Associate Professor, Dept. of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior
Office: 502 Ecology
Office Phone: 612-625-6269
Lab Phone: 612-624-7734
Email: shobbie@umn.edu
My research focuses on three main areas:
In the area of global change, I aim to understand how atmospheric nitrogen inputs affect decomposition. I am also involved in projects examining how variation in biodiversity, atmospheric carbon dioxide, nitrogen inputs, and precipitation influence grassland ecosystems and the effects of warming on the establishment of boreal and temperate trees at the southern boreal-temperate forest ecotone. A second emphasis of my work is on the effects of urban and suburban development on biogeochemical cycling. In that research, I am collaborating with social scientists to understand how the demography, knowledge, attitudes, and social norms of household members influence element fluxes through households in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. A third focus of my research is on plant-soil interactions. In recent years, most of this work has used on a common-garden study of temperate trees in Poland to link plant traits to biogeochemical processes.
