Export Of Carbon, Nitrogen And Major Solutes From A Boreal Forest Watershed: The Influence Of Fire And Permafrost

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2005Detailed observations of stream, soil, and groundwater chemistry were used to determine the role of fire, permafrost and snowmelt processes on the fluxes of carbon, nitrogen and major solutes from interior Alaskan catchments. We examined an experimentally burned watershed and two reference watersheds that differ in permafrost coverage (high, 53%; medium-burn, 18%; and low, 4%) during the FROSTFIRE prescribed burn in July 1999. The fire elevated stream nitrate concentrations for a short period during the first post-fire storm, but nitrate declined thereafter, suggesting that less severe fires that leave an intact riparian zone may have only a short-term effect on stream chemistry. Nevertheless, we found fundamental differences in hydrochemical differences between watersheds due to the presence of permafrost. Flowpaths in the low-permafrost, likely from the riparian zone, depleted stream nitrate levels while flowpaths in the high permafrost watershed, generated from more distant hillslopes, were a source of nitrate. All watersheds were sources of organic solutes during snowmelt and summer storms. On an annual basis, watersheds were net sources of every individual ion or element (Cl-, PO42- , SO42-, DOC, DON, NO3 -, Na+, K+ Mg2+, Ca2+) except NH4+, which was a small fraction of the total N concentration in streams. The concentration of NO 3- was high for an ecosystem with low atmospheric N deposition and compared to non-Alaskan boreal and temperate watersheds, resulting in net N loss. These findings suggest that boreal watersheds in the discontinuous region of interior Alaska may be fundamentally different in their capacity to retain N compared to ecosystems with net N retention

Nickel contamination analysis at cost-effective silver printed paper-based electrodes based on carbon black dimethyl-glyoxime ink as electrode modifier

Electrochemical detection of metal cations at paper-based sensors has been suggested as an attractive alternative to current spectroscopic and chromatographic detection techniques due to the ease of fabrication, disposable nature, and low cost. Herein, a novel carbon black (CB), dimethylglyoxime (DMG) ink is designed as an electrode modifier in conjunction with 3-electrode inkjet-printed paper substrates for use in the adsorptive stripping voltammetric electroanalysis of nickel cations in water samples. Thedeveloped method provides a novel, low-cost, rapid, and portable adsorptive stripping detection approach towards metal analysis in the absence of the commonly used toxic metallic films. The study demonstrated a novel approach to nickel detection at paper-based sensors and builds on previous work in the field of paper-based metal analysis by limiting the use of toxic metal films. The device sensitivity is improved by increasing the active surface area, electron transfer kinetics, and catalytic effects associated with non-conductive dimethylglyoxime films through CB nanoparticles for the first time and confirmed by electroanalysis. The first use of the CB-DMG ink allows for the selective preconcentration of analyte at the electrode surface without the use of toxic Mercury or Bismuth metallic films. Compared to similarly reported paper-based sensors, improved limits of detection (48 μg L-1), selectivity, and intermetallic interferences were achieved. The method was applied to the detection of nickel in water samples well below World Health Organization (WHO) standards

Using High Resolution LiDAR Data and a Flux Footprint Parameterization to Scale Evapotranspiration Estimates to Lower Pixel Resolutions

Over the last several decades the hydrologically sensitive Boreal Plains ecoregion of Western Canada has experienced significant warming and drying. To better predict implications of land cover changes on evapotranspiration (ET) and future water resources in this region, high resolution light detection and ranging and energy balance data are used here to spatially parameterize the Penman-Monteith ET model. Within a 5 km × 5 km area of peatland ecosystems, riparian boundaries, and upland mixedwood forests, the influence of land cover heterogeneity on the accuracy of modeled ET is examined at pixel sizes of 1, 10, 25, 250, 500, and 1,000 m, representing resolutions common to popular satellite products (SPOT, Landsat, and MODIS). Modeled ET was compared with tower-based eddy covariance measurements using a weighted flux footprint model. Errors range from 10% to 36% of measured fluxes and results indicate that sensors with small pixel sizes (1 m) offer significantly better accuracy in large heterogeneous flux footprints, while a wider range of pixel sizes (500 m) pixel sizes offered significantly less accuracy, although changes in pixel size within this range offered comparable results

Graphene-AuNP enhanced inkjet-printed silver nanoparticle paper electrodes for the detection of nickel(II)-dimethylglyoxime [Ni(dmgH2)] complexes by adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry (AdCSV)

Please read abstract in the article.https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/152141092021-10-14hj2021Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineerin

Severe wildfire exposes remnant peat carbon stocks to increased post-fire drying

Abstract The potential of high severity wildfires to increase global terrestrial carbon emissions and exacerbate future climatic warming is of international concern. Nowhere is this more prevalent than within high latitude regions where peatlands have, over millennia, accumulated legacy carbon stocks comparable to all human CO2 emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Drying increases rates of peat decomposition and associated atmospheric and aquatic carbon emissions. The degree to which severe wildfires enhance drying under future climates and induce instability in peatland ecological communities and carbon stocks is unknown. Here we show that high burn severities increased post-fire evapotranspiration by 410% within a feather moss peatland by burning through the protective capping layer that restricts evaporative drying in response to low severity burns. High burn severities projected under future climates will therefore leave peatlands that dominate dry sub-humid regions across the boreal, on the edge of their climatic envelopes, more vulnerable to intense post-fire drying, inducing high rates of carbon loss to the atmosphere that amplify the direct combustion emissions