Jonathan O'Donnell

Reseach Hydrologist
U.S. Geological Survey

Short Biography

Publications

O’Donnell JA, Harden JW, McGuire AD, Kanevskiy MZ, Jorgenson MT, Xu X. 2011. The effect of fire and permafrost interactions on soil carbon accumulation in an upland black spruce ecosystem of interior Alaska: implications for post-thaw carbon loss. Global Change Biology 17: 1461-1474, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02358.x.

Fan Z, Neff JC, Harden JW, Zhang T, Veldhuis H, Czimczik CI, Winston GC, O’Donnell JA. 2011. Water and heat transport in boreal soils: implications for soil response to climate change. Science of the Total Environment 409:1836-1842.

Johnson KD, Harden JW, McGuire AD, Bliss NB, Bockheim JG, Clark M, Nettleton-Hollingsworth T, Kane ES, Mack M, O’Donnell JA, Ping C-L, Schuur EAG, Turetsky MR, Valentine DW. 2011. Soil carbon distribution in Alaska in relation to soil-forming factors. Geoderma 167-168: 71-84.

O’Donnell JA, Jorgenson MT, Harden JW, McGuire AD, Kanevskiy MZ, Wickland KP. 2011. The effects of permafrost thaw on soil hydrologic, thermal and carbon dynamics in an Alaskan peatland. Ecosystems, doi:10.1007/s10021-011-9504-0.

Harden JW, Manies KL, O’Donnell JA, Johnson K, Frolking S, Fan Z. 2011 (in press). Spatiotemporal studies of black spruce forest soils and implications for C fate. Submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences.

O’Donnell JA, Aiken GR, Kane ES, Jones JB. 2010. Source water controls on DOC character and origin in streams of the Yukon River basin, Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences 115: G03025, doi:10.1029/2009J001153.

Jorgenson MT, Romanovsky VE, Harden JW, Shur Y, O’Donnell JA, Schuur EAG, Kanevskiy MZ. 2010. Resilience and vulnerability of permafrost to climate change. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40: 1219-1236. [Download File]

O’Donnell JA, Turetsky MR, Harden JW, Manies KL, Pruett LE, Shetler G, Neff JC. 2009. The interactive effects of fire, soil climate, and moss on CO2 fluxes in black spruce ecosystems of interior Alaska. Ecosystems doi: 10.1007/s1002-1-008-9206-4.

O’Donnell JA, Romanovsky VE, Harden JW, McGuire AD. 2009. The effect of soil moisture content on the thermal conductivity of soil organic horizons in black spruce ecosystems of interior Alaska. Soil Science 174: 646-651.

Kane ES, Betts EF, Burgin AJ, Clilverd HM, Crenshaw CL, Fellman JB, Myers-Smith IH, O’Donnell JA, Sobota DJ, Van Verseveld WJ, Jones JB. 2008. Precipitation control over nitrogen retention across watersheds: a synthesis of Long-Term Ecological Research. Ecohydrology 1: 105-117. [Download File]

O’Donnell JA, Jones JB. 2006. Nitrogen retention in the riparian zone of watersheds underlain by discontinuous permafrost. Freshwater Biology 51: 854 – 864.

Bartsch MR, Newton TJ, Allran JW, O’Donnell JA, Richardson WB. 2003. Effects of pore-water ammonia on in situ survival and growth of juvenile mussels (Lampsilis cardium) in the St. Croix Riverway, Wisconsin, USA. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 22: 2561-2568. [Download File]

Newton TJ, Allran JW, O’Donnell JA, Bartsch MR, Richardson WB. 2003. Effects of ammonia on juvenile unionid mussels (Lampsilis cardium) in laboratory sediment toxicity tests. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 22: 2554-2560. [Download File]

My USGS Science Strategy Areas

My research is focused on the response of ecosystem processes and biogeochemical cycles to climate change and disturbance.  Much of my research has been conducted in Alaska's boreal region, which has undergone changes in recent decades, with rapid atmospheric warming, increased wildfire frequency, and widespread permafrost thaw.  I am interested in tracking the fate of soil carbon and nitrogen to changes in the wildfire regime and in response to permafrost thaw.  To address questions and test hypotheses, I prefer to use multiple experimental approaches, including field studies, laboratory investigations, and process-based modeling.  The overarching objectives of my research are to improve our understanding the mechanisms driving ecosystem processes, to quantify the vulnerability of carbon and nitrogen cycles to perturbations, and to predict the response of these ecosystem processes to future climate and disturbance dynamics.