Climate-driven warming is projected to increase the frequency,
intensity, and size of wildfires that can have severe environmental,
human, and economic impacts, particularly along the U.S. West Coast.
These wildfires result in dramatic CO2emissions and
deposition of ash carrying nutrients, organic matter, and trace metals
onto the coastal and open ocean. Deposition of wildfire ash on the ocean
can alter the carbon and energy flow through marine food webs by
fertilizing microbial production or inhibiting microbial growth due to
heavy metal toxicity.
How the character of both the ash (e.g., chemical quality, fertilizing
v. toxic) and the starting microbial community composition (e.g.,
diversity, size distribution) influences the microbial response to
ash-derived material is unknown. As an National Science Foundation Ocean
Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow, I will address this knowledge gap by
investigating the physiological responses of marine plankton off the U.S
West Coast to different types of ash generated from local wildfires and
plant biomass.