UC Merced Expert 

Forest fires, climate change, water resources, the sustainability of ecosystems – all hot topics in environmental science, and all studied in the labs of Professor Stephen C. Hart at UC Merced. The common thread in all his studies is a rigorous analysis of the chemical and biological processes that tie together plants, animals, soils and water – whether he’s studying how soils and the terrestrial ecosystems they support have changed over the course of 3 million years, or figuring out how the delicate balance of carbon and water are altered when humans try to manage forests through tree thinning and prescribed fires. Heuses sophisticated tools in ecological genetics, isotope analysis and computer simulation modeling to gain insight on some of the most pressing environmental problems facing us today.

Hart can comment on questions of forest management, wild or prescribed fires, soil science, insects and ecosystems, how climate change affects terrestrial ecosystems, and the effects of water diversion on riparian forests.