They found that greenhouse gas emissions from streams and wetlands at Coweeta could be highly variable.
Freshwater ecosystems can be substantial sources of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, but it can be difficult to figure out how unique aquatic habitat arrangements and connections influence carbon cycling at different scales.
In mountain streams, carbon cycling is affected by many interwoven factors, such as precipitation and the productivity of the surrounding forest. A team of researchers from Virginia Tech studied freshwater greenhouse gas emissions in the mountains of North Carolina to try to better understand how carbon moves through connected streams and wetland networks.
Kristen Bretz, a Ph.D. candidate, and Erin Hotchkiss, an assistant professor of biological sciences in the Virginia Tech College of Science, recently worked with three undergraduate researchers who have since graduated, on a two-year study at the U.S. Forest Service Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory.
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