Dr. Michael E. Loik

My research focuses on how global change affects plant and ecosystem processes, and incorporating a more realistic portrayal of meteorological processes into experiments, syntheses, and models of global change ecology. The overall goal is to better understand the effects of future climate regimes on the biosphere and feedbacks on energy, carbon and water fluxes. Current research projects include (1) Plant and ecosystem responses to changes in snowfall, snowmelt and ecohydrology at the Sierra Nevada - Great Basin Desert ecotone; (2) Water and carbon dynamics of the US deserts; (3) Wildland fire fuels management; and(4) Development of new technologies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.