James Elser investigates the theory of biological stoichiometry — the study of the balance of energy and multiple chemical elements in living systems. He and his international team of collaborators seek to understand how the coupling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus shapes the ecology and evolution of living things.
To do so, they work with a diversity of ecosystems (from lakes and deserts, to hot springs and grasslands), biota (plankton to insects, and pandas to tumors), and approaches (laboratory chemostats, field experiments and mathematical models).
Professor Elser played a major role in establishing ASU’s Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative and is now Director of the Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance. Through these efforts, he seeks to help create a sustainable food system by closing the human P cycle.
Ph.D.University of California-Davis 1990
My research involves the integrative field of biological stoichiometry, the study of the balance of energy and multiple chemical elements in living systems. While this work is primarily ecological in focus and includes studies of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and biota, the approach uses an evolutionary perspective to integrate levels of organization from the molecule and cell to the ecosystem. Studies involve observational and experimental studies at various scales, including laboratory cultures, short-term field experiments and sustained whole-ecosystem manipulations. Over the years, field sites have included lakes of Colorado, Ontario, Norway and Arctic Alaska; lakes, forests, and grasslands of the upper Midwest; desert springs in Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert; grasslands of Inner Mongolia; and the surrounding Sonoran Desert. In addition, I collaborate extensively with mathematicians to develop formal theoretical approaches to these questions. For more information: http://www.elserlab.asu.edu/index.html
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