Woods Hole Research Center’s Eric Davidson Named Project Scientist for NASA’s LBA-Eco Program

Eric Davidson, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center, has been named Project Scientist for the NASA LBA-Eco Program. The position comes as part of a new grant from NASA, and Dr. Davidson will remain at the Center while fulfilling his new duties. The role begins in January 2008.

Davidson says, “It is an honor to be asked to help coordinate the activities of my fellow scientists so that we may conclude the project with the strongest possible scientific basis for sustainable resource management in Amazonia”

The LBA (Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in the Amazon) program is the largest cooperative international scientific project ever to study the interaction between the Amazon Forest and the regional and global atmospheres. It is in the third and final phase, which includes the synthesis and integration of collection data, analysis of those datasets, and setting those research results in a global context.

As the Project Scientist, Davidson will co-chair the LBA International Science Steering Committee, monitor and help facilitate the progress of the various LBA research synthesis groups, co-lead the organization of the scientific program of future LBA meetings, and summarize progress for NASA's program manager, Dr. Diane Wickland.  This is expected to continue through 2009.

In the official announcement, Wickland commented, “Eric has been involved in LBA from its early planning stages and is a veteran Principal Investigator, having led investigations in all three phases of LBA-ECO.  This experience, his command of the science and ability to see the ‘big picture,’ and the high regard in which both American and Brazilian scientists hold him make Eric ideally suited for this role.”

Dr. Davidson has been at the Center since 1999. He is an ecologist and soil scientist interested in the role of soil microorganisms as processors of carbon and nitrogen. He has studied the transfer of carbon and nitrogen gases from the soil to the atmosphere, where they contribute to warming of the earth. His research addresses how human management of the land affects this transfer of greenhouse gases. Dr. Davidson has held positions as National Research Council Associate at the NASA Ames Research Center and as Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Soil Microbiology at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his doctorate in forestry at North Carolina State University.

The Woods Hole Research Center is dedicated to science, education and public policy for a habitable Earth, seeking to conserve and sustain forests, soils, water, and energy by demonstrating their value to human health and economic prosperity. The Center has initiatives in the Amazon, the Arctic, Africa, Russia, Asia, Boreal North America, the Mid-Atlantic, and New England including Cape Cod. Center programs focus on the global carbon cycle, forest function, landcover/land use, water cycles and chemicals in the environment, science in public affairs, and education, providing primary data and enabling better appraisals of the trends in forests alter their role in the global carbon budget.

©Woods Hole Research Center, 2007