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Home » ... » - Faculty » Faculty Pages » Balser, Teresa |
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Balser, Teresa
Teresa (Teri) C. Balser, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Area: Ecophysiology. Microbial Community. Global Change. Nutrient Cycling. Carbon Storage. Lipid Analysis. Role of bacterial ecophysiology in soil process. Specifically, microorganismal response to environmental stress; how response alters behavior, survival, and activity; effect on nitrate production and consumption, degradation of resistant chemicals, and interactions within the plant rhizosphere. Microbial community ecology.
Home Dept: Soil Sciences, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Affiliated Depts: Molecular and Environmental Toxicology
Address
Department of Soil Sciences
263 Soil Sciences (mailing address)
354 Soils (office) 204 Hiram Smith (lab)
1525 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
608/262-2633 - Email
Research
Soil carbon and feedbacks to climate change. I am interested in the role of microbial communities in soil carbon turnover and sequestration. I have projects in California, Wisconsin and in Borneo looking at the importance of microbial community structure and activity in carbon cycling. In addition, I recently received an NSF Career Award to study the role of temperature stress in determining microbial utilization of soil carbon.
Ecology of nitrogen cycling . I study microbial community control over nitrogen cycling in terrestrial systems such as restored wetlands, and tropical and temperate forests. Current study sites are in the UW Arboretum, in California and in the Hawaiian Islands. This work will contribute information about the mechanistic basis of nitrogen cycling in perturbed ecosystems. In the future, I plan to expand the work further to include additional Wisconsin sites in wetland, agronomic, and forest soils receiving external N input.
Global and ecological change research. We have a variety of projects ongoing that address current issues in global and ecological change. We are investigating the impacts of invasive plant species in wetlands, an invasive insect in forests of the Northeast U.S., the importance of plant and microbial diversity in urban rain garden functioning, and the effects of elevated CO2 and nitrogen deposition on carbon cycling in invaded wetlands and grassland ecosystems.
Microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning . I am involved in projects in California and Switzerland looking at the relationships between plant and microbial diversity, as well as the role of microbial diversity in nutrient cycling.
Collaborative research and visiting scholars program. We are committed to interdisciplinary research, and to the inclusion of microbiological detail in large scale ecological research. Toward that end we are active collaborators with research groups around the world, and we invite students and postdocs to visit us in Madison to learn lipid analysis and microbial tchniques. Our website (still under construction), www.ecosystem-microbiology.wisc.edu, explains more.
Awards
2007 - NSF Career Award
Publications
- Kao-Kniffin, J.T., Balser, T.C. 2007. Elevated CO2 differentially alters belowground plant and soil microbial community structure in reed canary grass-invaded experimental wetlands. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, submitted 6/20/06. Accepted 8/31/06. Online published 11/29/06
- Liang, C., X. Zhang, K.F. Rubert IV, T.C. Balser. 2006. Effect of plant materials on microbial transformation of amino sugars in three soil microcosms. Biology and Fertility of Soil http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00374-006-0142-1
- Balser, T.C., K. McMahon, D. Bart, D. Bronson, D. Coyle, N. Craig, M. Flores, K. Forshay, S. Jones, A. Kent, A. Shade. 2006. Bridging the gap between micro- and macroscale perspectives on ecosystem response to disturbance. Plant and Soil DOI 10.1007/s11104-006-9104-5
- Liang, C., R. Fujinuma, L. Wei, T.C. Balser. 200x. 2006. Tree species-specific effects on soil microbial residues in an upper Michigan old growth forest system. Forestry doi:10.1093/forestry/cpl035
- Mentzer, J.L., R. Goodman, T.C. Balser. 2006. Linking soil process and microbial ecology in freshwater wetland ecosystems. Plant and Soil DOI 10.1007/s11104-006-9105-4
- Mentzer, J.L., R. Goodman, T.C. Balser. 2006. Microbial seasonal response to hydrologic and fertilization treatments in a simulated wet prairie. Plant and Soil 284 pp. 85-100.
- Fraterrigo, J.M., T.C. Balser, M.G. Turner. 2006. Microbial community variation and its relationship with nitrogen mineralization in historically altered forests, Ecology87, 570-579.
- Smithwick, Erica A. H., Monica G. Turner, Terry Chapin, Michelle Mack, Teri C. Balser. 2005 Spatial heterogeneity in ecosystem processes after severe fire in a black spruce (P. mariana) forest, Alaska (USA). Biogeochemistry 76, 513-537.
- Bartelt-Ryser, J., J. Joshi, B. Schmid, H. Brandl, T. Balser. 2005. Soil feedbacks of plant diversity on soil microbial communities and subsequent plant growth. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 7, 27-49.
- Smithwick, E.H.A., M.G. Turner, K.L. Metzger, T.C. Balser, 2005. Variation in NH4+ mineralization and microbial communities with stand age in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests, Yellowstone National Park (USA) Soil Biology and Biochemistry 37, 1546-1559.
- Balser, T.C. and M.K. Firestone, 2005. Linking microbial community composition and soil processes in two California ecosystems. Biogeochemistry, 73, 395-415
- Balser, T.C. 2005. Humification, p. 195-207, In D. Hillel, et al., eds. Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment, Vol. 2. Elsevier, Oxford UK.
Balser, T.C., Treseder, K.K., and Ekenler, M., 2005. Using lipid analysis and hyphal length to quantify AM and saprotrophic fungal abundance along a soil chronosequence. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 37, 601-604.
Check PubMed for other publications by Teresa Balser
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