Dr. Jill Baron is a senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and a Senior Research Ecologist with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University.
Jill Baron is founder and Co-Director of the John Wesley Powell Center for Earth System Science Analysis and Synthesis. She was the North American Director of the International Nitrogen Initiative 2014-2019 and is Co-Lead for Component 1 (Tools and methods for understanding the nitrogen cycle) of the International Nitrogen Management System. Baron was President of the Ecological Society of America in 2014, is a Certified Professional Ecologist, and a Fellow of the ESA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
She was named a Woman of Vision in 2015 by Colorado Women of Influence for her work advancing women’s role in science. Baron has been active in US National Climate Assessment efforts, has given testimony to Congress on western acid rain and climate change issues, and serves on a National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine Committee on Assessing Causality from a Multidisciplinary Evidence Base for National Ambient Air Quality Standards. She is founder and Principal Investigator of the Loch Vale Watershed long-term ecological monitoring and research program in Rocky Mountain National Park, an instrumented catchment that in 2022 will celebrate 40 years of continuous records.
Professional Experience
2009-present Co-Director, John Wesley Powell Center for Earth System Science Analysis and Synthesis
2016-present Senior Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins CO
1996-2015 Research Ecologist; U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins, CO
1986-present Senior Research Scientist; Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
2000-present Advising faculty, CSU Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
1993-1996 Research Ecologist; National Biological Service, Mountain Ecosystems Section, Fort Collins, CO
1976-1993 Research Biologist-National Park Service; Great Smoky Mountains National Park TN; Gulf Islands National Seashore MS; Water Resources Division, Washington D.C. and CO
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. Ecosystem Ecology, Colorado State University, 1991
M.S. Land Resources, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1979
B.S. Plant Sciences, Cornell University, 1976
Affiliations and Memberships*
Present: Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Senior Scientist
Present: Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Advising Faculty
Present: Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Faculty Affiliate
Science and Products
John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis Newsletter, volume 7, issue 1
Marmots do not drink coffee: Human urine contributions to the nitrogen budget of a popular national park destination
Quality assurance report for Loch Vale Watershed, 2010–19
Identifying factors that affect mountain lake sensitivity to atmospheric nitrogen deposition across multiple scales
Persistent nitrate in alpine waters with changing atmospheric deposition and warming trends
Maintaining momentum for collaborative working groups in a post-pandemic world
Blue waters, green bottoms: Benthic filamentous algal blooms are an emerging threat to clear lakes worldwide
A more representative community of ecologists
Long-term ecosystem and biogeochemical research in Loch Vale watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Nutrients and warming alter mountain lake benthic algal structure and function
The INI North American Regional Nitrogen Center: 2011–2015 nitrogen activities in North America
Global challenges for nitrogen science-policy interactions: Towards the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS) and improved coordination between multi-lateral environmental agreements
Ecological Forecasting Workshop
Accelerating changes and transformations in western mountain lakes
The Western Mountain Initiative (WMI)
Western Mountain Initiative: Central Rocky Mountains
Western Mountain Initiative: Colorado
Paleoecological data from sediment collected in 2020 from Santa Fe Lake, New Mexico
Soil and surface water nitrogen and caffeine data from 2019, and 2019-2020 trail counts of hikers in Loch Vale Watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park
Field measurements, laboratory, and field experimental data for Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado, nutrient and warming study, 2015-2017
Water chemistry and land cover attributes for The Loch and Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park
Paleoecological data from The Loch and Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park
Laboratory Incubation results from 2015 for bacterial cell counts, carbon use efficiency, growth efficiency, and dissolved organic matter chemistry from four glacier outflows and four rock glacier outflows in Colorado
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 210
John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis Newsletter, volume 7, issue 1
The John Wesley Powell Center for Synthesis & Analysis is a USGS initiative that aims to foster innovative thinking in Earth system science through collaborative analysis and synthesis of existing data and information. The Powell Center supports working groups that address some of the most pressing and complex questions facing society, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, natAuthorsJill Baron, Demi Jasmine BinghamMarmots do not drink coffee: Human urine contributions to the nitrogen budget of a popular national park destination
Reactive nitrogen (Nr) concentrations are higher than expected for mountain lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park, and for many years, high Nr concentrations have been attributed to atmospheric Nr deposition from regional and more distant emission sources, including combustion of fossil fuels and agricultural activities. Here, we estimated the contribution from a very local source, that of human uAuthorsJill Baron, Timothy Weinmann, Varun Kirk Acharya, Caitlin Charlton, Koren Nydick, Scott EsserQuality assurance report for Loch Vale Watershed, 2010–19
The Loch Vale Watershed Research and Monitoring Program collects long-term datasets of ecological and biogeochemical parameters in Rocky Mountain National Park to support both (1) management of this protected area and (2) research into watershed-scale ecosystem processes as those processes respond to atmospheric deposition and climate variability. The program collects data on precipitation depth aAuthorsTimothy Weinmann, Jill S. Baron, Amanda JayoIdentifying factors that affect mountain lake sensitivity to atmospheric nitrogen deposition across multiple scales
Increased nitrogen (N) deposition rates over the past century have affected both North American and European mountain lake ecosystems. Ecological sensitivity of mountain lakes to N deposition varies, however, because chemical and biological responses are modulated by local watershed and lake properties. We evaluated predictors of mountain lake sensitivity to atmospheric N deposition across North AAuthorsBenjamin Burpee, Jasmine Saros, Leora Nanus, Jill S. Baron, Janice Brahney, Kyle Christianson, Taylor Gantz, Andi Heard, Beth Hundey, Karin Koinig, Jiří Kopáček, Katrina Moser, Koren Nydick, Isabella A. Oleksy, Steven Sadro, Ruben Sommaruga, Rolf Vinebrooke, Jason WilliamsPersistent nitrate in alpine waters with changing atmospheric deposition and warming trends
Nitrate concentrations in high-elevation lakes of the Colorado Front Range remain elevated despite declining trends in atmospherically deposited nitrate since 2000. The current source of this elevated nitrate in surface waters remains elusive, given shifts in additional nitrogen sources via glacial inputs and atmospheric ammonium deposition. We present the complete isotopic composition of nitrateAuthorsSydney C. Clark, Rebecca T. Barnes, Isabella A. Oleksy, Jill S. Baron, Meredith G. HastingsMaintaining momentum for collaborative working groups in a post-pandemic world
Scientific progress depends in part on our ability to synthesize heterogeneous data and ideas into new models and paradigms. In environmental sciences, such synthesis has been particularly effective when conducted by collaborative working groups: diverse groups of researchers and practitioners brought together for a concentrated period of collaboration on key questions. Such work is often done atAuthorsDiane Srivastava, Marten Winter, Louis Gross, Jena Paul Metzger, Jill S. Baron, Nicolas Mouquet, Thomas Meagher, Ben Halpern, Valerio PillarBlue waters, green bottoms: Benthic filamentous algal blooms are an emerging threat to clear lakes worldwide
Nearshore (littoral) habitats of clear lakes with high water quality are increasingly experiencing unexplained proliferations of filamentous algae that grow on submerged surfaces. These filamentous algal blooms (FABs) are sometimes associated with nutrient pollution in groundwater, but complex changes in climate, nutrient transport, lake hydrodynamics, and food web structure may also facilitate thAuthorsYvonne Vadeboncoeur, Marianne V. Moore, Simon D. Stewart, Sudeep Chandra, Karen Atkins, Jill S. Baron, Keith Bouma-Gregson, Soren Brothers, Stephen Francoeur, Laurel Genzoli, Scott N. Higgins, Sabine Hilt, Leon R. Katona, David Kelly, Isabella Oleksy, Ted Ozersky, Mary Powel, Derek Roberts, Oleg Timoshkin, Flavia Tromboni, M. Jake Vander Zanden, Ekaterina Volkova, Sean Waters, Susanna A. Wood, Masumi YamamuroA more representative community of ecologists
Ecologists play a crucial role in providing solutions to the challenges facing the world. For most of the history of the field, however, the science of ecology has been pursued by white men, and increasingly, by white women. This lack of diversity is untenable today, not only because it is socially unjust, but also because solving environmental problems requires diversity. Ecology as a science isAuthorsDavid S Schimel, Jill S. BaronLong-term ecosystem and biogeochemical research in Loch Vale watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Loch Vale watershed was instrumented in 1983 with initial support from the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program to ask whether ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) were affected by acidic atmospheric deposition. Research and monitoring activities were expanded in 1991 by the U.S. Geological Survey Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets program to understand the processes,AuthorsJill S. Baron, David W. Clow, Isabella A. Oleksy, Timothy Weinmann, Caitlin Charlton, Amanda JayoNutrients and warming alter mountain lake benthic algal structure and function
In recent years, benthic algae have been increasing in abundance in the littoral zones of oligotrophic lakes, but causality has been hard to assign. We used field and laboratory experiments to explore the implications of increasing water temperature and nutrient availability for benthic algal assemblages and ecosystem processes in a Colorado alpine lake. We tested the effect of nutrient enrichmentAuthorsIsabella A. Oleksy, Jill S. Baron, Whitney S. BeckThe INI North American Regional Nitrogen Center: 2011–2015 nitrogen activities in North America
The North American Nitrogen Center (NANC) carries out three main charges: (1) conducting assessments on nitrogen (N) flows within North America and the consequences for human health, water resources, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions; (2) facilitating efforts to develop solutions to the problem of excess nitrogen in agricultural, institutional, and natural resource management sectors; andAuthorsJill S. Baron, Eric A. DavidsonGlobal challenges for nitrogen science-policy interactions: Towards the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS) and improved coordination between multi-lateral environmental agreements
Human interference with the nitrogen cycle has doubled reactive nitrogen inputs to the global biosphere over the past century, leading to changes across multiple environmental issues that require urgent action. Nitrogen fertilizers and biological nitrogen fixation have allowed benefits of increased crop harvest and livestock production, while in some areas there is insufficient nitrogen to fertiliAuthorsMark A. Sutton, Clare M. Howard, Will J. Brownlie, David Kanter, Wim de Vries, Tapan Adhiya, Jean Ometto, Jill S. Baron, Wilfried Winiwarter, Xiaotang Ju, Cargele Masso, Oene Oenema, N. Raghuram, Hans J.M. van Grinsven, Isabelle Van der Beck, Christopher J. Cox, Steffen C.B. Hansen, Ramesh Ramachandran, W. Kevin Hicks - Science
Ecological Forecasting Workshop
Natural resource managers are coping with rapid changes in both environmental conditions and ecosystems. Enabled by recent advances in data collection and assimilation, short-term ecological forecasting may be a powerful tool to help resource managers anticipate impending changes in ecosystem dynamics (that is, the approaching near-term changes in ecosystems). Managers may use the information in fAccelerating changes and transformations in western mountain lakes
While research into eutrophication has been a cornerstone of limnology for more than 100 years, only recently has it become a topic for the remote alpine lakes that are icons of protected national parks and wilderness areas. National park lakes in the western U.S. are threatened by global change, specifically air pollution, warming, and their interactions, and the problem is quickly worsening...The Western Mountain Initiative (WMI)
Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is a long-term collaboration between FORT, WERC, NOROCK, USFS, NPS, LANL, and universities worldwide to address changes in montane forests and watersheds due to climate change. Current emphases include altered forest disturbance regimes (fire, die-off, insect outbreaks) and hydrology; interactions between plants, water, snow, nutrient cycles, and climate; and...Western Mountain Initiative: Central Rocky Mountains
Mountain ecosystems of the western U.S. provide irreplaceable goods and services such as water, wood, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities, but their responses to global changes are poorly understood. The overarching objective of the Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is to understand and predict the responses, emphasizing sensitivities, thresholds, resistance, and resilience, of Western...Western Mountain Initiative: Colorado
Mountain ecosystems of the western U.S. provide irreplaceable goods and services such as water, wood, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities, but their potential responses to anticipated climatic changes are poorly understood. The overarching objective of the Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is to understand and predict the responses, emphasizing sensitivities, thresholds, resistance, and... - Data
Paleoecological data from sediment collected in 2020 from Santa Fe Lake, New Mexico
This dataset contains carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values, percent carbon and percent nitrogen, algal pigment data, and diatom taxonomy from lake sediment layers dating back to 1749 Common Era (CE) for Santa Fe lake, New Mexico. Subalpine and alpine lakes are typically sensitive indicators of anthropogenically driven global change. Lake sediment records in the western United States have docuSoil and surface water nitrogen and caffeine data from 2019, and 2019-2020 trail counts of hikers in Loch Vale Watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park
Daily visitor use in Rocky Mountain National Park has increased substantially since 2014, raising questions about the impact of human waste on water quality in popular areas without latrines. Human urine contributes nitrogen, and the ecological and biogeochemical effects of nitrogen from atmospheric deposition have long been the topic of study in Loch Vale watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park.Field measurements, laboratory, and field experimental data for Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado, nutrient and warming study, 2015-2017
The data include measurements of chlorophyll a and algal stoichiometry from benthic algae collected from Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, in 2015-2017; results of nutrient diffusion experiments in Sky Pond including chlorophyll a and other pigments to identify chlorophytes, bacillariophytes, and myxomycetes, and results of a laboratory incubation using benthic chlorophytes to idenWater chemistry and land cover attributes for The Loch and Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park
Water chemistry and land cover attributes for The Loch and Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park. These data were part of a larger survey (data from other sources) used to describe drivers of change to mountain lake productivity.Paleoecological data from The Loch and Sky Pond, Rocky Mountain National Park
Diatom taxonomy, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values, and algal pigment data from lake sediment layers dating back to 1600 Common Era (CE) for Sky Pond and The Loch in Rocky Mountain National Park.Laboratory Incubation results from 2015 for bacterial cell counts, carbon use efficiency, growth efficiency, and dissolved organic matter chemistry from four glacier outflows and four rock glacier outflows in Colorado
Bacterial Data include results of incubations of lakewater bacteria with dissolved organic matter extracted from Colorado glacier or rock glacier outflows in 2015. Cells were counted pre- and post- incubations. The "Counts" tab is the number of cells counted in each view of the microscope using the acridine orange method. "C Calculations" tab is the calculation of carbon as bacterial biomass from - Multimedia
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*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government