Department: Dept. of Natural Resources and the Environment
James Hall
Durham, NH 03824
Research Interests
Currently, my primary research interest at Hubbard Brook focuses on understanding the responses of different tree species and forest ecosystems to drought, particularly identifying the underlying physiological mechanisms that determine ecological thresholds of dieback and mortality. I am using several different approaches to address this question, including a long-term precipitation manipulation experiment to simulate a once-in-a-century drought, and dendochronology coupled with stable isotope techniques to assess tree growth and physiological responses to historic climate variability. A second research project focuses on assessing the long-term trends in evapotranspiration, and how these trends relate to different potential biotic and abiotic drivers. Ultimately, I am interested in scaling up processes occurring at the individual leaf to tree scales to influence larger scale patterns and ecosystem services at the ecosystem watershed, and landscape scales.