Cornell University: Chasing carbon from trees to soils

“Tuck your pants into your socks – the ticks can be really bad out here,” graduate student Dave Frey tells the group of four students as they embark from their cars.

That’s one of the directions the students are used to hearing this summer as they head into the forests surrounding Ithaca to collect soil samples that will be used in research assessing soil carbon storage and loss. They also are treated to bird songs, visits from forest critters and the peace and quiet of the woods.

Eden Kebede’25, Sofia Mendez Bickham ’23, Luke Whoriskey ’24 and Tony Kinchen ’24, are spending the summer working with Christine Goodale, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Environmental Science in the College of Arts & Sciences, and her graduate students and staff on field work and analysis on soil coming from a long-term forest fertilization experiment in several locations around Ithaca.