PNNL

Kendal Morris is an Earth Scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Maryland.  Her research focuses on ecosystem ecology, predominantly carbon biogeochemistry, in a variety of global change contexts.  Dr. Morris is on the modeling team for JGCRI and works directly on Coastal Observations Modeling and Predictions across Systems and Scales – Field, Measurements, and Experiments (COMPASS-FME), Subnational Climate Action Leader’s Exchange (SCALE), and refining terrestrial carbon dynamics in the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM) supporting research for the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO).  She is an avid birder and amateur herpetologist.

Dr. Morris is interested in quantifying flows through the Earth system to understand process responses to global change. From the exchange of molecules in the rhizosphere surrounding roots to global land-atmosphere methane exchange, the processes that cycle the very material of life on our planet are shifting and this is her source of endless fascination and challenging research topics.

• Biogeochemistry
• Ecology
• Data synthesis

• Friedrich Schiller University of Jena - Doctor of Philosophy, Ecology
• Utah State University - Master of Science, Ecology
• Trinity University - Bachelor of Science, Biology

Early Career Editorial Fellow for JGR:Biogeosciences

2025

• Sinha E., D. Xu, K.A. Morris, B. Drewniak, and B. Bond-Lamberty. 2025. "Interactions between climate mean and variability drive future agroecosystem vulnerability." Global Change Biology 31, no. 2:e70064. PNNL-SA-200366. doi:10.1111/gcb.70064

2024

• Bond-Lamberty B., A. Ballantyne, E. Berryman, E. Fluet-Chouinard, J. Jian, K.A. Morris, and A. Rey, et al. 2024. "Twenty years of progress, challenges, and opportunities in measuring and understanding soil respiration." Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 129, no. 2:e2023JG007637. PNNL-SA-192425. doi:10.1029/2023JG007637
• Morris K.A., M.A. Smith, V.L. Bailey, R. Bittencourt-Peixoto, D.J. Day, N.D. Hamovit, and A.M. Hopple, et al. 2024. "Methane flux from transplanted soil monoliths depends on moisture, but not origin." Soil Biology and Biochemistry 193. PNNL-SA-186715. doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2023.109296
• Nair R., Y. Luo, T.S. El-Madany, V. Rolo, J. Pacheco-Labrador, S. Caldararu, and K.A. Morris, et al. 2024. "Nitrogen Availability and Summer Drought, but not N:P Imbalance Drive Carbon Use Efficiency of a Mediterranean Tree-Grass Ecosystem." Global Change Biology 30, no. 9:Art. No. e17486. PNNL-SA-193215. doi:10.1111/gcb.17486
• Weber M.A., M.A. Wise, P. Lamers, Y. Wang, G. Avery, K.A. Morris, and J.A. Edmonds. 2024. "Potential long-term, global effects of enhancing the domestic terrestrial carbon sink in the United States through no-till and cover cropping." Carbon Balance and Management 19, no. _:Art. No. 18. PNNL-SA-192338. doi:10.1186/s13021-024-00256-2

2023

• Hopple A.M., K. Doro, V.L. Bailey, B. Bond-Lamberty, N.G. McDowell, K.A. Morris, and A.N. Myers-Pigg, et al. 2023. "Attaining freshwater and estuarine-water soil saturation in an ecosystem-scale coastal flooding experiment." Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 195, no. 3:Art. No. 425. PNNL-SA-173432. doi:10.1007/s10661-022-10807-0
• Morris K.A., B. Bond-Lamberty, D.J. Day, K.F. Patel, S.C. Pennington, N.D. Ward, and J.C. Von Fischer. 2023. "PoolDilutionR: an R package for easy optimization of isotope pool dilution calculations." Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14, no. 11:2728-2737. PNNL-SA-182986. doi:10.1111/2041-210X.14223

2022

• Morris K.A., S. Hornum, R. Crystal-Ornelas, S.C. Pennington, and B. Bond-Lamberty. 2022. "Soil respiration response to simulated precipitation change depends on ecosystem type and study duration." Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 127, no. 11:Art. No. e2022JG006887. PNNL-SA-171042. doi:10.1029/2022JG006887
• Patel K.F., B. Bond-Lamberty, J. Jian, K.A. Morris, S.A. McKever, C.G. Norris, and J. Zheng, et al. 2022. "Carbon flux estimates are sensitive to data source: A comparison of field and lab temperature sensitivity data." Environmental Research Letters 17, no. 11:Art. No. 113003. PNNL-SA-177690. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac9aca