Rebecca Abney

University of Georgia | UGA · Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources

High-intensity wildfires alter the chemical composition of organic matter, which is expected to be distinctly different from low-intensity prescribed fires. Herein, we used pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/ MS), in conjunction with solid-state 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectros...

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC) is the material left behind after incomplete combustion of biomass, including a spectrum of materials ranging from charcoal to lightly charred biomass. We investigated the roles of combustion temperature and properties of soil at two distinct landform positions on carbon dioxide (CO2) flux from soil and decomposition of PyC....

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC) is an incomplete combustion by-product with longer soil residence times compared with nonpyrogenic components of the soil carbon (C) pool and can be preferentially eroded in fire-affected landscapes. To investigate geomorphic and fire-related controls on PyC erosion, sediment fences were established in three combinations of s...

Significance Reactive nitrogen oxides (NO y ) can negatively impact air quality, visibility, and human health. Biogenic sources of NO y are poorly understood despite their growing importance in future scenarios of decreasing anthropogenic emissions. Using soil from two forest stands that differ in plant and soil characteristics, we show that ammoni...

Pyrogenic carbon (PyC) constitutes an important pool of soil organic matter (SOM), particularly for its reactivity and because of its assumed long residence times in soil. In the past, research on the dynamics of PyC in the soil system has focused on quantifying stock and mean residence time (MRT) of PyC in soil, as well as determining both PyC sta...

Montane tropical soils are a large carbon (C) reservoir, acting as both a source and a sink of CO2. Enhanced CO2 emissions originate, in large part, from the decomposition and losses of soil organic matter (SOM) following anthropogenic disturbances. Therefore, quantitative knowledge of the stabilization and decomposition of SOM is necessary in orde...

Catchments impacted by wildfire typically experience elevated rates of post-fire erosion and formation and deposition of pyrogenic carbon (PyC). To better understand the role of erosion in post-fire soil carbon dynamics, we determined distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) in different chemical fractions before and after the Gondola fire in Sout...

Montane tropical soils are a large carbon (C) reservoir, acting as both a source and a sink of CO2. Enhanced CO2 emissions originate, in large part, from the decomposition and losses of soil organic matter (SOM) following anthropogenic disturbances. Therefore, quantitative knowledge of the stabilization and decomposition of SOM is necessary in orde...

Background/Question/Methods Fire is a significant driver of numerous ecological processes, including carbon (C) cycling and erosion. In many fire-affected upland ecosystems, post-fire erosion rates are significantly higher than ambient levels of lateral soil distribution. Most of the soil material mobilized by erosion is deposited downslope and g...

Soil erosion controls on biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen. The Earth's land surface is dominated by sloping landscapes. Every year, soil erosion laterally distributes on the order of 75 Gt of topsoil (Berhe et al. 2007). The coupled biogeochemical cycles of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) are strongly influenced by soil erosion as it affec...