Tuolumne Meadows is missing plants, losing soil

After many years of collaborative field science, lab experiments and analysis, computer modeling, a chapter of my PhD dissertation, and Lydia and Melissa’s Master’s theses, colleagues and I just published a paper describing the continual decomposition of the soil in Tuolumne Meadows. Today’s plant community isn’t productive enough to maintain the high-carbon content of the soil. There’s lots of bare ground in the meadow and very few sedge plants that we’d expect to see in a place like this with such a carbon-rich soil. We grew and transplanted those expected sedges to see if we could restore carbon balance to the meadow. The plants are surviving and growing strong root systems, but haven’t yet spread and become productive enough to stem the loss of carbon. Reversing years of impact and carbon loss is a slow process in short subalpine summers. I’ll revisit Tuolumne Meadows in a few years to check its carbon pulse. Hopefully I’ll find that the plants are growing strong and building back the decades of lost soil.