Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Sciences
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies

  
Education

Dean's Office
School of Earth Sciences
Mitchell Building 101
327 Panama Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

Phone: (650) 723-2750
Fax: (650) 725-6566

matson@stanford.edu sesdean@stanford.edu

PhD, Oregon State University
MS, Indiana University
BA, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Research Interests

Our group studies biogeochemical and ecological processes in forest and agricultural systems. In particular, much of our research focuses on the effects of land use change and other human caused changes on biogeochemical processes and trace gas exchanges in tropical ecosystems. In the past, most of our work was at the interface between terrestrial ecology, soil science and atmospheric science. For example, we used our knowledge of variations in soils and forest ecosystem processes to develop an ecologically based global budget for the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, and we carried out research showing how land use change and agricultural intensification in the tropics contributes to the increasing atmospheric concentration of trace gases.

Our current research carries on that work, but also addresses the links between development and environment, focusing primarily on agricultural and other land use issues in the Yaqui Basin, Sonora, Mexico. With our collaborators, including hydrologists, geographers, economists and agronomists, we carry out interdisciplinary studies of intensive agricultural fertilization and other land use changes in the tightly linked land-coast-sea system. Our goal is to understand processes that link components of the system, and develop tools and approaches that allow managers to make sustainable choices in development and resource use across the entire Valley.

Our research in the Yaqui Valley has dove-tailed with writing and policy work on issues of sustainability. As a member of the National Research Council’s Board on Sustainable Development, I used the Yaqui Valley as one of several case studies that argue for the need for “place-based integrative analysis” – understanding the dynamics and forces of change in the integrated social biophysical systems. I now chair the National Research Council’s Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability.

 
Credentials
Pamela Matson is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. She received a B.S. in biology from the University of Wisconsin in 1975, a M.S. in environmental science from Indiana University in 1980, and a Ph.D. in forest ecology from Oregon State University in 1983. Until 1993, she was a research scientist at NASA/Ames Research Center. From 1993-1997, she was a professor of ecosystem ecology at the University of California, Berkeley. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994. In 1995, Dr. Matson was selected as a MacArthur Fellow, and in 1997 was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She currently serves as Past-President of the Ecological Society of America.

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School of Earth Sciences Department of GES  CESP Earth Systems Program  IIS

 

Last Updated 05/11/2005

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