Congratulations to One of Our ALRS Faculty: Dr. Steven Archer!

Steven R. Archer, Ph.D. has just been designated as a Regents Professor by the Arizona Board of Regents! Regents Professor Archer will be inducted at a special ceremony during the next academic year. The Regents Professor title is reserved for outstanding full professors who have achieved national or international recognition and exemplify the University of Arizona’s objectives and standards for scholarship, research or creative activities, and teaching.

Dr. Steven Archer is a professor at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona. Dr. Archer's research has concentrated on interactions between grasses and woody plants in relation to soils, climate and disturbance. Grasslands and savannas throughout the world appear to have been replaced by shrub– and woodlands in recent history. This shift in vegetation structure has implications for the sustainability of pastoral and commercial livestock production systems and may influence climate and atmospheric chemistry via impacts on the carbon, nitrogen and water cycles. Documentation of shifts in woody plant abundance is poor and causes are not well understood. As a result, our ability to anticipate the rate, direction and magnitude of future changes is limited. Population, transition probability and dynamic ecosystem simulation models are used in conjunction with remote sensing, GIS, dendrochronology and stable isotope chemistry to reconstruct vegetation history and to examine potential, impending changes and the consequences of such changes on sustainability of grazing systems, ecosystem biogeochemistry and land surface-atmosphere interactions. Field and laboratory experiments on the population biology of grasses and shrub growth forms are emphasized in the context of landscape ecology, succession and historical land–use practices.