Research summary
Boreal and sub-Arctic landscapes store vast amounts of carbon. Unfortunately, climate change threatens their stability—and the global carbon balance. As Canada Research Chair in Boreal Biogeochemistry, Dr. Susan Ziegler is examining how carbon moves from land to water (a process known as terrestrial-aquatic carbon flux) and how climate change alters the fate of carbon in forests, rivers and coastal environments.
She and her research team are tracking how dissolved organic carbon is mobilized and transformed as it moves through watersheds. They are also improving climate models and strengthening community-based watershed research. Zeigler’s team is also collaborating nationally and internationally to develop new datasets, refine climate models, and train future scientists. By uncovering how climate change affects carbon fluxes from forests to oceans, this research will provide insights for climate adaptation, resource management, and global carbon budget modelling.