Research Collaborators

Dr. Jerry M. Melillo

Profile

Affiliation(s):

MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Research Associate;
Marine Biological Laboratory

Education:

Ph.D., Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1977
M.F.S., Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1972
M.A.T., Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 1968
B.A., Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 1965

I am interested in how human activities are altering the biogeochemistry of terrestrial ecosystems. My research includes studies of carbon and nitrogen cycling in a range of ecosystems across the globe including arctic shrublands in northern Sweden, temperate forests in North America, and tropical forests and pastures in the Amazon Basin of Brazil. I have become increasingly committed to studying the large-scale effects of global change on terrestrial ecosystems, including effects on the chemistry of the atmosphere and on the climate system. I use a combination of field experiments and simulation modeling. Together with a number of collaborators, I am presently conducting soil warming experiments at the Harvard Forest in western Massachusetts and at the Abisko Research Station in Sweden to study the effects of warming on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics, plant growth, and potential feedbacks to the climate system.