We are interested in how terrestrial ecosystems function, how they are being affected by human activities, and the consequences of environmental change for both humans and the ecosystems that we depend on.
Work in the Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology Lab spans a wide range of disciplines from soil biogeochemistry to microbial ecology and ecosystem science, and our projects vary in scale from plot-level studies investigating the effects of disturbance and global change on ecosystem processes to large-scale analyses of the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus.
For more information on the work we do, feel free to browse around. If you have other questions, please don't hesitate to contact us!
Recent News
Lab Ph.D. candidate Robbie Heumann presented a poster at AGU this year exploring ecosystem N sources in regeneration forests following disturbance (fire). Robbie is nearly finished with his Ph.D. and looking for postdoc opportunities. If you are looking for a smart, creative, and highly productive postdoc candidate, check out Robbie's CV.
Check out our latest USGS Powell Center working group papers on nitrogen (N) fixation. A recent paper in Nature explored the patterns and controls of N fixation globally, another addressed how N fixation rates constrain the global plant CO2 fertilization effect, a third focused on cryptic N fixation, and former lab postdoc Fiona Soper led another paper describing best practices for N fixation sampling.
Lab Ph.D. student Robbie Heumann's first paper is now published in Ecology! Robbied explored N fixation by soil, litter, wood, lichens, and mosses in postfire ecosystems in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Way to go, Robbie!
Lab postdoc and INCYTE Fellow Dr. Emma Hauser has accepted a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin! Congratulations, Emma!!!
Cory was recently selected as the University of Montana's 16th Regents Professor. Read about all the UM Regents Professors.
Check out INCYTE Fellow Dr. Emma Hauser's recent paper showing how increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations could affect the global C and water cycles via changes in ecosystem stoichiometry, published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Emma and Cory collaborated on a recent paper by Dr. Katie Rocci (U Colorado) "Aligning theoretical and empirical representations of soil carbon-to-nitrogen stoichiometry with process-based terrestrial biogeochemistry models," published in Soil Biology & Biochemistry. Nice work, Katie!