Jill S Baron, PhD
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
Long-term reactive nitrogen loading alters soil carbon and microbial community properties in a subalpine forest ecosystem
Optimizing available network resources to address questions in environmental biogeochemistry
Nutrients in the nexus
Protecting national parks from air pollution effects: Making sausage from science and policy
Rapid and highly variable warming of lake surface waters around the globe
Powell Center Newsletter, Volume 2, Issue 1
Moisture and temperature controls on nitrification differ among ammonia oxidizer communities from three alpine soil habitats
Paleolimnological records of nitrogen deposition in shallow, high-elevation lakes of Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA
Effects and empirical critical loads of Nitrogen for ecoregions of the United States
A global database of lake surface temperatures collected by in situ and satellite methods from 1985–2009
2013 Monitoring and tracking wet nitrogen deposition at Rocky Mountain National Park
Complex interactions between global change drivers influence mountain forest and slpine GHG sequestration and stream chemistry
Science and Products
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Long-term reactive nitrogen loading alters soil carbon and microbial community properties in a subalpine forest ecosystem
Elevated nitrogen (N) deposition due to increased fossil fuel combustion and agricultural practices has altered global carbon (C) cycling. Additions of reactive N to N-limited environments are typically accompanied by increases in plant biomass. Soil C dynamics, however, have shown a range of different responses to the addition of reactive N that seem to be ecosystem dependent. We evaluated the efAuthorsClaudia M. Boot, Ed K. Hall, Karolien Denef, Jill BaronOptimizing available network resources to address questions in environmental biogeochemistry
An increasing number of network observatories have been established globally to collect long-term biogeochemical data at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Although many outstanding questions in biogeochemistry would benefit from network science, the ability of the earth- and environmental-sciences community to conduct synthesis studies within and across networks is limited and seldom done satiAuthorsEve-Lyn Hinckley, Suzanne Andersen, Jill Baron, Peter Blanken, Gordon Bonan, William Bowman, Sarah Elmendorf, Noah Fierer, Andrew Fox, Keli Goodman, Katherine Jones, Danica Lombardozzi, Claire Lunch, Jason Neff, Michael SanClements, Katherine Suding, Will WiederNutrients in the nexus
Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer has enabled modern agriculture to greatly improve human nutrition during the twentieth century, but it has also created unintended human health and environmental pollution challenges for the twenty-first century. Averaged globally, about half of the fertilizer-N applied to farms is removed with the crops, while the other half remains in the soil or is lost from faAuthorsEric A. Davidson, Rachel Niphong, Richard B. Ferguson, Cheryl Palm, Deanna L. Osmond, Jill S. BaronProtecting national parks from air pollution effects: Making sausage from science and policy
The story of air pollution research, policy development, and management in national parks is a fascinating blend of cultural change, vision, interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration, and science-policy-management-stakeholder collaborations. Unable to ignore the loss of iconic vistas from regional haze and loss of fish from acid rain in the 1980s, the National Park Service (NPS) embraced anAuthorsJill S. Baron, Tamara Blett, William C. Malm, Ruth Alexander, Holly DoremusRapid and highly variable warming of lake surface waters around the globe
In this first worldwide synthesis of in situ and satellite-derived lake data, we find that lake summer surface water temperatures rose rapidly (global mean = 0.34°C decade−1) between 1985 and 2009. Our analyses show that surface water warming rates are dependent on combinations of climate and local characteristics, rather than just lake location, leading to the counterintuitive result that regionaAuthorsCatherine M. O'Reilly, Sapna Sharma, Derek Gray, Stephanie Hampton, Jordan S. Read, Rex J. Rowley, Philipp Schneider, John D. Lenters, Peter B. McIntyre, Benjamin M. Kraemer, Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, Dietmar Straile, Bo Dong, Rita Adrian, Mathew G. Allan, Orlane Anneville, Lauri Arvola, Jay Austin, John L. Bailey, Jill S. Baron, Justin D Brookes, Elvira de Eyto, Martin T. Dokulil, David P. Hamilton, Karl Havens, Amy L. Hetherington, Scott N. Higgins, Simon Hook, Lyubov R. Izmest'eva, Klaus D. Jöhnk, Külli Kangur, Peter Kasprzak, Michio Kumagai, Esko Kuusisto, George Leshkevich, David M. Livingstone, Sally MacIntyre, Linda May, John M. Melack, Doerthe C. Mueller-Navara, Mikhail Naumenko, Peeter Noges, Tiina Noges, Ryan P. North, Pierre-Denis Plisnier, Anna Rigosi, Alon Rimmer, Michela Rogora, Lars G. Rudstam, James A. Rusak, Nico Salmaso, Nihar R. Samal, Daniel E. Schindler, Geoffrey Schladow, Martin Schmid, Silke R. Schmidt, Eugene A. Silow, M. Evren Soylu, Katrin Teubner, Piet Verburg, Ari Voutilainen, Andrew Watkinson, Craig E. Williamson, Guoqing ZhangPowell Center Newsletter, Volume 2, Issue 1
Bi-annual newsletter for the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, covering news through July of 2015AuthorsJill S. Baron, Marty GoldhaberMoisture and temperature controls on nitrification differ among ammonia oxidizer communities from three alpine soil habitats
Climate change is altering the timing and magnitude of biogeochemical fluxes in many high elevation ecosystems. The consequent changes in alpine nitrification rates have the potential to influence ecosystem scale responses. In order to better understand how changing temperature and moisture conditions may influence ammonia oxidizers and nitrification activity, we conducted laboratory incubations oAuthorsBrooke B. Osborne, Jill Baron, Matthew D. WallensteinPaleolimnological records of nitrogen deposition in shallow, high-elevation lakes of Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA
Reactive nitrogen (Nr) from anthropogenic sources has been altering ecosystem function in lakes of the Rocky Mountains, other regions of western North America, and the Arctic over recent decades. The response of biota in shallow lakes to atmospheric deposition of Nr, however, has not been considered. Benthic algae are dominant in shallow, high-elevation lakes and are less sensitive to nutrient inpAuthorsSarah A. Spaulding, Megan K. Otu, Alexander P. Wolfe, Jill BaronEffects and empirical critical loads of Nitrogen for ecoregions of the United States
Human activity in the last century has increased nitrogen (N) deposition to a level that has caused or is likely to cause alterations to the structure and function of many ecosystems across the United States. We synthesized current research relating atmospheric N deposition to effects on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in the United States, and estimated associated empirical critical loads oAuthorsLinda H. Pardo, Molly J. Robin-Abbott, Mark E. Fenn, Christine L. Goodale, Linda H. Geiser, Charles T. Driscoll, Edith B. Allen, Jill Baron, Roland Bobbink, William D. Bowman, C M Clark, B. Emmett, Frank S Gilliam, Tara L. Greaver, Sharon J Hall, Erik A. Lilleskov, Lingli Liu, Jason A. Lynch, Knute J Nadelhoffer, Steven Perakis, John L Stoddard, Kathleen C. Weathers, Robin L. DennisA global database of lake surface temperatures collected by in situ and satellite methods from 1985–2009
Global environmental change has influenced lake surface temperatures, a key driver of ecosystem structure and function. Recent studies have suggested significant warming of water temperatures in individual lakes across many different regions around the world. However, the spatial and temporal coherence associated with the magnitude of these trends remains unclear. Thus, a global data set of waterAuthorsSapna Sharma, Derek Gray, Jordan S. Read, Catherine M. O'Reilly, Philipp Schneider, Anam Qudrat, Corinna Gries, Samantha Stefanoff, Stephanie Hampton, Simon Hook, John Lenters, David M. Livingstone, Peter B. McIntyre, Rita Adrian, Mathew Allan, Orlane Anneville, Lauri Arvola, Jay Austin, John E. Bailey, Jill Baron, Justin D Brookes, Yuwei Chen, Robert Daly, Kye Ewing, Elvira de Eyto, Martin Dokulil, David B. Hamilton, Karl Havens, Shane Haydon, Harald Hetzenaeur, Jocelyn Heneberry, Amy Hetherington, Scott Higgins, Eric Hixson, Lyubov Izmest'eva, Benjamin M. Jones, Kulli Kangur, Peter Kasprzak, Benjamin Kraemer, Michio Kumagai, Esko Kuusisto, George Leshkevich, Linda May, Sally MacIntyre, Dörthe Müller-Navarra, Mikhail Naumenko, Peeter Noges, Tiina Noges, Pius Niederhauser, Ryan P. North, Andrew Paterson, Pierre-Denis Plisnier, Anna Rigosi, Alon Rimmer, Michela Rogora, Lars G. Rudstam, James A. Rusak, Nico Salmaso, Nihar R. Samal, Daniel E. Schindler, Geoffrey Schladow, Silke R. Schmidt, Tracey Schultz, Eugene A. Silow, Dietmar Straile, Katrin Teubner, Piet Verburg, Ari Voutilainen, Andrew Watkinson, Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, Craig E. Williamson, Kara H. Woo2013 Monitoring and tracking wet nitrogen deposition at Rocky Mountain National Park
In 2004, multiple agencies including the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the National Park Service (NPS), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) met to address the effects and trends of nitrogen deposition and related air quality issues at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). These agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate inteAuthorsKristi Morris, Alisa Mast, David W. Clow, Gregory A. Wetherbee, Jill Baron, Curt Taipale, Tamara Blett, David A. Gay, Daniel BowkerComplex interactions between global change drivers influence mountain forest and slpine GHG sequestration and stream chemistry
Many mountain ecosystems are experiencing coincident increases in temperature, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. All are important controls on rates of plant growth, soil microbial activity, nutrient cycling, and stream N export. It is difficult for experimental studies to explore ecosystem responses to more than one or two treatments at plot, letAuthorsJill Baron, Melannie D. Hartman - Science
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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