Current Position

Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences

Education

Ph.D., Earth Systems Science, University of California
M.S., Environmental Science, Ohio State University
B.S., Earth Systems Science and Policy, California State University of Monterey Bay

Research Interests

Prof. Rocha is interested in the biological and environmental controls on ecosystem exchanges of mass and energy at various temporal and spatial scales. His work utilizes a variety of tools including eddy covariance, remote sensing, and ground-based measures of ecosystem physiology to address these topics. Past work has focused on a variety of topics, including the influence of clouds on CO₂ and water exchange in a northern hardwood forest in Michigan, the physiology of tree growth in an old black spruce forest in Manitoba, Canada, and the environmental and biological controls on energy and mass exchanges in a freshwater marsh in Southern California. His current work focuses on characterizing the effects of wildfire on climate forcing and vegetation recovery on the north slope of Alaska, an area of rapid environmental change.

Key Words

Arctic Climate Change, Biological and Environmental Controls on Ecosystems, Climate Change, Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles, Disturbance Ecology, Ecology, Energy Efficiency and Consumption, Environmental Biology, Land-Atmosphere Interactions, Land Use Change Ecology, Wetland Ecology

Relevant Energy Publications

1. Jiang, Yueyang, Edward B. Rastetter, Gaius R. Shaver, Adrian V. Rocha, Qianlai Zhuang, and Bonnie L. Kwiatkowski. "Modeling long‐term changes in tundra carbon balance following wildfire, climate change, and potential nutrient addition." Ecological Applications 27, no. 1 (2017): 105-117.
2. Barrio, Isabel C., Elin Lindén, Mariska Te Beest, Johan Olofsson, Adrian Rocha, Eeva M. Soininen, Juha M. Alatalo et al. "Background invertebrate herbivory on dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa-nana complex) increases with temperature and precipitation across the tundra biome." Polar Biology 40, no. 11 (2017): 2265-2278.
3. Jiang, Yueyang, Adrian V. Rocha, Edward B. Rastetter, Gaius R. Shaver, Umakant Mishra, Qianlai Zhuang, and Bonnie L. Kwiatkowski. "C–N–P interactions control climate driven changes in regional patterns of C storage on the North Slope of Alaska." Landscape Ecology 31, no. 1 (2016): 195-213.
4. Abbott, Benjamin W., Jeremy B. Jones, Edward AG Schuur, F. Stuart Chapin III, William B. Bowden, M. Syndonia Bret-Harte, Howard E. Epstein et al. "Biomass offsets little or none of permafrost carbon release from soils, streams, and wildfire: an expert assessment." Environmental Research Letters 11, no. 3 (2016): 034014.
5. Jiang, Yueyang, Adrian V. Rocha, Edward B. Rastetter, Gaius R. Shaver, Umakant Mishra, Qianlai Zhuang, and Bonnie L. Kwiatkowski. "C–N–P interactions control climate driven changes in regional patterns of C storage on the North Slope of Alaska." Landscape Ecology 31, no. 1 (2016): 195-213.

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