Analyze the relationships between nitrogen-fixing plant communities, the corresponding microbial communities, and their environment to elucidate the driving evolutionary and environmental pressures that initially enabled and continues to cause changes in the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis.

This project aims to extend current macrosystem biological understanding to include throughfall (TF) and stemflow (SF) particulate concentrations, fluxes and composition, specifically addressing 3 major objectives: (1) estimate the net rainfall water and particulate mass flux across forest types; (2) characterize the particulate composition of TF and SF; and (3) identify major drivers of macrosystem variability in net rainfall particulate flux and composition.

In conjunction with NEON Small Mammal Sampling, iButtons are deployed at one pathogen grid at each selected site over three field seasons and are associated with captures during mammal processing. Tissue samples are collected from Peromyscus sp. captured on the same grid in support of this project.

This RAPID project deployed a NEON MDP coupled with high-performance computing resources from the NSF-funded SAGE project to enable responsive and real-time, fire monitoring, development of early smoke detection algorithms, and data-driven soil sample collection immediately following fire activity.