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Phone: (612) 625-5700
Fax: (612) 624-6777
Email: wiggins@umn.edu

University of Minnesota
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
100 Ecology Building
1987 Upper Buford Circle
St. Paul, MN 55108

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Robert W. Sterner

Professor, Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior

Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1986

Contact Information

Phone: 612-625-6790
Fax: 612-624-6777
E-mail: stern007@umn.edu

Graduate Faculty Memberships

Conservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Water Resources Science.

Research Interests

Limnology; plankton ecology; food webs; aquatic biogeochemistry; nutrient dynamics.

Statement

My research combines ecosystem science, for example nutrient flux, with population and community processes such as competition and predation. I have become intrigued by the fact that the content of essential elements, such as N and P, varies both inter- and intraspecifically. This observation helps unite studies on community structure with those on nutrient processing. Work performed by myself and others in my lab has dealt with: nutrition (specifically mineral element limitation) in freshwater zooplankton; importance of recycled N and P for algae and bacteria; nutrient limitation of algal growth; the role of fish in nutrient cycles in lakes; and mathematical models for nutrient cycling by consumers. Work has ranged from pure mathematical models, to carefully controlled laboratory experimentation, to the nitty gritty of whole-lake studies and whole ecosystem experimentation. Most of this research has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation. For more information on the lab, I invite you to browse the "Sterner Lab" website linked below.

I like to refer to myself as a limnologist because this allows me a huge amount of freedom to study intriguing things, be they chemical, physical or biological, and I may utilize many different approaches to solving questions. I am currently pursuing questions from the sub-organismal to the whole ecosystem. It is the opportunity to integrate facts about our natural world that seem disparate, independent, even conflicting, that most intrigues me about ecology.

Selected Publications

Sterner, R. W. et al. Phosphorus and trace metal limitation of algae and bacteria in Lake Superior. Limnol. Oceanogr. 49, 495-507 (2004).

Sterner, R. W. & Elser, J. J. Ecological Stoichiometry: The Biology of Elements from Molecules to the Biosphere (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2002).

Sterner, R. W. & Schwalbach, M. Diel integration of food quality by Daphnia: Luxury consumption by a freshwater planktonic herbivore (see erratum v. 49 p. 314). Limnol. Oceanogr.46, 410-416 (2001).

Sterner, R. W. & George, N. B. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry of cyprinid fishes. Ecology 81, 127-140 (2000).

Adams, T. S. & Sterner, R. W. The effect of dietary nitrogen content on trophic level d15N enrichment. Limnol.Oceanogr. 45, 601-607 (2000).

Sterner, R.W. and K. Schulz. 1998. Zooplankton nutrition: recent progress and a reality check (Invited review). Aquatic Ecology 32:261-279. Sterner, R.W., J. Clasen, W. Lampert, and T. Weisse. 1998.

Carbon: phospohrus stoichiometry and food chain production. Ecology Letters 1:146-150. Urabe, J., J. Clasen and R.W. Sterner. 1997. Phosphorus limitation of Daphnia growth: is it real? Limnology and Oceanography 42:1436-1443.

Sterner, R.W., A.A. Bajpai, T. Adams. 1997. The enigma of food chain length: absence of theoretical evidence for dynamical constraints. Ecology, 78:2258-2262.

Sterner, R.W., J.J. Elser, E.J. Fee, S.J. Guildford, T.H. Chrzanowski. 1997. The light: nutrient ratio in lakes: the balance of energy and materials affects ecosystem functioning. The American Naturalist 150:663-684.

Additional Links

LiMNology

Sterner Lab

IGERT Training Grant