Woods Hole Research Center

Senior Scientist
Woods Hole Research Center
149 Woods Hole Road
Falmouth, MA 02540-1644

Phone:

508-444-1516

Fax:

508-444-1816

Email:

Education

Ph.D. - State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1979

B.A. - Hamilton College, 1965

Professional Experience

• Present: Senior Scientist
• January, 2011 - June, 2011: Acting Director, Senior Scientist
• 2010 - 2011: Deputy Director, Senior Scientist
• 2009 - 2010: Acting Director, Senior Scientist
• 2005 - 2009: Deputy Director, Senior Scientist
• 1989 - 2005: Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole
• 1993 - 1994: Visiting Senior Scientist, Office of Mission to Planet Earth, NASA, Washington, D.C.
• 1987 - 1989: Associate Scientist, The Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, MA
• 1984 - 1987: Assistant Scientist, The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Lab., Woods Hole, MA
• 1975 - 1984: Research Associate, The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Lab., Woods Hole, MA
• 1967 - 1974: Research Associate, Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY

Research Interests

The global carbon cycle, terrestrial ecosystems, land-use change, response of ecosystems to climatic change.

Selected publications

Canadell, J.G., M.R. Raupach, and R.A. Houghton. 2009. Anthropogenic CO2 emissions in Africa. Biogeosciences 6:463-468.

Goetz, S.J., A. Baccini, N.T. Laporte, T. Johns, W. Walker, J. Kellndorfer, R.A. Houghton and M. Sun. 2009. Mapping and monitoring carbon stocks with satellite observations: a comparison of methods. Carbon Balance and Management 4:2 doi:10.1186/1750-0680-4-2.

Houghton, R.A. 2009. Emissions of carbon from land management. Background note for Development and Climate Change. World Development Report 2010. The World Bank, Washington, DC.

Houghton, R.A. 2009. Terrestrial carbon and biogeochemical cycles. Pages 340-346 in: S.A. Levine (editor), The Princeton Guide to Ecology. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Houghton, R.A., M. Gloor, J. Lloyd, C. Potter. 2009. The regional carbon budget. Pages 409-428 in: M. Keller, M. Bustamante, J. Gash, and P. Silva Dias, editors. Amazonia and Global Change, Geophysical Monograph Series 186, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.

Houghton, R.A., F. Hall, and S.J. Goetz. 2009. Importance of biomass in the global carbon cycle. Journal of Geophysical Research 114, G00E03, doi:10.1029/2009JG000935.

Le Quéré, C., M.R. Raupach, J.G. Canadell, G. Marland, L. Bopp, P. Ciais, T.J. Conway, S.C. Doney, R.A. Feely, P. Foster, P. Friedlingstein, K. Gurney, R.A. Houghton, J.J. House, C. Huntingford, P.E. Levy, M.R. Lomas, J. Majkut, N. Metzl, J.P. Ometto, G.P. Peters, I.C. Prentice, J.T. Randerson, S.W. Running, J.L. Sarmiento, U. Schuster, S. Sitch, T. Takahashi, N. Viovy, G.R. van der Werf, and F.I. Woodward. 2009. Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide. Nature GeoScience 2:831-836.

Searchinger, T., R. Heimlich, R.A. Houghton, F. Dong, A. Elobeid, J. Fabiosa, S. Tokgoz, D. Hayes, and T.-H. Yu. 2008. Use of U.S. croplands for biofuels increases greenhouse gasses through emissions from land use change. Science 319:1238-1240.

Ito, A., J.E. Penner, M.J. Prather, C.P. de Campos, R.A. Houghton, T. Kato, A.K. Jain, X. Yang, G.C. Hurtt, S. Frolking, M.G. Fearon, L.P. Chini, A. Wang, and D.T. Price. 2008. Can we reconcile differences in estimates of carbon fluxes from land-use change and forestry for the 1990s? Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics 8:3291-3310.

Houghton, R.A., and S.J. Goetz. 2008. New satellites help quantify carbon sources and sinks. Eos 89(43):417-418.

DeFries, R.S., D.C. Morton, G.R. van der Werf, L. Giglio, G.J. Collatz, J.T. Randerson, R.A. Houghton, P.K. Kasibhatla, and Y. Shimabukuro. 2008. Fire-related carbon emissions from land use transitions in southern Amazonia. Geophysical Research Letters 35, L22705, doi:10.1029/2008GL035689.

Houghton, R.A. 2008. Biomass. Pages 448-453 in: S.E. Jorgensen & B.D. Fath (editors). Encyclopedia of Ecology, 1st Edition. Elsevier, Oxford.

Goward, S.N., J.G. Masek, W. Cohen, G. Moisen, G.J. Collatz, S. Healey, R.A. Houghton, C. Huang, R. Kennedy, B. Law, S. Powell, D. Turner, and M.A. Wulder. 2008. Forest disturbance and North American carbon flux. Eos 89:105-106.

Saatchi, S.S., R.A. Houghton, R.C. dos Santos Alvala, J.V. Soares, and Y. Yu. 2007. Distribution of aboveground live biomass in the Amazon basin. Global Change Biology 13:816-837.

Ramankutty, N., H.K. Gibbs, F. Achard, R. DeFries, J.A. Foley, and R.A. Houghton. 2007. Challenges to estimating carbon emissions from tropical deforestation. Global Change Biology 13:51-66.

Houghton, R.A., D. Butman, A.G. Bunn, O.N. Krankina, P. Schlesinger, T.A. Stone. 2007. Mapping Russian forest biomass with data from satellites and forest inventories. Environmental Research Letters 2, 045032 (doi:10.1088/1748-9326/2/4/045032).

Houghton, R.A. 2007. Balancing the global carbon budget. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 35:313-347.

Goetz, S.J., M.C. Mack, K.R. Gurney, J.T. Randerson and R.A. Houghton. 2007. Ecosystem responses to recent climate change and fire disturbance at northern high latitudes: observations and model results contrasting northern Eurasia and North America. Environmental Research Letters 2 045031 (9pp) doi:10.1088/1748-9326/2/4/045031.

CCSP, 2007. The First State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR): The North American Carbon Budget and Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle. A Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research [King, A.W., L. Dilling, G.P. Zimmerman, D.M. Fairman, R.A. Houghton, G. Marland, A.Z. Rose, and T.J. Wilbanks (eds.)]. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC, USA, 242 pp.

Canadell, J.G., D.E. Pataki, R. Gifford, R.A. Houghton, Y. Luo, M.R. Raupach, P. Smith, and W. Steffen. 2007. Saturation of the terrestrial carbon sink. Pages 59-78 in: J.G. Canadell, D. Pataki, and L. Pitelka (editors), Terrestrial Ecosystems in a Changing World. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.

Canadell, J.G., C. Le Quéré, M.R. Raupach, C.B. Field, E.T. Buitenhuis, P. Ciais, T.J. Conway, N.P. Gillett, R.A. Houghton, and G. Marland. 2007. Contributions to accelerating atmospheric CO2 growth from economic activity, carbon intensity, and efficiency of natural sinks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:18866-18870.

Chapin, F.S., G.M Woodwell, J.T. Randerson, E.B. Rastetter, G.M. Lovett, D.D. Baldocchi, D.A. Clark, M.E. Harmon, D.S. Schimel, R. Valentini, C. Wirth, J.D. Aber, J.J. Cole, M.L. Goulden, J.W. Harden, M. Heimann, R.W. Howarth, P.A. Matson, A.D. McGuire, J.M. Melillo, H.A. Mooney, J.C. Neff, R.A. Houghton, M.L. Pace, M.G. Ryan, S.W. Running, O.E. Sala, W.H. Schlesinger, and E.-D. Schulze. 2006. Reconciling carbon-cycle concepts, terminology, and methods. Ecosystems 9:1041-1050.

Ramankutty, N., L. Graumlich, F. Achard, D. Alves, A. Chhabra, R.S. DeFries, J.A. Foley, H. Geist, R.A. Houghton, K. Klein Goldewijk, E.F. Lambin, A. Millington, K. Rasmussen, R.S. Reid, and B.L. Turner. 2006. Global land-cover change: recent progress, remaining challenges. Pages 9-39 in: E.F. Lambin and H. Geist (editors), Land-Use and Land-Cover Change. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg.

Hurtt G.C., S. Frolking, M.G. Fearon, B. Moore, E. Shevliakova, S. Malyshev, S.W. Pacala, and R.A. Houghton. 2006. The underpinnings of land-use history: three centuries of global gridded land-use transitions, wood harvest activity, and resulting secondary lands. Global Change Biology 12:1-22.

Houghton, R.A., and J.L. Hackler. 2006. Emissions of carbon from land use change in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, G02003, doi:10.1029/2005JG000076.

Chhabra, A., H. Geist, R.A. Houghton, H. Haberl, A.K. Braimoh, P.L.G. Vlek, J. Patz, J. Xu, N. Ramankutty, O. Coomes, and E.F. Lambin. 2006. Multiple impacts of land-use/cover change. Pages 71-116 in: E.F. Lambin and H. Geist (editors), Land-Use and Land-Cover Change. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg.

Bradley, B.A., R.A. Houghton, J.F. Mustard, and S.P. Hamburg. 2006. Invasive grass reduces aboveground carbon stocks in shrublands of the Western US. Global Change Biology 12:1815-1822.

Krankina, O.N., R.A. Houghton, M.E. Harmon, E.H. Hogg, D. Butman, M. Yatskov, M. Huso, R. F. Treyfeld, V.N. Razuvaev, and G. Spycher. 2005. Effects of climate, disturbance, and species on forest biomass across Russia. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35:2281-2293.

Houghton, R.A. 2005. Tropical deforestation as a source of greenhouse gas emissions. Pages 13-21 in: P. Moutinho and S. Schwartzman, editors. Tropical Deforestation and Climate Change. Amazon Institute for Environmental Research, Belém, Pará, Brazil.

Houghton, R.A. 2005. Aboveground forest biomass and the global carbon balance. Global Change Biology 11:945-958. Goetz, S.J., A.G. Bunn, G.J. Fiske, and R.A. Houghton. 2005. Satellite-observed photosynthetic trends across boreal North America associated with climate and fire disturbance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102:13521-13525.

Houghton, R.A., F. Joos, and G.P. Asner. 2004. The effects of land use and management on the global carbon cycle. Pages 237-256 in: G. Gutman, A.C. Janetos, C.O. Justice, E.F. Moran, J.F. Mustard, R.R. Rindfuss, D. Skole, B.L. Turner II, and M.A. Cochrane (editors), Land Change Science: Observing, Monitoring, and Understanding Trajectories of Change on the Earth's Surface. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Houghton, R.A., and C.L. Goodale. 2004. Effects of land-use change on the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems. Pages 85-98 in: R.S. DeFries, G.P. Asner, R.A. Houghton (editors), Ecosystems and Land Use Change. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.

Hirsch, A.I., W.S. Little, R.A. Houghton, N.A. Scott, and J.D. White. 2004. The net carbon flux due to deforestation and forest re-growth in the Brazilian Amazon: Analysis using a process-based model. Global Change Biology 10:908-924.

DeFries, R.S., G.P. Asner, and R.A. Houghton (editors). 2004. Ecosystems and Land Use Change. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.

House, J.I., I.C. Prentice, N. Ramankutty, R.A. Houghton and M. Heimann. 2003. Reconciling apparent inconsistencies in estimates of terrestrial CO2 sources and sinks. Tellus 55B: 345-363.

Houghton, R.A. 2003. The contemporary carbon cycle, pp. 473-513. In Biogeochemistry (ed. W.H. Schlesinger) Vol. 8 Treatise on Geochemistry (eds. H.D. Holland and K.K. Turekian), Elsevier-Pergamon, Oxford, U.K.

Houghton, R.A., and J.L. Hackler. 2003. Sources and sinks of carbon from land-use change in China. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 17(2), 1034, doi:10.1029/2002GB001970.

Houghton, R.A. 2003. Why are estimates of the terrestrial carbon balance so different? Global Change Biology 9:500-509.

Houghton, R.A. 2003. Revised estimates of the annual net flux of carbon to the atmosphere from changes in land use and land management 1850-2000. Tellus 55B:378-390.

Bergen, K.M., S.G. Conard, R.A. Houghton, E.S. Kasischke, V.I. Kharuk, O.N. Krankina, K.J. Ranson, H.H. Shugart, A.I. Sukhinen, and R.F. Treyfeld. 2003. NASA and Russian scientists observe land-cover and land-use change and carbon in Russian forests. Journal of Forestry 101:34-41.

Achievements and Awards

• Honorary Doctorate from the Faculty of Forest Science, University of Munich, 1995
• Along with the IPCC, a portion of the Nobel Peace Prize, 2007.