North Carolina Piedmont Streams

Streams in the piedmont of North Carolina are subject to many of the pressures facing other streams in the Eastern US: eutrophication, hydrologic and geomorphic modification, and changes in ecological communities.  Our research aims to understand how these changes influence the behavior of these systems, with a particular focus on 1) understanding nutrient limitation as a dynamic phenomenon controlled by variation in supply and demand at multiple scales; and 2) how these changes differentially influence large rivers and small streams.  Two of our planned study sites include the Eno River, which runs through the northern part of Durham and feeds Falls Lake, the reservoir for the city of Raleigh; and New Hope Creek, which runs through Duke Forest and has a long history of stream ecology research.

SWAMP

Curt Richardson has spent several decades working on a large-scale stream and wetland restoration project (SWAMP).  This project has several phases in which different features (including a lake, stream, and anabranching wetland) have been added or restored.  The site is very well instrumented and provides lost of opportunities for research by interested students.

Coastal Wetlands

Wetlands on the coast and in the coastal plain face a range of potential stressors associated with sea level rise.  For coastal marshes, the key question is whether soil building via deposition of mineral sediments and organic soil can keep pace with sea level rise.  Since both of these land-building processes are influenced by vegetation, there is the potential for both resilience and collapse of these systems.

Inland wetlands within the coastal plain may not be inundated by sea level rise, but they still face potential changes in hydrologic regime and salinity.  Our colleagues in the Bernhardt lab have been studying the Timberlake restored wetland for several years now, trying to understand how these changes influence biogeochemical processes such as nutrient export and trace gas emissions.