Carbon soil dynamics in secondary tropical dry forests in Northwestern Costa Rica regenerating from grazing

Faculty adviser: Jennifer PowersThe goal of my research project is to understand how ecosystem processes like carbon sequestration in soils changes as young forests regenerate on lands that were previously used for grazing. The objective is of my project is to re-visit the same area that Dr. Powers studied 5 years ago and determine if the chronosequence and longitudinal studies reveal the same soil carbon dynamics as previously predicted, as well as to see if soil carbon sequestration increases with forest age, as many conceptual models predict. From the data analysis, the carbon concentration and carbon isotope followed our predicted assumptions for the concentration to increase slightly and the carbon isotope would become more negative. We predicted the bulk density would decrease over time as the soil became less dense but our data showed mixed results on whether it increase or decreased.This research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)