Ph.D. candidate, Memorial University (Environmental Science)
B.Sc. 2011, Vancouver Island University (Biology and Geography)
My research is focused on quantifying fluxes of dissolved organic matter within boreal forest podzols. In particular, I study the relationships between these fluxes and short-term environmental variation. This includes weekly to seasonal variation in precipitation, soil temperature and soil moisture, as well as snowpack formation and snowmelt. As these relationships are developed, I plan to demonstrate that simple environmental monitoring may be used to predict fluxes of dissolved organic matter through the soil profile. This will help facilitate the inclusion of soil-derived dissolved organic matter fluxes into elemental budgets of the boreal forest ecosystem. I have spent most of my Ph.D. so far working in black spruce forest stands of the Pynn’s Brook catchment in western Newfoundland. A unique aspect of my work is the use of passive lysimeters to simultaneously capture fluxes in both mature black spruce and adjacent regenerating stands. The two contrasting environments offer further insight into how environmental variation affects dissolved organic matter transport. My work contributes to a developing understanding of how terrestrial elemental cycles are linked to elemental cycling in the aquatic environment. I will continue to explore this linkage through comparing soil-derived dissolved organic matter fluxes to high frequency sampling of dissolved organic matter in headwater streams of the Pynn’s Brook catchment.
You can reach me by email at: klbowering@mun.ca