Alvarez-Clare publishes paper in open access research journal

Silvia Alvarez-Clare, North Central College assistant professor of biology, coauthored a paper, titled “Do Foliar, Litter, and Root Nitrogen and Phosphorus Concentrations Reflect Nutrient Limitation in a Lowland Tropical Wet Forest?” It was published in April in PLOS ONE, a multidisciplinary open access journal that features reports of original research from all disciplines within science and medicine.

Coauthored with Michelle C. Mack, professor of ecosystem ecology now at Northern Arizona University, the paper describes work Alvarez-Clare conducted in her long-term fertilization experiment in the rainforest of Costa Rica. Alvarez-Clare’s research focuses on the links between the carbon and nutrient cycles and how resource availability can influence biological processes, plant functional traits and biodiversity preservation. This article in particular explores how leaf, litterfall and root nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations change with nutrient availability and the consequences this can have for ecosystem function. Click here to read its abstract and full text.

This summer as part of the College’s Summer Undergraduate Research Colloquium (SURC), Alvarez-Clare will continue her work on this project with North Central students, analyzing how fertilization impacts greenhouse gas emissions from the forest floor.

Click here to view Alvarez-Clare’s faculty profile.