"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.

Lab News


5/1/12: Jen Morse's paper on predicting denitrification and N2O fluxes across coastal plain wetlands preprint now available in JGR Biogeosciences

4/30/12: Kris Voss awarded a 3 year dissertation fellowship through the EPA STAR program to chase bugs in streams of the Central Appalachians full time. 4 hours later, Kris passes his qualifying exam. Go Kris!

3/21/12: Brian Lutz's paper on the long-term biogeochemistry of Walker Branch, Tennessee now available as preprint from Ecological Monographs

3/15/12: Kayleigh Somers awarded a NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant!  Now Kayleigh will be able to fill streams with HOBOs this summer (HOBO = temperature sensors).  Go Kayleigh!

3/12: Dr. Brian Lutz accepts faculty position at Kent State University.
 
2/24/12: Alison Appling is now Dr. Alison Appling!  You can check out Alison performing her dissertation as a ballad in fulfillment of the Bernhardt lab's final dissertation requirement (a public performance on an instrument that you learned to play as a graduate student)

1/12: Jen Morse's paper reporting the trace gas consequences of restoring wetland hydrology to a former agricultural field published in Ecological Applications

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

12/11:  First annual Bernhardt Lab-o-lympics won by Dr. Ben Colman.  Check out our amazing field events here

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