Bruce Hungate  

Professor
Phone: 928-523-0925
Email: Bruce.Hungate@nau.edu
Office: Wettaw, bldg. 88, room 214

More info: Isotope laboratory; Lab web page 

Research/teaching interests

• biogeochemistry
• global change biology
• ecosystem ecology
• general ecology

Academic highlights

• Visiting Scientist: Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maìz y Trigo, 1997-1998
• Post-doctoral Associate: Stanford University, 1997-1998
• Post-doctoral Fellow: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 1995-1997
• PhD: University of California, Berkeley, 1995
• BS: Biological Sciences Stanford University, 1990
• BA: Music and English, Stanford University, 1990

Research in my group focuses on ecosystem processes, especially carbon, water, and nutrient cycling. I study biogeochemical responses to global changes, such as rising atmospheric CO2, climate change, N deposition, and altered land use.

For example, I am currently studying how altered precipitation and warming alter carbon and nitrogen cycling in Arizona's ecosystems, how elevated CO2 alters nitrogen cycling and hydrology of scrub oak woodlands, and how increased temperature influences the nitrogen cycle in grasslands.

In addition to understanding ecosystem responses to such perturbations, I am interested in how ecosystem responses can feed back to alter the pace and even direction of future global changes.

A second major thrust of my research addresses how single species can affect ecosystem processes, for example, how infestation with the piñon-needle scale alters the water budget of piñon-juniper woodlands, or how mycorrhizae influence decomposition of fine roots.

I teach courses in general ecology, microbial ecology, ecosystem ecology, and stable isotope techniques.

New Costech Elemental Combustion System - an advanced analytical platform for CHNS-O elemental analysis and Nitrogen/Protein determination. (See Isotope Laboratory page for more information)

Selected publications

Hungate BA, Dukes JS, Shaw MR, Luo Y, Field CB, 2003. Nitrogen and Climate Change. Science 302:1512-1513. Langley JA, Hungate BA, 2003. Mycorrhizal controls on belowground litter quality. Special Feature: Belowground Community Dynamics. Ecology 84:2302-2312.

Hungate BA, Reichstein M, Dijkstra P, Johnson D, Hymus G, Tenhunen JD, Drake BG, 2002. Evapotranspiration and soil water content in a scrub-oak woodland under carbon dioxide enrichment. Global Change Biology, 8:289-298.

Hungate BA, Marks JC, 2002. Impacts of global change on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In J Canadell and HA Mooney (eds.) Encyclopedia of Global Change, Volume 2: The Earth system: biological and ecological dimensions of global environmental change. John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

Hungate BA, Koch GW, 2002. Global Environmental Change: Biospheric Impacts and Feedbacks. In J Holton, J Pyle, J Currie (eds.) Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Science Academic Press, Ltd. pp 876-885.