Stefan Gerber

About

Stefan Gerber is an Associate Professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Florida, within the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. His research focuses on understanding the cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients in land ecosystems through modeling tools. This work aims to elucidate how human activities such as pollution, fertilizer use, land-use changes, and climate change influence biogeochemical cycles and the capacity of terrestrial biospheres to sequester fossil CO2. Gerber's contributions include analyzing long-term watershed records to study nitrogen cycling, developing global dynamic land models to investigate nutrient feedbacks, and exploring the impacts of climate variability on vegetation distribution and carbon storage. His research is critical for addressing environmental challenges related to ecosystem health, climate change, and sustainable land management.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Environmental science
• Biology
• Computer Science
• Neuroscience
• Geology
• Soil science
• Medicine
• Chemistry
• Geography

Selected publications

• Soil carbon characterization in a subtropical drained peatland

  Geoderma · 2020 · 23 citations

  PublisherDOI

• Empirical and Earth system model estimates of boreal nitrogen fixation often differ: A pathway toward reconciliation

  Global Change Biology · 2021-08-12 · 22 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Abstract The impacts of global environmental change on productivity in northern latitudes will be contingent on nitrogen (N) availability. In circumpolar boreal ecosystems, nonvascular plants (i.e., bryophytes) and associated N 2 ‐fixing diazotrophs provide one of the largest known N inputs but are rarely accounted for in Earth system models. Instead, most models link N 2 ‐fixation with the functioning of vascular plants. Neglecting nonvascular N 2 ‐fixation may be contributing toward high uncer…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Short-term prescribed fire-induced changes in soil microbial communities and nutrients in native rangelands of Florida

  Applied Soil Ecology · 2023 · 16 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Theoretical insights from upscaling Michaelis–Menten microbial dynamics in biogeochemical models: a dimensionless approach

  Biogeosciences · 2021-10-21 · 16 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract. Leading an effective response to the accelerating crisis of anthropogenic climate change will require improved understanding of global carbon cycling. A critical source of uncertainty in Earth system models (ESMs) is the role of microbes in mediating both the formation and decomposition of soil organic matter, and hence in determining patterns of CO2 efflux. Traditionally, ESMs model carbon turnover as a first-order process impacted primarily by abiotic factors, whereas contemporary bi…

  PublisherDOI

• Hyperspectral signals in the soil: Plant–soil hydraulic connection and disequilibrium as mechanisms of drought tolerance and rapid recovery

  Plant Cell & Environment · 2024-06-26 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Predicting soil water status remotely is appealing due to its low cost and large-scale application. During drought, plants can disconnect from the soil, causing disequilibrium between soil and plant water potentials at pre-dawn. The impact of this disequilibrium on plant drought response and recovery is not well understood, potentially complicating soil water status predictions from plant spectral reflectance. This study aimed to quantify drought-induced disequilibrium, evaluate plant responses…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Thomas C. Südhof

  45 shared

• Josep Rizo

  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  26 shared

• Christian Rosenmund

  Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin

  22 shared

• Marife Arancillo

  Baylor College of Medicine

  20 shared

• Xinran Liu

  Yale University

  19 shared

• Jong‐Cheol Rah

  18 shared

• Alexander Meyer

  Helios Hospital Berlin-Buch

  17 shared

• Robert E. Hammer

  16 shared

Education

• Doctorate, Climate and Environmental Pysics

  Universität Bern

• Diploma, Earth Science

  Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich

Similar researchers at University of Florida

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• Jim Jawitzh-43
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