ASSESSING EFFECTS OF CLIMATIC CHANGE ON WATER AND CARBON AT PEATLAND CATCHMENTS OF THE MARCELL EXPERIMENTAL FOREST IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA

Peatlands, which have important feedbacks on the atmosphere and climate, are considered to be especially vulnerable to climate change. The Marcell Experimental Forest (MEF) was established during the 1960s to study the hydrology and ecology of catchments having upland soils that drain through central peatlands to streams that are headwaters of the Mississippi River and Hudson Bay drainages. Long-term data from routine monitoring of air, water, soils, and vegetation document environmental change and how these ecosystems have responded. Findings from the MEF research program offer critical knowledge on how carbon storage and cycling in the landscape is linked to hotspots of biogeochemical transformations and hydrological transport in peatland catchments. I will present an overview of the MEF research program with a particular foci on shifting seasonality; changes to streamflow timing and magnitude; foundational research on trace gas emissions; long-term increases of dissolved organic matter concentrations and yields; and a next generation, large scale ecosystem experiment that is designed to study effects of climate warming and enriched carbon dioxide on peatland processes. Importantly, understanding heterogeneous responses of organic matter transformations and transport in peatland catchments provides vital knowledge needed to understand climatic drivers as well as elucidate feedbacks of these globally widespread landscape features on climate change.