Seeta Sistla
Seeta Sistla
Assistant Professor
Cal Poly
Natural Resources Management & Environmental Sciences
1 Grand Ave
San Luis Obispo
CA
93405
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Fields of interest
Dr. Sistla's research interests focus on understanding how terrestrial systems respond to environmental and management changes through coupled plant-soil-microbial interactions and how these responses can feed back to affect terrestrial processes like carbon sequestration and plant productivity. Fields on interest include: terrestrial biogeochemistry; ecosystem ecology; Arctic systems; agricultural systems; plant-soil-microbe interactions.
Description of scientific projects
Dr. Sistla's research focuses on how factors such as agricultural land use, nutrient enrichment, and climate warming affect plant-soil processes in natural and managed settings in a variety of land systems. Dr. Sistla currently has projects focused on Low Arctic responses to unprecedented warming and fire and is working in CA studying the potential for biodegradable plastics to replace conventional plastics in commercial specialty crops from a soil ecology perspective. In addition to combining field, laboratory, and modeling approaches to understanding these systems, Dr. Sistla also collaborates with social scientists to more deeply consider the feedbacks between human activities and ecosystems in an era of unprecedented change.