Productivity and Nutrient Cycling

Wiregrass ecosystem.Net primary productivity is an emergent property of ecosystems which integrates both structural and functional aspects. Carbon is the currency that runs ecosystems and understanding patterns and controls of C pools and fluxes across the landscape and through time is essential to understanding the ecology of a system and managing that system in ways that are sustainable. Since C cycles are intimately linked to those of water and nutrients, understanding an appreciation of hydrologic controls and those that regulate the flux and availability of key nutrients such as N and P. The following sections describe a number of ongoing research efforts at the Jones Center to better understand these processes.