Elizabeth Borer

Last updated
Elizabeth Taft Borer
EducationPh.D.
Alma materUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Minnesota
Thesis How do resource specialists coexist? : Evidence from a biological control community  (2002)

Elizabeth T. Borer is an American ecologist and a professor of ecology in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Pennsylvania, Borer graduated from Oberlin College in 1991, [2] spent several years working outside academia, then returned to earn her Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002 (advised by William W. Murdoch and Allan Stewart-Oaten). [3] She went on to do postdoctoral training in the Integrative Biology Department at University of California, Berkeley with Cheryl Briggs, [2] then a second postdoc at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. [4] She was an assistant professor in the Zoology Department at Oregon State University (2004-2009) and an Associate and Full Professor at the University of Minnesota (2010–present). [2]

Research

Elizabeth Borer studies how ecological communities are impacted by global environmental changes such as nitrogen deposition, carbon dioxide emissions, invasive species, and species extinction. She is an experimentalist, but uses mathematical modeling to guide her empirical work. In 2006, she was one of a small group of scientists who conceived the Nutrient Network, a collaborative research project experimentally studying the joint impacts of nutrient deposition and loss of native herbivores in Earth's grasslands. [5] She has co-led this collaboration since 2006, overseeing its growth from just a few sites at its inception to over 150 sites in 27 countries spanning 6 continents and creating a transformative new model for how ecologists study the impacts of global change at scale. [6] In 2019, she co-led the launch of DRAGNet (Disturbance and Recovery Across Global Grasslands), a new collaborative global research project to assess the impact of disturbances like soil tilling on ecosystems. [7] Borer is also known for her work in the study of disease ecology, with early large-scale experimental work to incorporate climate, land use change, and species interactions into the understanding of disease and later experimental and theoretical work uncovering feedbacks between disease and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.[ citation needed ]

Honors and awards

As a graduate student, Elizabeth Borer received the Lancaster Award for the best dissertation in the Biological Sciences at UC, Santa Barbara. [8] In 2015, she was selected to be a Leopold Leadership Fellow, [9] and the following year (2016), she was named as a Fellow of the Institute on the Environment. [10] In 2019, she was named a lifetime Fellow of the Ecological Society of America for transforming how ecologists do science through her leadership of the global Nutrient Network, and for advancing understanding of how global changes impact the composition, diversity, and function of ecosystems, including disease and microbes. [11] In the following year (2020), she was honored as a lifetime Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for advancing understanding of Earth's grassland ecosystems. [12] In 2022, Borer was named as the John and Abigail Wardle Chair in Microbial Ecology and as a University of Minnesota Distinguished McKnight University Professor for her contributions to microbial and global change ecology. In 2024, she was honored as a University of Minnesota Regents Professor.[ citation needed ]

Representative publications

Borer's full publication list includes more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. [13]

Borer, ET et al. 2022. Disease-mediated nutrient dynamics: reciprocal relationships link host-pathogen interactions with ecosystem elements and energy. Ecological Monographs 92(2): e1510

Borer, ET et al. 2020. Nutrients cause grassland biomass to outpace herbivory. Nature Communications 11: 6036

Grace, JB, TM Anderson, EW Seabloom, ET Borer et al. 2016. Integrative modeling reveals mechanisms linking productivity and plant species richness. Nature 529: 390-393

Harpole, WSH, LL Sullivan, EW Lind, J Firn, PB Adler, ET Borer et al. 2016. Addition of multiple limiting resources reduces grassland diversity. Nature 537: 93–96

Borer, E.T. et al. 2014.  Herbivores and nutrients control grassland plant diversity via light limitation. Nature 508, 517–520 [14]

Borer, ET, WS Harpole, PB Adler, EM Lind, JL Orrock, EW Seabloom, MD Smith. 2014. Finding generality in ecology: A model for globally distributed experiments. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5(1): 65-73

Borer, E.T., E.W. Seabloom, and D. Tilman. 2012.  Plant diversity controls arthropod biomass and temporal stability.  Ecology Letters 23: 1756-1765 [15]

Adler, P.B., E.W. Seabloom, E.T. Borer (and 55 Nutrient Network coauthors). 2011. Productivity is a poor predictor of plant species richness. Science 333:1750-1753. [16]

Borer, E. T., P. R. Hosseini, E. W. Seabloom, A. P. Dobson. 2007. Pathogen-induced reversal of native perennial dominance in a grassland community. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(13): 5473–5478. [17]

Borer, ET, EW Seabloom, JB Shurin, KE Anderson, CA Blanchette, B Broitman, SD Cooper, BS Halpern. 2005. What determines the strength of a trophic cascade? Ecology 86(2):528-537. [18]

Collins, JP, AP Kinzig, NB Grimm, WF Fagan, D Hope, J Wu, and ET Borer. 2000. A new urban ecology. American Scientist 88: 416-425 [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food web</span> Natural interconnection of food chains

A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Position in the food web, or trophic level, is used in ecology to broadly classify organisms as autotrophs or heterotrophs. This is a non-binary classification; some organisms occupy the role of mixotrophs, or autotrophs that additionally obtain organic matter from non-atmospheric sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grassland</span> Area with vegetation dominated by grasses

A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on Earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primary production</span> Synthesis of organic compounds from carbon dioxide by biological organisms

In ecology, primary production is the synthesis of organic compounds from atmospheric or aqueous carbon dioxide. It principally occurs through the process of photosynthesis, which uses light as its source of energy, but it also occurs through chemosynthesis, which uses the oxidation or reduction of inorganic chemical compounds as its source of energy. Almost all life on Earth relies directly or indirectly on primary production. The organisms responsible for primary production are known as primary producers or autotrophs, and form the base of the food chain. In terrestrial ecoregions, these are mainly plants, while in aquatic ecoregions algae predominate in this role. Ecologists distinguish primary production as either net or gross, the former accounting for losses to processes such as cellular respiration, the latter not.

This glossary of ecology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts in ecology and related fields. For more specific definitions from other glossaries related to ecology, see Glossary of biology, Glossary of evolutionary biology, and Glossary of environmental science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy flow (ecology)</span> Flow of energy through food chains in ecological energetics

Energy flow is the flow of energy through living things within an ecosystem. All living organisms can be organized into producers and consumers, and those producers and consumers can further be organized into a food chain. Each of the levels within the food chain is a trophic level. In order to more efficiently show the quantity of organisms at each trophic level, these food chains are then organized into trophic pyramids. The arrows in the food chain show that the energy flow is unidirectional, with the head of an arrow indicating the direction of energy flow; energy is lost as heat at each step along the way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological succession</span> Process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time

Ecological succession is the process of change in the species that make up an ecological community over time.

The diversity of species and genes in ecological communities affects the functioning of these communities. These ecological effects of biodiversity in turn are affected by both climate change through enhanced greenhouse gases, aerosols and loss of land cover, and biological diversity, causing a rapid loss of biodiversity and extinctions of species and local populations. The current rate of extinction is sometimes considered a mass extinction, with current species extinction rates on the order of 100 to 1000 times as high as in the past.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soil food web</span> Complex living system in the soil

The soil food web is the community of organisms living all or part of their lives in the soil. It describes a complex living system in the soil and how it interacts with the environment, plants, and animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecosystem ecology</span> Study of living and non-living components of ecosystems and their interactions

Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components such as chemicals, bedrock, soil, plants, and animals.

Trophic cascades are powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems, occurring when a trophic level in a food web is suppressed. For example, a top-down cascade will occur if predators are effective enough in predation to reduce the abundance, or alter the behavior of their prey, thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from predation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. David Tilman</span> American ecologist (born 1949)

George David Tilman, ForMemRS, is an American ecologist. He is Regents Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology at the University of Minnesota, as well as an instructor in Conservation Biology; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; and Microbial Ecology. He is director of the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve long-term ecological research station. Tilman is also a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.

Ecological extinction is "the reduction of a species to such low abundance that, although it is still present in the community, it no longer interacts significantly with other species".

In ecology, the term productivity refers to the rate of generation of biomass in an ecosystem, usually expressed in units of mass per volume per unit of time, such as grams per square metre per day. The unit of mass can relate to dry matter or to the mass of generated carbon. The productivity of autotrophs, such as plants, is called primary productivity, while the productivity of heterotrophs, such as animals, is called secondary productivity.

Size-asymmetric competition refers to situations in which larger individuals exploit disproportionately greater amounts of resources when competing with smaller individuals. This type of competition is common among plants but also exists among animals. Size-asymmetric competition usually results from large individuals monopolizing the resource by "pre-emption"—i.e., exploiting the resource before smaller individuals are able to obtain it. Size-asymmetric competition has major effects on population structure and diversity within ecological communities.

Sarah E. Hobbie is an American ecologist, currently at the University of Minnesota, a National Academy of Sciences Fellow for Ecology, Evolution and Behavior in 2014 and a formerly Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professor.

Herbivores' effects on plant diversity vary across environmental changes. Herbivores could increase plant diversity or decrease plant diversity. Loss of plant diversity due to climate change can also affect herbivore and plant community relationships Herbivores are crucial in determining the distribution, abundance, and diversity of plant populations. Research indicates that by consuming large amounts of plant biomass, herbivores can directly reduce the local abundance of plants, thereby affecting the spatial distribution of different plant species. For example, the impact of herbivory is typically more pronounced in grassland species than in woodland forbs, especially in environments that undergo frequent disturbances.

Ingrid C. "Indy" Burke is the Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She is the first female dean in the school's 116 year history. Her area of research is ecosystem ecology with a primary focus on carbon cycling and nitrogen cycling in semi-arid rangeland ecosystems. She teaches on subjects relating to ecosystem ecology, and biogeochemistry.

Jiquan Chen is a landscape ecologist, primarily focused on nutrient flux, carbon cycling, bioenergy, and grassland ecology. He currently leads the LEES lab at Michigan State University.

Aimée Classen is an American ecologist who studies the impact of global changes on a diverse array of terrestrial ecosystems. Her work is notable for its span across ecological scales and concepts, and the diversity of terrestrial ecosystems that it encompasses, including forests, meadows, bogs, and tropics in temperate and boreal climates.

Carol Anne Blanchette is research biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara who is known for her work on marine intertidal zones and the biomechanics of marine organisms.

References

  1. ↑ "Elizabeth Borer | College of Biological Sciences". cbs.umn.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  2. 1 2 3 ORCID. "Elizabeth Borer (0000-0003-2259-5853)". orcid.org. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  3. ↑ "Elizabeth T. Borer dissertation". search.library.ucsb.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  4. ↑ "NCEAS | National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis". www.nceas.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  5. ↑ "Welcome to the Nutrient Network! | Nutrient Network: A Global Research Cooperative". www.nutnet.org. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  6. ↑ Stokstad, Erik (2011). "Open-Source Ecology Takes Root Across the World". Science. 334 (6054): 308–309. Bibcode:2011Sci...334..308S. doi:10.1126/science.334.6054.308.
  7. ↑ "UMN researchers lead global study on human impact on ecosystems". The Minnesota Daily. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  8. ↑ "Past Lancaster Awardees | Graduate Division". www.graddiv.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  9. ↑ "Fellows Directory | Leopold Leadership Program". leopoldleadership.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  10. ↑ "Faculty Leadership Council". Institute on the Environment. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  11. ↑ "Ecological Society of America announces 2019 Fellows". Ecological Society of America. Retrieved 2019-09-27.
  12. ↑ "2020 Fellows | American Association for the Advancement of Science". www.aaas.org. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  13. ↑ "Elizabeth Borer". Google Scholar. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
  14. ↑ Borer, Elizabeth T.; Seabloom, Eric W.; Mitchell, Charles E.; Cronin, James P. (2013-10-15). "Multiple nutrients and herbivores interact to govern diversity, productivity, composition, and infection in a successional grassland". Oikos. 123 (2): 214–224. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0706.2013.00680.x. ISSN   0030-1299.
  15. ↑ Borer, Elizabeth T.; Seabloom, Eric W.; Tilman, David (2012). Novotny, Vojtech (ed.). "Plant diversity controls arthropod biomass and temporal stability". Ecology Letters. 15 (12): 1457–1464. Bibcode:2012EcolL..15.1457B. doi:10.1111/ele.12006. PMID   23020194.
  16. ↑ Chisholm, Ryan (2011-11-21). "Faculty of 1000 evaluation for Productivity is a poor predictor of plant species richness". doi: 10.3410/f.13335979.14742068 .{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  17. ↑ Borer, E. T.; Hosseini, P. R.; Seabloom, E. W.; Dobson, A. P. (2007-03-19). "Pathogen-induced reversal of native dominance in a grassland community". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (13): 5473–5478. Bibcode:2007PNAS..104.5473B. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0608573104 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   1838473 . PMID   17372211.
  18. ↑ Borer, E. T.; Seabloom, E. W.; Shurin, J. B.; Anderson, K. E.; Blanchette, C. A.; Broitman, B.; Cooper, S. D.; Halpern, B. S. (2005). "What Determines the Strength of a Trophic Cascade?". Ecology. 86 (2): 528–537. Bibcode:2005Ecol...86..528B. doi:10.1890/03-0816. ISSN   0012-9658.
  19. ↑ "A New Urban Ecology". 6 February 2017.
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