Volume 8. Biogeochemistry

"Most of the chapters in this volume are easy and agreeable to read. They avoid long historical description of the evolution of the subject and are generally well focused on the latest developments of our knowledge. This is well reflected in the references cited which are mainly covering the last ten years (except for chapters 3 and 4). (...) The Treatise on Geochemistry is without any doubt a very useful reference book for a large scientific community and especially for students and teachers." (Prof. Roland Wollast, Oceanographie Chimique, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium)

William H. Schlesinger
James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry
Dean, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
A 237 Levine Science Research Center
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0329
USA
E-mail: schlesin@duke.edu

About the editor

Final contents of this volume

William H. Schlesinger is James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry, and effective 1 July 2001, Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.
Completing his A.B. at Dartmouth (1972), and Ph.D. at Cornell (1976), he joined the faculty at Duke in 1980. He is the author or coauthor of over 130 scientific papers and the widely-adopted textbook, Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change (Academic Press, 2nd ed. 1997). He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995.
Currently, Schlesinger focuses his research on the role of soils in the global carbon cycle. He is the co-principal investigator for the Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) Experiment in the Duke Forest, a project that aims to understand how an entire forest ecosystem (vegetation and soils) will respond to growth in elevated CO₂. He has also worked extensively in desert ecosystems and their response to global change—often leading to the degradation of soils and regional desertification. He served as Principal Investigator for the NSF-sponsored program of Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) at the Jornada Basin in southern New Mexico from 1991 to 2000. His past work has taken him to diverse habitats, ranging from Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia to the Mojave Desert of California. His research has been featured on NOVA, CNN, NPR, and on the pages of Discover, National Geographic, The New York Times, and Scientific American.
Schlesinger has testified before U.S. House and Senate Committees on a variety of environmental issues, including preservation of desert habitats and global climate change. He is a member of the Committee on Global Change Research of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society’s Committee on Research and Exploration. Schlesinger also serves as Vice President for Finance and Investments for the Ecological Society of America.