Faculty Feature - Jennifer Follstead Shah
Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Follstad Shah, an ecosystems ecologist and associate professor in the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability for her recent research analyzing the decomposition of organic material in freshwater
Each year, Earth’s plants drop about 100 billion tons organic material, depositing vast amounts of leaves, sticks, bark and pollen into the environment. Much of it ends up in waterways where it decomposes, perpetuating a cycle that shuttles carbon back and forth between the environment and living things.
But human activities appear to be disrupting that vital process, according to new research by Jennifer Follstad Shah, an ecosystems ecologist and associate professor in the University of Utah’s School of Environment, Society & Sustainability.
(The College of Social and Behavioral Science this month formed the school by merging its Department of Geography and Environmental Studies program.)
She teamed with several other U.S.-based ecologists to analyze data from more than 500 freshwater streams and riparian areas around the world, including Utah’s Provo and Logan rivers and Red Butte Creek. They discovered that decomposition rates are increasing the most where human activity is impacting landscapes. Streams cover only 3% of Earth’s landmass, yet these aquatic ecosystems play an outsized role in the global carbon cycle, according to Follstad Shah.
The ecologist spoke with @theU about her team’s findings, reported recently in the journal Science.