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Subalpine Grasslands

We have leveraged a 50 + year long-term ecological monitoring site in a subalpine grassland in the Bangtail Mountains of SW Montana to examine how global change and local disturbance have shaped the structure, function, and resilience of these ecosystems. We continue to pursue questions around how grassland community succession, and biogeochemical cycles reorganize during ecosystem development following disturbance and how these processes might be impacted by shifts in climate. Additionally, we seek to both characterize and better understand how interactions and feedback between above and below-ground processes influence greenhouse gas emissions in these montane systems.

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Recent Publications: 

Stoy, P.C., K. Van Dorsten, A. Khan, P. Sauer, T. Weaver, E.N.J. Brookshire. 2022. Ecosystem gross primary productivity after autumn snowfall and melt events in a mountain meadow. JGR-Biogeosciences. doi.org/10.1029/2022JG006867

Brookshire E.N.J. and T. Weaver. 2015. Long-term decline in grassland productivity driven by increasing dryness. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/ncomms8148  

Yano.Y., E.N.J. Brookshire, J.H. Holsinger, T. Weaver. 2015. Long-term snowpack manipulation promotes large loss of bioavailable nitrogen and phosphorus in a subalpine grassland.  Biogeochemistry. doi:10.1007/s10533-015-0100-9 

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