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Ram Oren
Associate Professor, Nicholas School of the Environment
   
Degrees B.A. - Certificate - Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Mathematics & Natural Resources, 1975
B.S. - Humboldt State University, California, Forest Resource Management, 1978
M.S. - Oregon State University, Forest Ecology & Silviculture, 1980
Ph.D. - Oregon State University, Physiological Ecology, 1984
   
Research Interests With his graduate students, Dr. Oren quantifies the components of water flux in forest ecosystems and the influence of certain biotic and abiotic factors on water flux. Climate variability, including variations in air temperature, vapor pressure deficit, incoming radiation and soil moisture, and environmental change, including elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide, affect the intra- and inter-annual patterns and amounts of water used by forest ecosystems, and their spatial distributions. These variations influence the temporal and spatial partitioning of incoming radiation between latent and sensible heat. Changes in water use by forests, resulting from abiotic pressures, trigger biotic feedback responses, which may often cancel or amplify abiotic impacts. Using a local mass balance approach and detailed measurements of water flux and driving variables in the soil, plants, and the atmosphere, in forests from Brazil to Alaska, Dr. Oren evaluates the likely responses of different forest ecosystems to environmental change.

Special Facilities: Dr. Oren and his students make frequent use of the AmeriFlux meteorological towers in the Duke Forest, the Duke forest Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) facility, and the mobile micrometeorological laboratory.
   
Recent Publications
  • Oren, R., D.E. Ellsworth, K.H. Johnsen, N. Phillips, B.E. Ewers, C. Maier, K.V.R. Schafer, H. McCarthy, G. Hendrey, S.G. McNulty, G.G. Katul. 2001. Soil fertility limits carbon sequestration by forest ecosystems in a CO2-enriched atmosphere. Nature 411:469-472.
  • Oren, R., D. Pataki. 2001. Transpiration in response to variation in microclimate and soil moisture in southeastern deciduous forests. Oecologia 127:549-559.
  • Oren, R., J.S. Sperry, B.E. Ewers, D.E. Pataki, N. Phillips, J.P. Megonigal. 2001. Sensitivity of mean canopy stomatal conductance to vapor presure deficit in a flooded Taxodium distichum L. forest-hydraulic and non-hydraulic effects. Oecologia 126:21-29.
   
Graduate Students Current:
Karina Schaefer, Heather McCarthy, Hyun-Seok Kim, Benjamin Poulter

Recent Graduates:
1997: Nathan Phillips, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: Spatial and Temporal Properties of Whole-Tree and Forest-Level Water

1998: Diane E. Pataki, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: Water Use of Co-Occurring Species in Response to Environmental Conditions at Varying Temporal Scales.

1999: Brent Ewers, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: Effect of water and nutrient supply on mean canopy stomatal conductance of Pinus taeda and Picea abies.
   
Contact E-mail: ramoren@duke.edu
Telephone: 919-613-8032
Web: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/oren.html
 
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