Investigate how a foundation plant species (Fremont cottonwood) distributed across three major ecoregions in the southwestern U.S. responds to the synergistic impacts of climate-induced drought and temperature change, coupled with exotic species invasion

Test how the mean leaf angle, crown density, and crown rugosity co-vary and how their covariation is predictive of ecosystem functioning at tree crown, landscape, regional, and continental scales.

Examination of bioaerosol properties, flux, and vertical structure, with emphasis on thunderstorm and cold pool events.

Assess the above ground biomass burned during specific wildfires in the Western US during the 2018 fire season. This effort supports another NSF-supported project, BB-FLUX (Biomass Burning Flux Measurements of Trace Gases and Aerosols), that is focused on measuring wildfire emission fluxes.

Assess the biogeochemical controls on the decomposition of lignin versus other litter constituents in soils spanning the NEON core terrestrial sites.

Improve the understanding on functions and processes of forest ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest (e.g. the link between leaf temperatures and carbon assimilation) with direct measurement of forest canopy temperatures at the NEON WREF site. 

Partition evaporation (E) and transpiration (T) fluxes at most core NEON terrestrial sites. These data will be synthesized to elucidate patterns of E/T partitioning and transpiration fluxes across the continent, and used to evaluate a range of ecosystem models to assess their representation of transpiration.

We examine how flow variability among NEON sites selects for functional traits in benthic invertebrates and their resultant impact on the susceptibility to stoichiometric constraints.

The results are published in: Blalock A, Q Cai, JR Corman, SA Thomas, and EK Moody. 2024. Hydrology has stronger effects than periphyton stoichiometry on lotic invertebrate functional diversity across North America. Freshwater Science, 43(3), doi: 10.1086/732096

Requesting to borrow the NEON SIPRE auger and power head for permafrost samples (immediately below the active layer) for evaluation of microbial communities and ice nucleating particles (INPs; particles that facilitate cloud ice formation).

Test the hypothesis that detailed information about forest structural and functional diversity is critical to predicting key elements of forest photosynthetic production, including peak growing season and daily cycles of productivity in temperate forest ecosystems. NEON's AOP flight surveys were conducted over the University of Michigan Biological Station near Pellston, MI, in 2019.