Professor Hart’s research explores the controls of biogeochemical processes and productivity in managed and wildland terrestrial ecosystems using methods such as:
- Ecological genetics to isotopic analyses
- Computer simulation modeling
- Elucidate the biotic and abiotic factors that regulate terrestrial ecosystem structure and function
His research group is currently investigating:
- Biological and geochemical controls on ecosystem development along a three million year, semi-arid soil chronosequence
- Influence of the genetics of dominant plants on ecosystem processes
- Effects of forest restoration treatments (e.g., thinning with or without prescribed fire) and wildfire on ecosystem carbon and water balance, soil microbial communities, and belowground processes
- Efficacy of insect communities as indicators of forest ecosystem health
- Utility of the 15N natural abundance signature of soil microbes as an integrator of nitrogen cycling processes
- Impact of climatic change on soil-plant-atmosphere interactions; and the effects of water diversion on riparian forests
- B.S., 1982 — University of California, Berkeley
- M.S., 1984 — Duke University
- Ph.D., 1990 — University of California, Berkeley
