I am an ecosystem ecologist with interests in plant ecology, biogeochemistry, and global change. My work contributes to theoretical predictions of ecosystem structure and function, but also applies to regulation of carbon in a global change world. I am passionate about northern ecosystems and the people who depend on them. My students and I use a variety of approaches, from large-scale manipulations to laboratory experiments and paleoecological reconstructions, to understand the resilience of communities and ecosystems to environmental change. We tend to work on a variety of research issues including permafrost degradation and changing wildfire regimes that are important to global change and environmental policy arenas.