A Joshua Leffler
South Dakota State University, SD·Ecology & Evolution
Arctic coastal wetlands are being hit by climate change from several directions at once. Temperatures are rising, rising seas bring more flooding, and the numbers of migratory geese that graze on wetland plants are changing.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Earth & Environmental Science
Plant Science & Agriculture
- Topics
Arctic
coastal wetlands
Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2027
What they work on
- Manipulate temperature, flooding and goose grazing in a large field experiment in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta to measure how these factors interact to change coastal and inland wetland plant communities.
- Quantify carbon dioxide and methane exchange between wetland plots and the atmosphere under combined warming, flooding and goose treatments, comparing coastal and inland plant communities.
- Use laboratory experiments with tightly controlled temperature, flooding and goose effects to uncover the mechanisms behind plant and greenhouse gas responses measured in the field.
- Apply field and laboratory results to inform predictions of how climate-driven changes will alter vegetation and greenhouse gas fluxes in other high-latitude coastal wetlands.
More about the research
These wetlands also take up and release the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, so their response can feed back on the pace of climate change. The Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta in Alaska is one of the world's largest river deltas. It is a refuge for millions of migratory birds and one of the North American regions most vulnerable to these changes.
Why it matters
Many Arctic coastal regions face the same mix of warming, sea-level rise and shifting waterfowl populations. Understanding how these forces combine to change plants and the release of carbon dioxide and methane could improve predictions of how high-latitude coastal wetlands will feed back on climate change. It could also inform understanding of habitat for the millions of migratory geese that depend on the Y-K Delta.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Julie Brigham-Grette
University of Massachusetts, MA·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure and model rates of land change and altered water flow caused by rising sea level and collapsing permafrost across villages and traditional-use landscapes in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
Donatella Zona
San Diego State University, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Extend year-round CO2 and CH4 flux records from five Arctic eddy covariance towers in Alaska to a 20+ year CO2 and 11-year CH4 dataset across moisture and latitude gradients.
Samantha Chapman
Villanova University, PA·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether excess nitrogen loading disrupts the soil accumulation that lets coastal wetlands keep up with sea level rise, using experimental nitrogen additions at creekside and interior field plots.
The school
South Dakota State University: 3 labs on PI Pages, $82M a year on research, 46 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.