William H. Schlesinger
Encyclopedia
William H. Schlesinger is a biogeochemist
and the president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
, an independent not-for-profit environmental research organization in Millbrook, New York
. He assumed this position after 27 years on the faculty of Duke University
, where he served as the Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
and James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry.
where he received his A.B.
in biology
in 1972. He earned his Ph.D.
at Cornell University
in Ecology
and Systematics
in 1976.
Schlesinger’s teaching career began at the University of California, Santa Barbara
where he was an assistant professor of biology for four years. Afterwards, he transferred to Duke University
, becoming a full professor and teaching for over 20 years. In 2001, Schlesinger was promoted as the Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. Schlesinger retired as the dean on June 1, 2007, and became the president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies where he currently works.
Schlesinger was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences
in 2003 and was President of the Ecological Society of America
from 2003 to 2004. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, the American Geophysical Union
, and the Soil Science Society of America
. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
He is a proponent of sound environmental policies and has testified before U.S. House
and Senate
committees. Environmental issues that he has advocated for include: preserving desert
habitats, addressing global climate change, and carbon sequestration. His efforts have influenced tangible legislation such as the Clean Air Act
, and California Desert Protection Act. His work has led to a better understanding of human impacts on the chemistry of the Earth’s surface, including an analysis of the sources and fate of industrial sources of nitrogen (e.g., fertilizer) in the natural environment.
for the Jornada Basin Long Term Ecological Research
(LTER) located in the Chihuahuan Desert
in southern New Mexico
. Research projects mainly focus on inorganic fluxes, including studies of ammonia
volatilization from soils, hydrology
natural runoff plots and transect soil water content. He has also worked extensively in arid
ecosystems and landscapes, studying responses to resource redistribution and global change, which can lead to soil degradation and regional desertification
. Schlesinger postulated that the patchy distribution of vegetation in desert regions controls many aspects of soil fertility and the response of deserts to overgrazing and climate change.
(FACE) Experiment in the Duke Forest. The object of the study was to investigate the efficacy of carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems (vegetation and soil) in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration, as a means to mitigate the potential for global warming.
During this decade-long experiment, Schlesinger and John Lichter (Bowdoin College) found only small changes in soil carbon content, suggesting that enhanced carbon storage in soils is unlikely to play a major role in slowing the growth of atmospheric CO2 and the magnitude of global climate change. Much larger changes were seen in the growth rate of trees, but even those were unlikely to sequester a significant increment of carbon worldwide as a result of rising CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere.
Biogeochemistry
Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment...
and the president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Institute of Ecosystem Studies
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies , formerly known as the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, is an independent, not-for-profit environmental research organization dedicated to the scientific study of the world’s ecosystems and the natural and human factors that influence them...
, an independent not-for-profit environmental research organization in Millbrook, New York
Millbrook, New York
Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is often said to be a "low-key version of the Hamptons" and one of the wealthiest towns in New York State. Millbrook's estimated town population was 1,551 in 2008. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, an hour and thirty...
. He assumed this position after 27 years on the faculty of Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, where he served as the Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
The Nicholas School of the Environment is one of ten graduate and professional schools at Duke University. The Levine Science Research Center is home to the vast majority of its programs, while a secondary facility is maintained in the coastal town of Beaufort, North Carolina...
and James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry.
Education, career, and honors
Schlesinger began his college education at Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
where he received his A.B.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
in 1972. He earned his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
and Systematics
Systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...
in 1976.
Schlesinger’s teaching career began at the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
where he was an assistant professor of biology for four years. Afterwards, he transferred to Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, becoming a full professor and teaching for over 20 years. In 2001, Schlesinger was promoted as the Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. Schlesinger retired as the dean on June 1, 2007, and became the president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies where he currently works.
Schlesinger was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
in 2003 and was President of the Ecological Society of America
Ecological Society of America
The Ecological Society of America is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States, ESA publishes a suite of publications, from peer-reviewed journals to newsletters, fact sheets and teaching resources. It holds an annual meeting at different locations in the...
from 2003 to 2004. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, the American Geophysical Union
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
, and the Soil Science Society of America
Soil Science Society of America
The Soil Science Society of America , is a scientific and professional society of soil scientists, principally in the U.S. but with a large number of non-U.S. members as well...
. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Contributions to biogeochemistry
Schlesigner is the author or coauthor of over 200 scientific papers on subjects of environmental chemistry and global change and the widely-adopted textbook Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change (Academic Press, 2nd ed. 1997). He was among the first to quantify the amount of carbon held in soils globally, providing subsequent estimates of the role of soils and human impacts on forests and soils in global climate change.He is a proponent of sound environmental policies and has testified before U.S. House
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
and Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
committees. Environmental issues that he has advocated for include: preserving desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
habitats, addressing global climate change, and carbon sequestration. His efforts have influenced tangible legislation such as the Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act
A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...
, and California Desert Protection Act. His work has led to a better understanding of human impacts on the chemistry of the Earth’s surface, including an analysis of the sources and fate of industrial sources of nitrogen (e.g., fertilizer) in the natural environment.
Work with desert ecosystems, 1991-2006
Schlesinger served as the co-principal investigatorPrincipal investigator
A principal investigator is the lead scientist or engineer for a particular well-defined science project, such as a laboratory study or clinical trial....
for the Jornada Basin Long Term Ecological Research
Jornada Basin LTER
Jornada Basin Long Term Ecological Research program, in collaboration with the USDA ARS Jornada Experimental Range, studies the causes and consequences of desertification...
(LTER) located in the Chihuahuan Desert
Chihuahuan Desert
The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert, and an ecoregion designation, that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau, bordered on the west by the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, and overlaying northern portions of the east range, the Sierra...
in southern New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. Research projects mainly focus on inorganic fluxes, including studies of ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
volatilization from soils, hydrology
Hydrology
Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability...
natural runoff plots and transect soil water content. He has also worked extensively in arid
Arid
A region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life...
ecosystems and landscapes, studying responses to resource redistribution and global change, which can lead to soil degradation and regional desertification
Desertification
Desertification is the degradation of land in drylands. Caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities, desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems.-Definitions:...
. Schlesinger postulated that the patchy distribution of vegetation in desert regions controls many aspects of soil fertility and the response of deserts to overgrazing and climate change.
Forest-atmosphere carbon transfer and storage, 1996-1999
Schlesinger was the co-principal investigator for the Free Air CO2 EnrichmentFree-Air Concentration Enrichment
Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment is a method used by ecologists and plant biologists that raises the concentration of in a specified area and allows the response of plant growth to be measured...
(FACE) Experiment in the Duke Forest. The object of the study was to investigate the efficacy of carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems (vegetation and soil) in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration, as a means to mitigate the potential for global warming.
During this decade-long experiment, Schlesinger and John Lichter (Bowdoin College) found only small changes in soil carbon content, suggesting that enhanced carbon storage in soils is unlikely to play a major role in slowing the growth of atmospheric CO2 and the magnitude of global climate change. Much larger changes were seen in the growth rate of trees, but even those were unlikely to sequester a significant increment of carbon worldwide as a result of rising CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere.