ISCN all-hands meeting and Data Hackathon at AGU 2017

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**January 2018 update: we will post the summary from AGU meetings at the end of this month!

**December 7th, 2017 update: please note that if you signed up for the hackathon and/or the all-hands meeting and are not getting any emails from us, they might be going to your spam folder. For the all-hands meeting, all the logistical information is below.**

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Greetings soil carbon lovers!

There are three exciting ISCN related events at AGU fall meeting 2017, New Orleans:

1) ISCN all-hands meeting:  All are welcome! Whether you are an ISCN member or interested in becoming one, or just curious about the network or database, join us! Click below to see the meeting agenda:

 

Sign up now to attend!

Date and time: Sunday, December 10, 2017; 8 am to 1 pm

Location: Galerie 3 (second floor), Marriott New Orleans, 555 Canal street, New Orleans


2) Data hackathon: co-hosted by the International Soil Carbon Network (ISCN) and the Permafrost Carbon Network (PCN) tentatively Sunday, December 10th (afternoon). Want to see how your data compare and contribute to comprehensive datasets? Interested in finding new uses for old data? Want to help us grow our “Underground Network” in one searchable database? Bring your own soil carbon data or work with existing datasets! In this hackathon we’ll craft R scripts to harmonize soil carbon data and build teams for future collaborations. Soil survey, field experiments, and laboratory incubation, soil respiration data are welcome, though we are not currently set-up to work with ‘omics or high resolution MS/NMR data.

See event details and register. Note that spaces are now full and you can register to be on the wait list. 

Date: December 10, 2017; Time: 1 to 5 pm; Location: Galerie 3 (second floor), Marriott New Orleans, 555 Canal street, New Orleans

 

3) Session B063: Soil Carbon Dynamics at Broad Scales: Linking Mechanistic Knowledge to Broad-scale Applications. Time and location tbd in October

See session description here!

 

A case study in collaborative research: Soil Organic Matter: Mechanisms of Stabilization (SOM-MOS)

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Late in 2014 a collaborative team of investigators from the University of Colorado, Oregon State University, Virginia Tech, the University of Michigan, and the USDA-Forest Service began a project supported by NSF (MacroSystems Biology, EF-1340681) to understand mechanisms of SOM stabilization and vulnerability at the continental scale. The project is making use of intact soil cores removed for belowground sensor deployment at 40 sites in the National Ecological Observatory Network. These cores would otherwise have been discarded, but are instead following a multi-institutional analytical workflow, generating a rich characterization dataset and being archived for use by members of the research community. Learn more about our project from this presentation at the 2014 SSSA meeting, read more about it below, or contact our lead PI for information about how to get involved.

Conceptual framework: SOM stabilization/destabilization are processes. Mechanisms are crucial (physico-chemical) steps or conditions in those processes. Controls influence processes, rendering mechanisms more or less effective.

At the extremes of climate, climate controls profoundly influence SOM stabilization. In the temperate middle ground, more proximal factors come into greater play. NEON soils span the North American continent and 11 of 12 USDA soil orders, presenting a superb opportunity to characterize relationships between soil and ecosystem properties and mechanisms of SOM stabilization.

Of the 10 cores collected at each of 40 sites, 5 are being characterize and described. The other 5 are archived and available for community use. Of the characterized cores, the uppermost mineral, first illuvial, and lowermost pedogenic horizons are being composited, density fractionated, and analyzed.

Observational methods are being complemented by a yearlong, experimental incubation to test temperature, moisture, and land management effects on SOM stability and vulnerability to destabilization. All of these data will ultimately be integrated with the ISCN Database for analysis, spatial prediction, and sharing to support synthesis.

For more information, contact any member of the SOM-MOS team: Mike San Clements, Jeff Hatten, Kate Heckman, Luke Nave, Brian Strahm, and Chris Swanston.