Fire, Charcoal and Biochar
We study how charcoal and other forms of pyrogenic carbon interact with their environments, in both natural settings and in agronomic environments where charcoal can be intentionally added to soils (charcoal intentionally made for soil amendment is called biochar). Our work studying fire and its carbonaceous products helps us understand this key carbon cycle process, and includes measurements in environments ranging from deep-sea sediments to soils from ecosystems that burned within the past year.
Our group studies fire in natural ecosystems, such as the Silas Little Experimental Forest in New Jersey, which has a rich and carefully documented fire history that provides excellent data for studying the effect of fire frequency on charcoal and soil properties. We also do collaborative work with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to use computational methods and atmospheric models for understanding the behavior and lifetime of airborne pyrogenic carbon.
Our goals in studying biochar as a soil amendment range from characterizing its effects on soil water properties and soil microbes to understanding biochar economics for the creation of effective policy.
Current Projects
Dr. Xiaodong Gao
Along with being our lab manager, and therefore overseeing day-to-day maintenance of lab equipment, managing research activities and supervising graduate and undergraduate research projects, Xiaodong also partakes in his own research. Xiaodong received his Ph.D. in Soil Chemistry and Mineralogy from Purdue University. He is mainly interested in biogeochemical processes controlling carbon and nitrogen cycling in geomedia, specifically regarding:
Carbon stabilization mechanisms in the soil through interactions between microbes, SOM, and soil minerals
Transport and fate of fire biomarkers (e.g., charcoal, leveglucosan) in the environment
Nature-based carbon sequestration techniques, such as biochar and zerovalent carbon (a solid carbon product from methane pyrolysis to produce hydrogen) soil amendments.