss on climate change.

Our team received two user facility awards to support genomic and metabolomic analysis of soil and root responses to drought and rewet in the WALD Campaign. First, PI Malak Tfaily (UA) was awarded a Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) grant from the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) and the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) labs to study Rhizosphere effects on soil organic matter decomposition and microbial activity in a tropical rainforest under drought: unearthing aggregate- to ecosystem-scale contributions to carbon cycling through whole-ecosystem stable isotope labeling (#50971). Second, PI Laura Meredith (UA) was awarded UA Research Innovation and Impact Core Facility award for sequencing at the University of Arizona Genetics Core…

    Deutsche Welle Documentary (1/30/20)– Displaced – Dürre und Flut. Go to Story English. Go to Story German. NPR Science Friday (1/10/20)– Studying Drought, Under Glass. Go to Story. UA News (12/16/19)– ‘Rainforest Under Glass’ Kissed by Rain After Two-Month Drought. Go to Story. NPR Here and Now – (12/20/19)– Studying Drought In An Enclosed Rainforest. Go to Story. NPR KNAU – (12/12/19)– Enclosed Rainforest In Arizona Goes Through Drought For Science. Go to Story. NPR Arizona Science – (11/22/19)– Researching climate change at Biosphere 2. Go to Story. Tageshau (11/18/19)– Ein Regenwald wird trockengelegt. Go to Story. Science (10/17/19)- Unprecedented drought in an artificial ecosystem may reveal how rainforests will cope with climate change. Go to Story Biosphere 2 interviews (10/17/19)- Dr. Laura Meredith Describes the WALD Experiment Happening in the Biosphere 2…

In the winter of 2017, the Meredith Research Group had the pleasure of hosting Carol Sayuri-Nishisaka, a MS student with Dr. Acacio Aparecido Navarrete at the Federal University of São Carlos in Sorocaba, Brazil. Carol shared her expertise in quantitative PCR analysis of N2O cycling genes, which we used to study hotspot dynamics of N2O in the Biosphere 2 Tropical Rainforest. We were thrilled to contribute to her manuscript on differences in N2O emissions in tropical tree croplands versus their natural forest counterparts across the wet and dry seasons. Carol considered many soil physicochemical properties alongside N2O-cycling marker genes in her analysis. Especially interesting was Carol’s complementation of field-based insights…

At the Landscape Evolution Observatory in Biosphere 2, weathering is the main process controlling soil CO2 fluxes, and in the net, drives CO2 into the soils. In most soils CO2 is emitted due to the overwhelming role of respiration by microbes, macrofauna, and roots on the soil flux of CO2. Alex surveyed the literature and found that negative soil CO2 fluxes are not uncommon in arid regions, and are likely under-reported if interpreted as measurement errors. The presence of both CO2-consuming and CO2-producing processes in soils complicates equating CO2 emissions with microbial and/or root respiration and activity. In this paper, Alex investigates abiotic and biotic drivers of soil CO2 fluxes…

L. K. Meredith, J. Ogée, K. Boye, E. Singer, L. Wingate, C. von Sperber, A. Sengupta, M. Whelan, E. Pang*, M. Keiluweit,N. Brüggemann, J. A. Berry, P. V. Welander, Soil exchange rates of COS and CO18O shift with the diversity of microbial communities and their carbonic anhydrase enzymes, Published online, The ISME Journal. Document online. What a great experience working with this interdisciplinary team