Office: Biology 330
Phone: (970) 491-2679
Curriculum Vitae: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByZHFvdNdVg_allHWS05amo4a0k
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=49ebnuwAAAAJ&hl=en
Education
- B.A., Biology, Augustana College (SD)
- Ph.D., Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University
- NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Scholar, Dept. of Geosciences, Princeton University
About
Joe von Fischer is a professor in the Department of Biology who studies the human and natural forces that give the atmosphere its greenhouse gas composition. One major lobe of that work asks how much methane is being emitted by cities, and what can be done to reduce those emissions. This work bridges across companies that manage greenhouse gases (e.g., natural gas distribution and leak detection companies), environmental groups (e.g., Environmental Defense Fund), and policy groups (e.g., EPA, DOT/PHMSA, California and Colorado agencies). He is a proponent of transdisciplinary research that brings together expertise in social, technological and environmental systems to address issues in sustainability, like climate change. In addressing these issues of sustainability, Joe also seeks to restore social justice.
In addition, Joe studies the soil microbial processes that metabolize carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane, seeking new insights into the greenhouse gas emissions by ecosystems ranging from tropical forests in Panama to the Arctic tundra in Alaska.
Prospective graduate students, post docs, technicians, or other research partners are invited to be in touch, especially those interested in managing greenhouse gas emissions through a transdisciplinary approach. Disciplinary expertise can include technological (measurement, management, and engineering of greenhouse gas emitting systems), social (cultural, behavioral, economic, justice), environmental (ecosystem ecology, urban ecology, micrometerology), or data science (statistics, geospatial analyses, programming in Python).
Publications
- Deficit irrigation impacts on greenhouse gas emissions under drip‐fertigated maize in the Great Plains of Colorado Journal of Enviromental Quality, 2022.
- An approach for calibrating laser-based N2O isotopic analyzers for soil biogeochemistry research Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 3, 2021.
- A national estimate of methane leakage from pipeline mains in natural gas local distribution systems Environmental Science & Technology, 14, 2020.
- Methane mapping, emission quantification, and attribution in two European cities: Utrecht (NL) and Hamburg (DE) Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23, 2020.
- An open source algorithm to detect natural gas leaks from mobile methane survey data PLOS ONE, 2, 2019.
- Estimation of methane emissions from the US ammonia fertilizer industry using a mobile sensing approach ELEMENTA-SCIENCE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE, 2019.
- Nitrogen Dynamics in an Established Alfalfa Field under Low Biochar Application Rates Soil Systems, 4, 2019.
- Rapid nitrogen fixation by canopy microbiome in tropical forest determined by both phosphorus and molybdenum ECOLOGY, 9, 2019.
- A meta-analysis of temperature sensitivity as a microbial trait GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, 9, 2018.
- Impacts of Moisture, Soil Respiration, and Agricultural Practices on Methanogenesis in Upland Soils as Measured with Stable Isotope Pool Dilution Soil Biology & Biochemistry , 2018.
- Vehicle-Based Methane Surveys for Finding Natural Gas Leaks and Estimating Their Size: Validation and Uncertainty ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, 20, 2018.
- A calibration capture--recapture model for inferring natural gas leak population characteristics using data from Google Street View cars Environmetrics, 7, 2018.
- Mountain Peatlands Range from CO2 Sinks at High Elevations to Sources at Low Elevations: Implications for a Changing Climate ECOSYSTEMS, 2, 2017.
- Rapid, Vehicle-Based Identification of Location and Magnitude of Urban Natural Gas Pipeline Leaks ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, 7, 2017.
- Rapid, Vehicle-Based Identification of Location and Magnitude of Urban Natural Gas Pipeline Leaks ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, 7, 2017.
- Soil Methane Uptake Increases under Continuous Throughfall Reduction in a Temperate Evergreen, Broadleaved Eucalypt Forest ECOSYSTEMS, 2, 2017.
- Co-variation in methanotroph community composition and activity in three temperate grassland soils SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY, 2016.
- Soil methanotroph abundance and community composition are not influenced by substrate availability in laboratory incubations SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY, 2016.
- Temperature Sensitivity as a Microbial Trait Using Parameters from Macromolecular Rate Theory FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY, 2016.
- Temperature sensitivity of soil microbial communities: An application of macromolecular rate theory to microbial respiration JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-BIOGEOSCIENCES, 6, 2016.
- Rapid, vehicle-based identification of location and magnitude of urban natural gas pipeline leaks Environmental Science and Technology.
- Autotrophic fixation of geogenic CO2 by microorganisms contributes to soil organic matter formation and alters isotope signatures in a wetland mofette BIOGEOSCIENCES, 23, 2015.
- Contrasting above- and belowground sensitivity of three Great Plains grasslands to altered rainfall regimes GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, 1, 2015.
- Multigas Leakage Correction in Static Environmental Chambers Using Sulfur Hexafluoride and Raman Spectroscopy ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, 21, 2015.
- Repeated fuel reduction burns have little long-term impact on soil greenhouse gas exchange in a dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY, 2015.
- Prescribed fire, soil inorganic nitrogen dynamics, and plant responses in a semiarid grassland JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS, 2014.
- Vegetation height and other controls of spatial variability in methane emissions from the Arctic coastal tundra at Barrow, Alaska Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, G4, 2010.