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SES Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series
11/19/04
Agricultural Intensification in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico: Does it "Save Land for Nature"?
Pamela Matson - Stanford University
3:00 PM Lillie Auditorium
Pamela Matson is Goldman Professor of Environmental Sciences and Co-Director for the Center of Environmental Science Policy at Stanford University. She also serves as Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford. Her research is focused on biogeochemical and ecological processes in forest and agriculture systems. She was the first to show that geographic variation in the biogeo-chemistry of terrestrial ecosystems controls variation in production of the important greenhouse gas, N2O. That discovery provided the foundation for her development of global budgets of natural and anthropogenic sources of this and other radiatively significant trace gases. In her current research, she takes an interdisciplinary approach, working with hydrologists, atmospheric scientists, economists and agronomists to examine the drivers and environmental consequences of land-use change in tropical agro-ecosystems. She and her co-workers are attempting determine best practices for establishing economically and environmentally sustainable agriculture.
Matson earned her B.S. in Biology magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, her M.S. in Environmental Science from Indiana University and Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from Oregon State University. Before taking her current positions at Stanford, Matson was a research scientist at NASA / Ames Research Center for ten years and was a Professor of Ecosystem Ecology at University of California, Berkeley.
Matson’s contributions to science are widely recognized and she has received many honors and awards. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992, a member of the National Academy of Science in 1994 and a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 1997. In 1995 Matson was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from both the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and Oregon State University in 1996 and 1998, respectively. Matson is the immediate Past-President of the Ecological Society of America and serves on the boards of several national and international organizations including the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the National Research Council’s Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, which she chairs.
SUGGESTED READING
Matson, P.A., W.J. Parton, A.G. Power and M.J. Swift (1997). Agricultural intensification and ecosystem properties. Science 277:504-509.
Matson, P.A., R. Naylor and I. Ortize-Monasterio (1998). Integration of environmental, agroeconomic and economic aspects of fertilizer management. Science 280:112-115.
Tilman, D., K.G. Cassman, P.A. Matson, R. Nayllor and S. Polasky (2002). Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature 418:671-677.
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