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(National Science Foundation OPP# 0338174).

Hydrological margins are crucial environments in understanding whole watershed biogeochemistry because hydrology links the material and energy budgets of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In temperate watersheds, these areas are dominated by riparian zones, which have been identified as ecological “hot-spots” because of the increased microbial activity and biogeochemical cycling. In the McMurdo Dry Valleys, terrestrial-aquatic transition zones are important landscapes because of the scarcity of liquid water in this polar desert. The goals of this project are to assess the role of aquatic-terrestrial transition zones in the regulation of nitrogen transport, and to determine to what extent trends in biogeochemical cycling reflect differences in the functioning of microbial communities vs. spatial variation in the physicochemical environment.

Since the Antarctic Dry Valleys lack vascular plants and significant subsurface hydrologic flow, these systems may provide model systems for understanding basic controls over the biogeochemical exchanges between soils and sediments general to other riparian systems.  One of the objectives of this project is to develop a general approach for investigating linkages between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems relevant to wide-ranging ecosystems

Read more above the hydrological margins research project.