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Carbon cycle tracers, an infographic
I’m happy to present an InfoGraphic on Carbon Cycle Tracers created by University of Arizona art students Melissa Yepiz and Luke Williams in Prof Karen Zimmerman’s course on infographics. Creating this infographic on complex scientific concepts was not an easy task, but Melissa and Luke did an incredible job. Through this collaboration they have provided me with an invaluable resource for sharing my research to a range of audiences (and in a much more aesthetically pleasing way than usual). I learned a lot in the process, including how to better explain my science and to get down to the fundamentals of the message I wanted to share. I was blown away by the talent…
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Soil survey: microbial, chemical and physical drivers of carbon cycle tracers
Two trace gases (carbonyl sulfide and the oxygen isotopes of CO2) show promise to help disentangle carbon cycle processes, but their soil fluxes need additional characterization. As in leaves, we anticipate that carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes in soil microbes drive uptake of atmospheric COS by soils (COS + H2O -> CO2 + H2S) and exchange of the oxygen isotopic signature between atmospheric CO2 and water (CO2 + H2O <-> HCO3– + H+). We performed a soil survey to test whether soil microbial CA drive the soil fluxes of these two potential carbon cycle tracers. By measuring the microbial, chemical, and physical properties of a diverse set of soils, we set out to determine…