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Dr. Kurt Smemo

KURT A. SMEMO, PHD
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biology

Research Interests

Human activities, particularly land conversion and fossil fuel burning, have fundamentally altered the structure and function of Earth's ecosystems. Our ability to solve many environmental and societal problems over the next several decades will depend on our understanding of how these ecosystems function and our ability to predict how those functions will respond to projected environmental changes across spatial and temporal scales. As an ecosystem ecologist, this is a central theme driving my past, current, and future research questions. My general research questions address microbial controls on belowground carbon and nutrient cycling in forest and wetland ecosystems, and how global environmental changes have altered those processes. For example, ecosystem inputs of anthropogenic nitrogen have the potential to alter the function of plants and soil microorganisms, which can initiate a series of physiological changes that influence ecosystem cycling and storage of both carbon and nutrients. This is particularly relevant to the Great Lakes region where atmospheric nitrogen deposition from fossil fuel burning and land use changes has increased the bioavailability of nitrogen in soils, surface waters, and ground waters. Currently, I am studying how this excess nitrogen might influence litter decomposition and the carbon balance of northern hardwood forests of the Great Lakes region. I am also interested in mechanistic controls on trace gas fluxes from soils. My particular research questions involve 1) the role of novel microbial processes in controlling fluxes of carbon and greenhouse gases in northern peatland ecosystems and 2) developing new methods for quantifying rates and sources of nitrous oxide flux from soil. I approach biogeochemical research from a collaborative standpoint, and I employ a variety of methods and techniques ranging from stable and radio-isotopes to microbial community characterization.

I am currently helping build an interdisciplinary research program at The Holden Arboretum in NE Ohio. The program will focus on the biology and ecology of urban-influenced forest ecosystems and understanding how these ecosystems respond to environmental stress at various scales (organismal to ecosystem). If you are interested potential graduate study in this program, please contact me by email.

Contact Information

Address:The Holden Arboretum
9500 Sperry Rd
Kirtland, OH 44094-5172
Phone:(440) 602-8011
Email:kurt.smemo@case.edu
ksmemo@holdenarb.org
 
 
 
 

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