RESEARCH INTERESTS
- ecosystem development/ succession
- carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems
- effects of climate (esp. temperature) on ecological systems
- sustainability of biofuels
- theoretical ecology
RESEARCH
In an era of climate change, land use change, and biofuel production, it is imperative to understand the uptake and release of CO2 by terrestrial ecosystems, the effects of climate on ecological systems, the recovery of ecosystems from disturbance, and the potential environmental effects of biofuel agriculture. These themes run throughout my research.
Biofuels Sustainability: Carbon Cycling in Biofuels Crops
Postdoctoral Associate, Evan H. DeLucia, University of Illinois; Feb 2008-present
As the production of renewable energy from biofuels is expected to expand rapidly in the coming years, it is critical to understand the potential environmental consequences of biofuel crops. Sequestration or release of carbon from biofuel crop ecosystems would be particularly significant in its impact on efforts to mitigate CO2 emissions. I am currently involved in several projects concerning carbon cycling in biofuel crops: (1) carbon cycling in experimental plots of Miscanthus, switchgrass, restored native prairie, and corn at UIUC’s Energy Farm; (2) a review of changes in soil organic carbon under biofuel crops (Anderson-Teixeira et al., in prep); and (3) a survey of soil carbon under biofuel crops across Illinois. I am also interested in applying concepts of carbon cycling during natural ecosystem development in order to better understand the dynamics of carbon cycling in biofuel crop ecosystems.
Climatic Effects on Carbon Flux and Storage in Ecosystems
Postdoctoral Associate, Marcy Litvak, University of New Mexico; Feb 2007-Feb 2008
Understanding the effects of climate on Southwest ecosystems is critical, given that climate models predict an imminent transition to a warmer, more arid climate in the Southwest. This implies that high elevation ecosystems, which currently experience relatively cool and mesic climates, will likely resemble their lower elevation counterparts, which experience a hotter and drier climate. We are working to quantify carbon storage and fluxes (using eddy-covariance) in a series of six sties spanning an elevational gradient in order to understand how temperature and soil moisture affect carbon flux and storage and to predict how these ecosystems will respond to climate change (Anderson-Teixeira & Litvak, in prep).
Rates of Succession/ Ecosystem Development
PhD, James H. Brown, University of New Mexico; Aug 2002-Feb 2007
Succession—the development of ecological communities following disturbance or formation of a new habitat—entails sequestration of carbon in accumulating biomass and the assembly of ecologically diverse communities. My dissertation, "Rates of ecosystem and community change during succession", used a mathematical, macroecological approach to understand how rates of succession vary across climates and over the course of succession. Specifically, my research addressed the temperature-dependence of rates of biomass accumulation during secondary succession (Anderson et al., 2006, Ecology Letters), the temperature dependence of ecosystem development on the lava flows of Mauna Loa, Hawaii (Anderson, Vitousek, and Brown, 2008, PNAS), and temporal patterns in rates of community change during succession (Anderson, 2007, American Naturalist).
PUBLICATIONS
Anderson-Teixeira, K. J., S. C. Davis, M. D. Masters, and E. H. DeLucia. in prep. Changes in soil organic carbon under potential biofuel crops. Global Change Biology Bioenergy.
Davis, S. C., K. J. Anderson-Teixeira, and E. H. DeLucia. in review. Ecology, Biofuels, and Life Cycle Analyses. Trends in Plant Science.
Anderson-Teixeira, K. J., and M. Litvak. in prep. Carbon flux and storage across a climatic gradient in New Mexico. Global Change Biology
Anderson-Teixeira, K. J., P. M. Vitousek, and J. H. Brown. 2008. Amplified temperature dependence in ecosystems developing on the lava flows of Mauna Loa, Hawai'i. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105:228-233.
Anderson, K. J. 2007. Temporal patterns in rates of community change during succession. American Naturalist 169:780-793.
Anderson, K. J., A. P. Allen, J. F. Gillooly, and J. H. Brown. 2006. Temperature-dependence of biomass accumulation rates during secondary succession. Ecology Letters 9:673-682.
Anderson, K.J. and W. Jetz. 2005. The broad-scale ecology of energy expenditure of endotherms. Ecology Letters 8:310-318.
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