Dr. Scott Saleska joined the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona in January, 2005

email: saleska@email.arizona.edu

Research Interests (see also Research Projects)

My research focuses on what might be called “biogeochemical ecology,” asking questions about how climate interacts with plant physiology, demography, and ecological processes to influence or control biogeochemical cycling from local to global scales. Just one example of the need for more complete understanding in this area is the lack of species interactions in modern global climate models, even though such interactions can be critically important in controlling ecosystem carbon cycling and hence, feedbacks to climate. Progress has been limited by the difficulty of bridging the gap between local-scale ecological interactions and broader biogeochemical processes. I use multidisciplinary approaches that combine classical techniques of field ecology and forestry with advanced technological methods (e.g., the micrometeorological eddy covariance method, isotopic techniques) and modeling to integrate biogeochemical processes to ecosystem scales.

Positions and Education

• 2005- Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
• 2002-2004 Research Associate, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
• 1999-2001 Post-doctoral fellow, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
• 1998 Ph.D., Energy and Resources, University of California, Berkeley
• 1986 B.S., Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Honors and Awards

• 1996-1998 NSF Doctoral Dissertation Grantee
• 1994-1997 NASA Global Change Fellow