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Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Understanding Ecosystems for a Sustainable Future

Biogeochemistry

Principal Investigator

Patrick Megonigal

megonigalp@si.edu

Biogeochemistry Projects

Blue carbon ecosystems—tidal marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses—are hotspots of carbon sequestration in oceans.

Blue Carbon
Though there is a great deal of interest in how rising CO2 and nitrogen impact ecosystems together, very few long-term field studies have manipulated both.

Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, & Marsh Elevation
The first experiment on the marsh, and the longest-running of its kind in the world, began in 1987 under the guidance of plant physiologist Bert Drake.

Elevated Carbon Dioxide and Plant Communities
The Global Change Research Wetland is dedicated to unraveling the complex ecological processes that confer stability on coastal marshes as they respond to global environmental change.

Global Change Research Wetland (GCREW)
Using an automated methane chamber system, GENX aims to quantify rates of anaerobic decomposition pathways that regulate methane emissions across different time scales.

Greenhouse gas Emissions NeXus (GENX)
Since the 1960s, a non-native lineage of the common reed, Phragmites australis (commonly called Phragmites), has been taking over wetlands across North America.

Invasive Species Response to Global Change
Warming and elevated CO₂ experiment in the Global Change Research Wetland. Heat lamps warm the plants from above, while cables heat the soil.

Salt Marsh Accretion Response to Temperature eXperiment (SMARTX)
Methane (CH₄) is a powerful greenhouse gas. Wetlands rank among the world’s largest methane emitters.

Upland Methane Emissions