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Russ Monson has just received good news from the program at the Department of Energy (DOE). They are funding his recent proposal, entitled “Carbon cycling dynamics in response to pine beetle infection and climate variation.”

Funding is for $1.03 million for three years to study the soil carbon cycling dynamics in lodgepole pine forests damaged by pine beetles.  It includes as Co-I's, Alan Townsend and Scott Lehman (from INSTAAR), Dave Moore (King's College, London), Dave Bowling (Univ of Utah) and Stuart Grandy (Michigan State Univ). Dave Bowling, Dave Moore and Stuart Grandy are former students from CU (Bowling and Moore were in the Monson Lab and Grandy was in the Neff Lab in Geology). Most of the funds will go to CU as the prime grantee, with sub-contracts to Univ of Utah and MSU.  The study will use both 13C and 14C stable isotope analyses to study the age and chemical origins of soil-respired CO2, and advanced chemical analyses using pyrolysis-GC-MS techniques to examine changes in the composition in soil organic matter following tree death due to beetle attack. The grant will also provide post-doc support for Nicole Trahan.

While this is excellent news for CU and EBIO (especially past and present Monson students), I don't think that the citizens of the state will feel any better about the ravages of the mountain pine beetle.