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Peter Reich

Peter Reich
Professor; Director of the Institute for Global Change Biology (IGCB)
Climate + Energy
Conservation + Restoration
preich@umich.edu
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Institute for Global Change Biology

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About

Dr. Peter Reich, a renowned expert in forest ecology, has been named Director of the Institute for Global Change Biology (IGCB) at SEAS. Reich, who has conducted global change research on plants, soils, and ecosystems across a range of scales, will maintain a joint affiliation at the University of Minnesota (UMN), where he is a Regents Professor, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, and the F.B. Hubacheck Sr. Chair in Forest Ecology and Tree Physiology.

In addition to his work at UMN, Reich was the Chief Scientist at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University in Australia from 2011 to 2021. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Ecological Society of America, and a BBVA Prize Laureate (BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology). He also helped launch the science education channel, MinuteEarth, which has more than 400 million views on YouTube and other platforms.

Publications

  • Montgomery R, KE Rice, A Stefanski, RL Rich, PB Reich. 2020. "Phenological responses of temperate and boreal trees to warming depend on ambient spring temperatures, leaf habit, and geographic range." Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences 117:10397-10405
  • Reich PB, SE Hobbie, TD Lee, R Rich, MA Pastore, K Worm. 2020. "Synergistic effects of four climate change drivers on terrestrial carbon cycling." Nature Geoscience (in press)
  • Williams LJ, J Cavender-Bares, PA Townsend, JJ Couture, Z Wang, A Stefanski, C Messier, PB Reich. 2020. "Remote spectral detection of biodiversity effects on forest productivity." Nature Ecology and Evolution (in press).
  • Pastore MA, TD Lee, SE Hobbie, PB Reich. 2019. "Strong photosynthetic acclimation and enhanced water‐use efficiency in grassland functional groups persist over 21 years of CO2 enrichment, independent of nitrogen supply." Global Change Biology 25:3031-3044
  • Butler, EE., A Datta, H Flores-Moreno, M Chen, … PB Reich. 2017. "Mapping local and global variability in plant trait distributions." Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences E10937–E10946

Research

My research focuses on understanding and stewarding nature—as that is among our most important collective challenges in the 21st century. How rapidly and where will climate change wreak havoc with our natural and managed ecosystems? How many tree species will go extinct in the next 50 years and why does it matter? Will ecosystems continue to sequester additional carbon and thus help to slow climate change? Can traits simplify the complexity of ecology enough that we can make predictable sense of it? Raising such questions is easier than answering them. To help address them I engage in small-group to large-team studies at scales from leaf to globe and on topics from biodiversity to biogeochemistry to climate change-social justice interactions. This work ranges from ecosystem-scale field experiments with factors such as CO2, temperature, rainfall, fire and biodiversity; to cross-continental observations and earth system modeling. Our work focuses on forests and grasslands of the temperate and boreal biomes, but also includes research in many other ecosystem types and regions.

Education

Ph.D. 1983, Cornell University

In the News
Desta's Coffee Jungle Farm in Ethiopia, where the local community grows the native coffee plant in the rainforest.
November 13, 2023

Diverse forests hold huge carbon-storage potential, as long as we cut emissions, study shows

Contact: Jim Erickson A new study, published today in the journal Nature, suggests that global forest carbon storage has the potential to make a meaningful contribution...

Drier savannas, grasslands store more climate-buffering carbon than previously believed
October 2, 2023

Drier savannas, grasslands store more climate-buffering carbon than previously believed

Savannas and grasslands in drier climates around the world store more heat-trapping carbon than scientists thought they did and are helping to slow the rate of climate...

moss
May 22, 2023

Study: Modest moss supports billions of tons of carbon storage

Contacts: Cody Abramson Jim Erickson ANN ARBOR—Plant life plays a crucial role in fighting climate change by absorbing and transforming greenhouse gases like carbon...

tree diversity
April 26, 2023

Study: Tree diversity increases storage of carbon and nitrogen in forest soils, mitigating climate change

Contact: Jim Erickson | Michigan News Preserving the diversity of forests assures their productivity and potentially increases the accumulation of carbon and nitrogen in...

forest
News date
November 1, 2022

Research Highlights

Research highlights from SEAS faculty.

Growing saplings
August 10, 2022

Study: Even modest climate change may lead to sweeping changes in northernmost forests

ericksn@umich.edu ANN ARBOR—Even relatively modest climate warming and associated precipitation shifts may dramatically alter Earth's northernmost forests, which...

Peter Reich
May 3, 2022

Reich ranked No. 1 among top scientists for 2022

Peter Reich , director of the Institute for Global Change Biology at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, has been ranked the No. 1 ecology and evolution...

foggy jungle
April 14, 2022

Researchers find declining nitrogen availability in a nitrogen-rich world

Contact: Jim Erickson Since the mid-20th century, research and discussion has focused on the negative effects of excess nitrogen on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems...

In the Media
08/23/2023
Peter Reich
Climate change doubled chance of weather conditions that led to record Quebec fires, researchers say (The Economic Times)
08/23/2023
Peter Reich
Climate Change Made Eastern Canada's Wildfires Twice as Likely (TIME)
08/22/2023
Peter Reich
Climate change doubled chance of weather conditions that led to record Quebec fires, researchers say (ABC News)
06/07/2023
Peter Reich
Issues of the Environment: UM study provides insights into the future of climate-impacted northern forests in Michigan and beyond (WEMU)
05/24/2023
Peter Reich
Mosses are fuzzy, squishy warriors in the fight against climate change (MLive)
05/03/2023
Peter Reich
Tree Diversity May Maintain Soil Fertility, Mitigate Effects of Climate Change, Study Says (The Science Times)
04/14/2023
Peter Reich
Analyzing How Climate Change Influences the Health, Diversity and Productivity of Forests (Michigan Minds Podcast)
03/10/2023
Peter Reich
Northern forests struggle to adapt to climate change (MPR News)
02/27/2023
Peter Reich
As climate change alters Michigan forests, some work to see if and how the woods can adapt (Detroit Free Press)
09/01/2022
Peter Reich
As climate change alters Michigan forests, some work to see if and how the woods can adapt (Detroit Free Press)
08/24/2022
Peter Reich
Under current climate trends, Michigan’s Up North forests could be doomed (Bridge Michigan)
08/17/2022
Peter Reich
We must get a grip on forest science — before it’s too late (Nature)
08/17/2022
Peter Reich
Even a small rise in temperatures could decimate North American forests (Salon)
08/11/2022
Peter Reich
Even a small rise in temperatures could decimate North American forests (Grist)
08/11/2022
Peter Reich
Climate change is altering boreal forests, but it’s not too late, U-M researcher says (WDET-FM)
08/11/2022
Peter Reich
Even small temperature changes will significantly affect North American forests (The Hill)
08/10/2022
Peter Reich
Even modest climate change imperils northern forests: study (Agence France Presse)
08/10/2022
Peter Reich
Study: Warming climate to create 'impoverished version' of northern forests (Duluth News Tribune)
08/10/2022
Peter Reich
Michigan’s Northwoods may be destroyed by even modest climate change, researchers say (MLive)
08/10/2022
Peter Reich
U of M researcher finds even minimal warming could devastate northern forests (Michigan Radio)
02/01/2022
Peter Reich
After counting Earth’s trees, scientists say thousands more species to be discovered (The Sydney Morning Herald)
02/01/2022
Peter Reich
More than 9,000 tree species are still unknown (Deutsche Welle)
01/31/2022
Peter Reich
There are more than 9,000 types of trees we don't know of yet, study finds (CNN)
01/31/2022
Peter Reich
Over 9,000 rare tree species yet to be discovered, major study finds (The Independent)
01/31/2022
Peter Reich
Thousands of tree species remain undiscovered, scientists say (NBC News)
01/31/2022
Peter Reich
Rare and ancient trees are key to a healthy forest (Science)
01/31/2022
Peter Reich
Scientists around the world say there are 9,000 tree species yet to be discovered (The Hill)
01/31/2022
Peter Reich
Scientists count the world's tree species (spoiler: it's a bunch) (Reuters)
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