Research Interests

For my dissertation research, I investigated how changes in landscape structure affect the carbon balance in a permafrost region, and its potential influence on future climate change at the EML permafrost thaw gradient site. I demonstrated that 1) permafrost thaw and thermokarst development stimulated permafrost carbon release, 2) the degree of land surface subsidence can be used as a predictive variable for estimating variability in these emissions, and is closely tied to thermokarst development, which alters soil properties, and 3) belowground hydrological changes created as a result of permafrost thaw and thermokarst affected carbon releases from the ecosystem in part by changing the partitioning of CO2 and CH4 released during thaw.