Bowden Co-authors Two Papers on Soil Science

Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden coauthored “Effects of Decreasing Carbon Saturation Deficit on Temperate Forest Soil Carbon Cycling” in a special edition of the Soil Science Society of America Journal. The work, based on the Detritus Input and Transfer (DIRT) experiment at the Bousson Experimental Forest, showed that soils in intact forests have the capacity to increase soil C storage, but that increases in storage are very slow. Professor Bowden also co-authored “Linking soil organic matter content, chemistry, and decomposition: Complex responses to input manipulation and long-term incubation,” presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The work, conducted on soils collected from the Bousson Forest, and including colleagues from U. Oregon and Oregon State, shows that alteration of organic matter into soils dramatically alters the chemistry of soil organic matter, which is important for understanding controls on forest productivity and soil carbon storage.