About Steve

Professor Steve Oberbauer is a plant physiological ecologist. Plant physiology asks how plants function, while ecology looks at how organisms and their environments interact. Climate warming has many implications for plant life in the Arctic tundra. As temperatures warm and the growing season lengthen, plants respond. Some plant communities shift slowly north since plants flourish best under their favored growing conditions. Others adjust to change in complex ways we are still studying. Oberbauer asks: When plant communities adjust to a changing environment, how does the ecosystem respond? What are the consequences?

The National Science Foundation supports Oberbauer’s research into: * Sustaining and amplifying the ITEX AON * Cold-season gas exchange of arctic plants – resolving winter carbon and water balances of Alaskan arctic tundra Professor Oberbauer joined Florida International University’s Department of Biological Sciences in 1988. He has a Master’s degree in Biology and a Ph.D. in Botany. You can learn more about Steve Oberbauer at his website. A graduate student working with him in the field is Jose Luciani. Luciani, a master’s student majoring in Environmental Studies and Chemistry, is helping conduct research on the Alaskan tundra ecosystem.