"Aquaterrestrial Biogeochemistry"
Nutrient cycling within and between dry soils and wet sediments.

In our lab we are broadly interested in 2 questions:
      1. How do ecosystems retain and transform nutrients and energy?
      2. How is the answer to Q1 changing as a result of human activities?

We study the movement of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus (and increasingly iron, sulfur, and trace metals) within and between forests, floodplains, wetlands and streams. Our research takes place in Appalachian forests, the floodplains of Glacier National Park as well as in the urban streams and forests of central NC and the agricultural fields and wetlands of NC's coastal plain.

Recent News

Winner's podium following our December 2011 Lab/Field Pentathlon (click for full description).  Congratulations to Ben Colman who proved our best all around gas vial decrimper, pipet shooter, mapmaker, water sampler and diorama sculptor.  Silver went to Matt Ross and the Bronze to Brian Lutz. 

Real News
1/4/12:  Newest lab baby arrives!!!  Congrats to Ben and Corinne on the birth of baby Parker Colman.

12/11 - New paper published in PNAS reports our first results from Duke research team investigation of cumulative impacts of mountaintop mining in WV's largest surface mining complex.

12/11 -Bernhardt, Helton and Somers present their research at the AGU fall meeting in San Francisco.

11/11 - We harvest the CEINT wetland mesocosms at the conclusion of a >12 month nanomaterial exposure experiment. Stay tuned for findings.

11/11 - New paper in L&O (Lutz et al.) describes novel understanding of instream DOM cycling.

10/11 - The whole lab takes a road trip to West Virginia to tour surface mines and reclamation sites together and to help an amazing local family harvest their potato crop.