Steven Perakis

Mailing Address: USGS 3200 SW Jefferson Way Corvallis, OR 97331 Office: Oregon State University campus Forest Sciences Laboratory 164 tel: (541) 758-8786 fax: (541) 758-8806 email: sperakis@usgs.gov steven.perakis@oregonstate.edu Laboratory: Forest Sciences Laboratory 157/187 tel: (541) 758-8799

Professional Biography

2001 – present

Research Ecologist, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

& Courtesy Professor, Department of Forest Science, Oregon State University

2001 National Park Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Vitousek Lab, Stanford University

2000 Ph.D. Cornell University, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Hedin Lab

1994 M.S. University of Washington, Environmental Science

1990 B.S. University of Pennsylvania, Systems Science

Research Interests

Research in my laboratory centers on the ecology and biogeochemistry of forest ecosystems, as well as grassland and riparian systems. We examine how factors such as natural and human disturbances, climate and climate change, succession, and soil fertility shape ecosystem biogeochemistry - and the reciprocal effect of biogeochemical cycles on these and other factors. We are particularly interested in how activities within ecosystems shape nutrient inputs, losses, and whole-system nutrient balances, and in linkages between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Our studies occur primarily in Pacific Northwest forests, with a strong focus on cycles of carbon and major nutrients through soils, plants, water, and air. Nitrogen is especially important in this work - both as a control on local ecosystem structure and function - and as a broker between ecosystem properties, land management and global change. Interest in the causes and consequences of nutrient limitation on land extend our studies into other regions and types of ecosystems, as well as into simulation modeling. Our interest in watersheds also compels us to understand how streams work in a landscape context.

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U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
URL: http://fresc.usgs.gov/
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Last Update: January 25, 2003
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