Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Professor Hart's research explores the controls of biogeochemical processes and productivity in managed and wildland terrestrial ecosystems using methods such as:

• Ecological genetics to isotopic analyses
• Computer simulation modeling
• Elucidate the biotic and abiotic factors that regulate terrestrial ecosystem structure and function

His research group is currently investigating:

• Biological and geochemical controls on ecosystem development along a three million year, semi-arid soil chronosequence
• Influence of the genetics of dominant plants on ecosystem processes
• Effects of forest restoration treatments (e.g., thinning with or without prescribed fire) and wildfire on ecosystem carbon and water balance, soil microbial communities, and belowground processes
• Efficacy of insect communities as indicators of forest ecosystem health
• Utility of the 15N natural abundance signature of soil microbes as an integrator of nitrogen cycling processes
• Impact of climatic change on soil-plant-atmosphere interactions; and the effects of water diversion on riparian forest

• Plant adaptation
• Species range limits
• Biological invasions
• Biological responses to global change
• Evolutionary conservation science
• Human cultural adaptive capacity