Anthony's Science Blog

First dissertation chapter in print

June 23, 2010 – 10:18 pm

Can be found here!

I won’t deny it: this paper is pretty abstruse and is only relevant to a handful of soil scientists who study this stuff. My father-in-law printed a copy to read in the bathroom and honestly I don’t recommend that. That said, it actually does have some new and interesting findings in it.

I examined levels of landscape heterogeneity (quantified using semivariograms) in soil organic matter carbon and nitrogen from two different soil density fractions using soils from Niwot Ridge. The density fractions contain soil organic matter with divergent residence times and thus represent soil organic matter of different ages. Though many studies have examined landscape patterns in soil organic matter, few have examined patterns in the different chemical constituents of soil organic matter. The results contribute to a growing body of evidence that suggests that microbes essentially homogenize the widely varying chemical inputs that plants provide. Pretty cool.