Ingrid C. (Indy) Burke

Professor
Director Program in Environment and Natural Resources

Specialization:

Ecosystem Ecology, Biogeochemistry

Office: Bim Kendall House
Phone: 307-766-5150
E-mail: iburke@uwyo.edu

Education

B.S. Middlebury College, 1980
Ph.D. University of Wyoming, 1987

Courses

Introductory Environmental Science, Ecosystem Ecology, Ecology, and Biogeochemistry

Research Emphasis

I study nutrient cycling in semiarid ecosystems, particularly focusing on the impacts of land use change

Current Research Projects

*Electronically Steerable Flash LIdar system for Vegetation Studies. Ball Aerospace. Principal Investigator.  $200,000.  2008 - present
*Shortgrass Steppe Field Station. National Science Foundation. Principal Investigator.  $230,000.  2009-2010. 

 Selected Publications

(underlining shows my own graduate students or postdoctoral associates; italicized and underlined shows undergraduate students) 

Journal Articles:

• 1. Bontti, E. E., I. C. Burke, and W. K. Lauenroth. 2011. Nitrogen partitioning between microbes and plants in the shortgrass steppe. Plant and Soil, in press.
• 2. Adair, E. A. and I. C. Burke. 2010. Plant phenology and life span influence soil pool dynamics: Bromus tectorum invasion of perennial C3-C4 grass communities. Plant and Soil 335:255-269
• 3. Currie, W. S., M. E. Harmon, I. C. Burke, S. C. Hart, W. J. Parton, and W. Silver. 2010. Cross-biome transplants of plant litter show decomposition models extend to a broader climatic range but low predictability at the decadal time scale. Global Change Biology in press.
• 4. Munson, S. M., T. J. Benton, W. K. Lauenroth, and I. C. Burke. 2010. Soil carbon flux following pulse precipitation events in the shortgrass steppe. Ecological Research, 25: 205-211.
• 5. Bontti, E. E., J. P. DeCant, S. M. Munson, M. Gathany, A. Przeszlowska, M. L. Haddix, S. M. Owens, I. C. Burke, W. J. Parton, and M. E. Harmon. 2009. Litter decomposition in grasslands of Central North America (US Great Plains). Global Change Biology 15(5):1356-1363.
• 6. McCulley, R. L., I. C. Burke, and W. K. Lauenroth. 2009. Conservation of nitrogen increases with precipitation across a major grassland gradient in the central Great Plains of North America. Oecologia 159(3):571-581.
• 7. McHale, M. R., I. C. Burke, M. A. Lefsky, P. J. Peper, and E. G. McPherson. 2009. Urban forest biomass estimates: is it important to use allometric relationship developed specifically for urban trees? Urban Ecosystems 12:95-113.
• 8. Harmon, M. E., W. L. Silver, B. Fasth, H. Chen, I. C. Burke, W. J. Parton, S. C. Hart, W. S. Currie, and LIDET. 2009. Long-term patterns of mass loss during the decomposition of leaf and fine root litter: an intersite comparison. Global Change Biology 15(5):1320-1338.
• 9. Adair. E. A., W. J. Parton, S. J. Del Grosso, W. L. Silver, M. E. Harmon, S. A. Hall, I. C. Burke, and S. C. Hart. 2008. A simple three-pool model accurately describes patterns of long-term litter decomposition in diverse climates. Global Change Biology 14:2636-2660.
• Burke, I. C. and W. K. Lauenroth. 2010. Theory of Ecosystem Ecology. Chapter 11 in Scheiner, S and M. Willig, eds, Theory of Ecology. Oxford University Press. in press.
• Lauenroth, W. K., and I. C. Burke, eds. 2008. Ecology of the Shortgrass Steppe: a Long Term Perspective. Oxford Press.