Ecosystems and Global Change Group

Carbon Capture Has a Hard Limit and Wind Power’s Out Plans for carbon capture and sequestration have an effective limit of 0.7 degrees. So mitigation is perpetually proven to be the best green energy strategy.

🤔 coverage of our latest paper with @ecfreewoman.bsky.social @waterik.bsky.social (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...) @forbes 🌳🍃 Read the story 👉 www.forbes.com/sites/suwann...

Dissolved organic matter concentrations were elevated in streams of the harvest relative to the control sites immediately after logging.

Logging changes the composition of the organic matter in nearby streams, making the organic matter more reactive. According to the authors, these changes are enough to flip logging from a carbon-sink to carbon-neutral or even a carbon-source. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Great story by about our research with @waterik.bsky.social. Read more 👉 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Grateful that our group could contribute to this fantastic work! Includes the work of @camplantsci.bsky.social undergrads. 🤩

Ecosystem ecology needs an ecology of molecules Ecosystem ecology needs a framework that explicitly considers the roles of organic compounds. The ecology of molecules integrates compound identity, d…

🧪 💡 🗣️ Just as genomics revealed the hidden world of individual microbes and their interactions, it's time to uncover the "ecology of molecules"—how individual compounds and compound communities shape ecosystem processes. 🌐🌍🦑🍁💧🧬🔬🔎🌱📚 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cannot thank NRCan enough! They should join the Bluesky party 😊

Hot off the press! 🌐🌍🦑🍁💧🧬🔬🔎🌱📚 🧪 💡 🗣️

None of this work would have been possible without the leadership of @ecfreewoman.bsky.social, colleagues @waterik.bsky.social @icbm-uol.bsky.social, many field assistants, and funders @gatescambridge.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu 7/7 🙏

Wood is touted as climate neutral, but is it? 🌳

Our study revises downward carbon storage in wood and suggest we must improve practices to make logging sequester carbon. These effects are likely playing out over millions of hectares of hemiboreal forests globally 🌎 6/n

What really matters is the reactivity of this carbon!

We found that carbon was more available for microbes to use by introducing new molecules from fresh plant material and disturbed soils. These changes lasted for >2 years. 5/n

We tracked four forests in Canada before and after logging for 3 years. We found that about 6% of all carbon in harvested trees would be lost to streams by logging. Although small, this number is large enough to make logging carbon neutral or even a carbon sink. 4/n

Logging can result in as much soil carbon washing into waters as 1/5 of all forest growth! However, we tend to think that logging is a good natural climate solution to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. Once in water, carbon can even be more likely to return to the atmosphere. 3/n

We know that soil carbon is not one homogenous thing. 🧪 It consists of thousands of different molecules, each with different function (see www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). As it rains, this carbon is washed from soils into waterways. 2/n

We are so excited our newest paper led by @ecfreewoman.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social is now out @pnas.org 🤩
Read it here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
🌲 We followed a forest as it was logged to understand what happens to soil carbon at a molecular-scale. Here's what we learned. 1/n

A year of seasonal 🇨🇦 field sampling ending! We’re studying soils that feed lakes and sediments that accumulate on lake bottoms. These rich carbon stores keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, so understanding them better will improve our ability to predict and mitigate climate change. ☀️

Headwaters provide key habitat for fish like the beautiful brook trout. The work we are leading will help inform forest management plans to protect headwaters and their many benefits in a changing climate. 🌲 🐟

Celeste has spent the last few weeks in the forests of NW Ontario as part of her PhD research with help from Antonin visiting as an intern from @insa-lyon.fr. Working with @waterik.bsky.social and others, she has been studying headwaters - where streams begin! 🌊

Jackson from Trent Biology got to join Jeremy @cam.ac.uk on the trip of a lifetime! One of many unique experiences we offer our Trent undergrads. Our work will help understand how land restoration and climate change impact water 🌊 from mountains 🏔️ of the northern UK 🇬🇧.

Thank you to the Algonquins of Barriere Lake (Mitchikanibikok Inik) for hosting us to learn about some of the challenges they face in protecting water quality and fish habitat. We will be working together over the next 3 years to deliver community-led solutions.

Open PhD position in my group to start relatively soon:
Deadline to apply: 31.08.2025
Thanks for sharing!
job-portal.lmu.de/jobposting/0...

Something exciting is coming to this shoreline. And it’s not the blackflies. @ecochangegroup.bsky.social #forestry #ecology #freshwaterecology #watershedscience #forestedwatersheds #forestscience #forestecology #nature #glfcscience #nrcansci

Back in the field to complete our Spring sampling campaign 🌸 This year we are studying the contributions of soils to the lakes they surround. How does carbon flow from land into water? What happens to soil carbon when it meets water? Important questions for climate change mitigation.

Check out the difference logging makes in these forests. The photo on the right shows a large intact forest plot. How many species found in these intact forests are missing from the large disturbed plot in the left photo? More answers soon! 3/3

Our contribution comes from new plots we established in the summer of 2019 north of Temagami, Ontario. These boreal forests are home to amazing species like this pink lady's slipper (Cypripedium acaule). 2/3

Excited 😀 that our contribution to the amazing #DarkDivNet led by @macroecologyut.bsky.social is now published @nature.com. The main discovery is that many species that we should find in nature are effectively missing because of human impacts. Read the paper for free: rdcu.be/eg3eA 🧵 1/3

Thank you for the inspirational leadership from @macroecologyut.bsky.social to realise this vision into reality. Grateful for the opportunity to be one of the few Canadian 🇨🇦 outposts in this global network.

Dark diversity reveals global impoverishment of natural vegetation A study recently published in Nature indicates that human activities have a negative effect on the biodiversity of wildlife hundreds of kilometres away. A research collaboration led by the University ...

Dark diversity reveals global impoverishment | EurekAlert! www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Thank you @eawag.bsky.social @ecfreewoman.bsky.social for the invite to talk about our work. What an inspiring turnout and environment! Plenty of potential for synergy between our mass spec facilities @trentuniversity.bsky.social.

Lots of learning, old and new friends, and excellent discussion about complex organic mixtures this week @icbm-uol.bsky.social @hanse-ias.bsky.social including an outstanding talk by @ecfreewoman.bsky.social. Future of the field looks bright! 🤩

What happens when 300+ scientists analyse the same data? Not the same answer! Lessons about staying open to alternate explanations, don't rush to judge, and potential for more than one "truth" in nature? 🤔 Grateful to contribute to this amazing initiative. Read it for free: doi.org/10.1186/s129...