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Associate Professor B.A., Ph.D., Cornell University
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Biogeochemistry; Sustainable Ecosystem Management My work focuses on the ecological basis for sustainable nutrient management in human-managed ecosystems. I am particularly concerned with nutrient limitations to food security and the role of nutrient cycling in overcoming these limitations without causing pollution. Currently, I am completing an investigation of nitrogen biogeochemistry in one of Earth's most productive anthropogenic ecosystems: village ecosystems in the Tai Lake Region of China. Traditional agriculture in this region sustained high rice yields and dense human populations for centuries without large anthropic nitrogen imports, water pollution, or diminished productive capacity. Chemical-intensive agriculture and doubled human populations have transformed these systems from a nitrogen-limited to a nitrogen-saturated state, yielding twice the grain but causing pollution of groundwater and dependence on external inputs. By comparing traditional and modern village-scale nitrogen cycling, long-term empirical relationships between nitrogen management, population, productivity and pollution can inform the development of sustainable practices for the future. Research interests: biogeochemistry, ecosystem management, resource management, sustainable agriculture, traditional agriculture, agroecosystems, village-scale ecosystems, anthropogenic ecosystems, ecological history, agricultural history, wetland, paddy rice, soils, nitrogen cycling, nitrogen budgets, nutrient limitation, nutrient cycling, landscape ecology, ecotope, human ecology, China, Jiangsu Province, observational uncertainty analysis, Bayesian statistics, probability, ecological synthesis, integration. Contact Erle Ellis by email: ece@umbc.edu
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