Collaborative research: NSF-snsf: fire impacts on the response of terrestrial ecosystems

Active Project Grant Awarded Last action

Award ID
2628991
Recipient
Awarding agency
Obligated
$50,000

Award facts

Assistance listing
47.079 Office of International Science and Engineering
Completion date 6% complete
Funding agency
Office of International Science and Engineering National Science Foundation
Place of performance
Hamilton, NY 13346, USA

Award details come from USAspending.gov.

Description

As the agency reported it.

Abstract
Wildfires can have substantial environmental impacts, including pollution, soil erosion, and profound, sometimes irreversible, upheavals of local plant and microbial communities in soil. Caves offer a unique opportunity to investigate the history of wildfire occurrence, to put today?s fire regimes in context, and to determine how fire affects soil carbon storage over decades to millennia. This research leverages this unique ability of caves to provide archives of past wildfires through the growth of cave mineral deposits. To translate the results to the public, including local stakeholders directly impacted by fire, the project team will collaborate with public and private land managers who oversee fire-impacted landscapes. Fire history and impacts on the subsurface carbon cycle will be investigated at two sites: a northern wyoming sagebrush steppe site managed with prescribed burns and a mixed conifer forest in northern california adjacent to several recent wildfires, including the 2025 green fire. Multi-year surface-to-cave monitoring will be used to assess the effects of fire on transport, transformation, and biogeochemistry of carbon. The temporal dimension of the subsurface carbon cycle will be added through radiocarbon measurements to determine age. Organic carbon and fire biomarkers in stalagmites from both sites will be analyzed to reconstruct fire activity during past intervals of abrupt environmental changes. This work will provide globally applicable information about the impacts of fire disturbance on carbon sources and sinks on multiple timescales, including the generation of records beyond the historical record, and novel, comprehensive quantification of subsurface transit times of mobile carbon species in response to fire. This knowledge can support more accurate carbon cycle models, refine estimates of fire impacts on terrestrial carbon export, and reveal benefits of prescribed burns on soil organic carbon stabilization. Results will be transferrable to other sagebrush steppe and mixed conifer forest landscapes in the western US. Further, this work has repercussions for broader public and private land management globally. This collaborative US-swiss project is supported by the U.S. National science foundation (NSF) and the swiss national science foundation (snsf), where NSF funds the U.S. Investigator and snsf funds the partners in switzerland. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.

Quick answers

Who received award 2628991?

2628991 was awarded to Colgate University by Division of Earth Sciences (National Science Foundation) on August 1, 2026.

How much is award 2628991 worth?

$50,000 has been obligated on 2628991.

Which agency awarded 2628991?

Division of Earth Sciences (National Science Foundation) awarded 2628991, with funding from Office of International Science and Engineering (National Science Foundation).

On GovTribe

See this award's full record

  • Every transaction and subaward
  • The recipient's other awards and teaming partners
  • Similar grant awards
  • Ask GovTribe AI about this award
Try for free Login