Institute of Arctic Biology
311 Irving I
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000

IAB Office: 907-474-5434
Toolik Field Station: 907-455-2517
IAB fax: 907-474-6967
Toolik fax:907-455-2598

Research Interests

Dr. Syndonia Bret-Harte is a plant community and ecosystem ecologist who focuses on how global climate change affects arctic vegetation composition and nutrient cycling. Current research in her lab group utilizes long-term field manipulations of environmental change in order to advance understanding of feedbacks between plant species responses and ecosystem processes.

Dr. Bret-Harte serves as the associate science director at Toolik Field Station and on the Board of Trustees for the Alaska Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

Current Projects

Pan-Arctic Observatory Network for the Study of Landscape Carbon, Water, and Energy Balance
Funded by National Science Foundation for International Polar Year

Visit the AON website: http://aon.iab.uaf.edu/index.html

Experimental Manipulations of Snow-Shrub Interactions
Funded by the National Science Foundation

Understanding Arctic Shrub Expansion in Gates of the Arctic National Park
Funded by the National Park Service

Arctic Plant Community Response to Neighbor Removal and Fertilization
Funded by the National Science Foundation

Meta-Analyses of Community Reduction Experiments
Funded by National Council for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis

Effects of Biodiversity on Ecosystems and Sustainability in the Americas
Funded by Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research

Education

Employment

People

Current Lab Members

-Laura Brosius (MS Candidate co-advised by K. Walter, Started 2007)
-Colin Tucker (PhD Candidate, Started 2005)

-Katey Walter (Post-Doctoral Researcher)
-Anja Kade (Post-Doctoral Researcher)
-Eugenie Euskirchen (Academic Research Associate)

-Christie Haupert (Toolik Environmental Data Technician)

Student Committees

-Martha Raynolds (Ph.D. Candidate)
-Jennifer Rohrs-Richey (Ph.D. Candidate)

Primary Collaborators

-Brian Barnes (Institute of Arctic Biology, UAF)
-Terry Chapin (Institute of Arctic Biology, UAF)
-Sandra Díaz (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba – CONICET, Argentina)
-Gregory Goldsmith (University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California)
-Paul Grogan (Queens University, Toronto, Canada)
-John Hobbie (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts)
-Michelle Mack (University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida)
-Edward Rastetter (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts)
-Diane Sanzone (National Park Service, Fairbanks, Alaska)
-Gaius Shaver (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts)
-Martin Sommerkorn (Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland)
-Sergey Zimov (Northeast Science Station, Cherskii, Russia)

Selected Publications

*Indicates student author

Bret-Harte, M.S., Mack, M.C., *Goldsmith, G.R., *Sloan, D.B., *DeMarco, J., Shaver, G.R., Ray, P.M., *Biesinger, Z. and F.S. Chapin III (2008) Plant functional types do not predict biomass responses to removal and fertilization in Alaskan tussock tundra. In Press for Journal of Ecology

Knapp, A.K, Briggs, J.M., Collins, S.L., Archers, S.R., Bret-Harte, M.S., Ewers, B.E., Peters, D.P., Young, D.R., Shaver, G.R., Pendall, E. and M.B. Cleary. (2008) Shrub encroachment in North American grasslands: shifts in growth form dominance rapidly alters control of ecosystem carbon inputs. Global Change Biology 14: 615-623.

Bret-Harte, M.S. and B.M. Barnes (2006). Science Support at the Toolik Field Station, Alaska: Directions for the Next 10 Years; Report of workshop held in San Francisco, California from December 10-12, 2004.  Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK

Walker, M.D., Wahren, C.H., Hollister, R.D., Henry G.H.R., Ahlquist, L.E., Alatalo, J.M., Bret-Harte, M.S., Calef, M.P., Callaghan, T.V., Carroll, A.B., Epstein, H.E., Jonsdottir, I.S., Klein, J.A., Magnusson, B., Molau, U., Oberbauer, S.F., Rewa, S.P., Robinson, C.H., Shaver, G.R., Suding, K.N., Thompson, C.C., Tolvanen, A., Totland, O., Turner, P.L., Tweedie, C.E., Webber, P.J., and Wookey, P.A. (2006) Plant Community Responses to Experimental Warming Across the Tundra Biome.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103: 1342-1346

Wahren, C-H.A., Walker, M.D., and Bret-Harte, M.S. (2005) Vegetation responses in Alaskan arctic tundra after eight years of a summer warming and winter snow manipulation experiment.  Global Change Biology 11: 537-552

Mack, M.C., Schuur, E.A.G., Bret-Harte, M.S., G.R. Shaver, and F.S. Chapin III  (2004) Ecosystem carbon storage in arctic tundra reduced by long-term nutrient fertilization.  Nature 431: 440-443

Bret-Harte, M.S., *Garcia, E.A., *Sacré, V.M., *Whorley, J.R., *Wagner, J.L., *Lippert, S.C., and F.S. Chapin, III.  (2004)  Plant and soil responses to neighbour removal and fertilization in Alaskan tussock tundra.  Journal of Ecology 92: 635-647

Urcelay, C., Bret-Harte, M.S., Díaz, S. and F.S. Chapin, III.  (2003)  Mycorrhizal colonization mediated by species interactions in arctic tundra.  Oecologia 137: 399-404

Bret-Harte, M.S., Shaver, G.R., and F.S. Chapin, III.  (2002) Primary and secondary stem growth in arctic shrubs: implications for community response to environmental change.  Journal of Ecology 90: 251-267

Shaver, G.R., Bret-Harte, M.S., Jones, M.H., *Johnstone, J.F., Gough, L. and F.S. Chapin, III. (2001) Species composition interacts with fertilizer to control long-term change in tundra productivity.  Ecology 82: 3163-3181

Bret-Harte, M.S, Shaver, G.R., *Zoerner, J.P., *Johnstone, J.F., *Wagner, J.L., *Chavez, A.S., *Gunkelman, R.F. IV, *Lippert, S.C., and J.A. Laundre. (2001) Developmental plasticity allows Betula nana to dominate tundra subjected to an altered environment.  Ecology 82: 18-32. 

Arft, A.M., Walker, M.D., Gurevitch, J., Alatalo, J., Bret-Harte, M.S., Dale, M., Diemer, M., Gugerli, F., Henry, G.H.R., Jones, M.H., Hollister, R.D., Jónsdóttir, I.S., Laine, K., Lévesque, E. Marion, G.M., Molau, U., Mølgaard, P., Nordenhall, U., Raszhivin, V., Robinson, C.H., Starr, G., Stenström, A., Stenström, M., Totland, Ø., Turner, P.L., Walker, L.J., Webber, P.J., Welker, J.M., and P.A. Wookey.  (1999)  Responses of tundra plant species to experimental warming: meta-analysis of the International Tundra Experiment.  Ecol Monographs 69: 491-511

Chapin, F.S., III, Bret-Harte, M.S., Hobbie, S.E., and Zhong, H. (1996)  Plant functional types as predictors of the transient response of arctic vegetation to global change.  Journal of Vegetation Science 7: 347-358

Chapin, F.S., III, Hobbie, S.E, Bret-Harte, M.S., and G. Bonan (1995)  Causes and consequences of functional diversity in arctic ecosystems.  In: F.S. Chapin, III, and Ch. Körner, eds. Arctic and Alpine Biodiversity: Patterns, Causes, and Ecosystem Consequences.  Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp.225-237

Bret-Harte, M.S. and W.K. Silk (1994)  Fluxes and deposition rates of solutes in growing roots of Zea mays.  Journal of Experimental Botany 45: 1733-1742

Bret-Harte, M.S. and W.K. Silk  (1994) Symplasmic diffusion of sucrose cannot supply the carbon demands of growth in the root tip of Zea mays.  Plant Physiology 105: 19-33

Bret-Harte, M.S. and L.D. Talbott  (1993) Changes in composition of the outer epidermal cell wall of pea stems during auxin-induced growth. Planta 190: 369-378

Bret-Harte, M.S. (1993) Total epidermal cell walls of pea stems respond differently to auxin than does the outer epidermal wall alone.  Planta 190: 379-386
 
Bret-Harte, M.S., Baskin, T.I. and P.B. Green (1991) Auxin stimulates both deposition and breakdown of material in the pea outer epidermal cell wall, as measured interferometrically.  Planta 185: 462-471
 
Russell, P.J., Wagner, S., Rodland, K., Feinbaum, R., Russell, J., Bret-Harte, M.S., and R.L. Metzenburg (1984) Organization of the ribosomal ribonucleic acid genes in various wild-type strains and wild-collected strains of Neurospora. Molecular and General Genetics 196: 275-282