News Center

Richard Bowden, Professor of Environmental Science, coauthored the invited paper “The Detrital Input and Removal Treatment (DIRT) Network,” published in Elsevier’s online peer-reviewed reference database in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. The work describes an international network (DIRT) that assesses how rates and sources of plant litter inputs influence accumulations or losses of organic matter in forest soils. Forest soils contain three-quarters of the organic matter in forest ecosystems, thus exerting important influences in the global carbon budget. Quantifying the carbon budget is critical in anticipating effects of climate change.