About

James T. Randerson is the Ralph J. and Carol M. Cicerone Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, within the Department of Earth System Science. His research focuses on climate, carbon, and fire dynamics, contributing to the understanding of Earth's environmental systems. As a faculty member, he is involved in advancing knowledge in these areas through his academic and research activities.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Geology
• Ecology
• Geography
• Climatology
• Biology
• Atmospheric sciences
• Oceanography
• Physical geography
• Environmental resource management
• Computer Science
• Meteorology
• Environmental planning
• Economics
• Natural resource economics
• Business
• Economic growth
• Earth science
• Forestry
• Soil science
• Development economics

Selected publications

• Zonally contrasting shifts of the tropical rainbelt in response to climate change.

  Nature Climate Change · 2021 · 168 citations

  • Climatology
  • Environmental science
  • Earth science

  Future changes in the position of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ; a narrow band of heavy precipitation in the tropics) with climate change could affect the livelihood and food security of billions of people. Although models predict a future narrowing of the ITCZ, uncertainties remain large regarding its future position, with most past work focusing on zonal-mean shifts. Here we use projections from 27 state-of-the-art (CMIP6) climate models and document a robust zonally-varying ITCZ response to the SSP3-7.0 scenario by 2100, with a northward shift over eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean, and a southward shift in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The zonally-varying response is consistent with changes in the divergent atmospheric energy transport, and sector-mean shifts of the energy flux equator. Our analysis provides insight about mechanisms influencing the future position of the tropical rainbelt, and may allow for more robust projections of climate change impacts.

  DOI

• Warming as a Driver of Vegetation Loss in the Sonoran Desert of California

  Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences · 2021 · 40 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Climatology
  • Physical geography

  Abstract Dryland ecosystems cover large regions of the Earth and have important impacts on global biogeochemistry and the carbon cycle. The plant species that occupy dryland environments have traits that enable them to withstand harsh environmental conditions, and some researchers have hypothesized that dryland vegetation may be comparatively resilient to changing climate, while others have pointed out that dryland vegetation often operates close to the physiological limits of many species, implying a possible vulnerability to warming. Here we use the Landsat archive to analyze vegetation dynamics for part of the Sonoran Desert and adjacent mountains in southern California. We show that large decreases in vegetation cover occurred over the last 34 years (1984–2017), especially across the xeric portions of our study region, where we observed a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) decline of 1.1 ± 0.3% yr −1 . Changes in precipitation explain most of the year‐to‐year variation but are unable to fully explain the observed long‐term decline in NDVI. Statistical models that combined summer temperature and mean annual precipitation explained more of the spatial and temporal structure of NDVI trends and implicate climate warming as an important driver of declining vegetation cover. The impact of warming contributed to a change in the precipitation‐vegetation relationship through time for this desert region, indicating a structural change in ecosystem function during the study period. These results suggest that recent climate change has already had significant impact on these drylands and highlight the potential for future warming to increase risks for dryland ecosystems in other regions.

  PublisherDOI

• Disturbance suppresses the aboveground carbon sink in North American boreal forests

  Nature Climate Change · 2021 · 155 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Ecology
  DOI

• Future increases in Arctic lightning and fire risk for permafrost carbon

  Nature Climate Change · 2021 · 226 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science
  • Climatology
  • Physical geography
  DOI

• The age distribution of global soil carbon inferred from radiocarbon measurements

  Nature Geoscience · 2020 · 325 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science
  • Soil science
  • Physical geography
  DOI

• The COVID-19 lockdowns: a window into the Earth System

  Nature Reviews Earth & Environment · 2020 · 218 citations

  • Natural resource economics
  • Environmental resource management
  • Environmental planning
  DOI

• Insights from Earth system model initial-condition large ensembles and future prospects

  Nature Climate Change · 2020 · 922 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Climatology
  • Environmental science
  DOI

• Climate-driven risks to the climate mitigation potential of forests

  Science · 2020 · 786 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science
  • Environmental resource management
  • Climatology

  Forests have considerable potential to help mitigate human-caused climate change and provide society with many cobenefits. However, climate-driven risks may fundamentally compromise forest carbon sinks in the 21st century. Here, we synthesize the current understanding of climate-driven risks to forest stability from fire, drought, biotic agents, and other disturbances. We review how efforts to use forests as natural climate solutions presently consider and could more fully embrace current scientific knowledge to account for these climate-driven risks. Recent advances in vegetation physiology, disturbance ecology, mechanistic vegetation modeling, large-scale ecological observation networks, and remote sensing are improving current estimates and forecasts of the risks to forest stability. A more holistic understanding and quantification of such risks will help policy-makers and other stakeholders effectively use forests as natural climate solutions.

  DOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Improved Regional and Decadal Predictions of the Carbon Cycle

  NSF · $884k · 2011–2016

• Collaborative Research: Fire at the Intersection of Global Carbon and Water Cycles

  NSF · $596k · 2006–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Yang Chen

  Nanyang Technological University

  200 shared

• Yang Chen

  Irvine University

  118 shared

• Louis Giglio

  University of Maryland, College Park

  118 shared

• Guido R. van der Werf

  116 shared

• Douglas C. Morton

  93 shared

• Michael L. Goulden

  82 shared

• G. J. Collatz

  Goddard Space Flight Center

  72 shared

• P. S. Kasibhatla

  Duke University

  70 shared

Labs

• Climate, Carbon, and Fire Dynamics LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Biological Sciences

  Stanford University

  1998

• M.S., Biological Sciences

  Stanford University

  1992

• B.S., Chemistry

  Stanford University

  1992

Awards & honors

• Rebecca Scholten awarded a Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellowship (…

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