Dr. Jeffrey R. White has been with O'Neill since 1983. He is a biogeochemist and studies the effects of human activities on the functioning of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. He previously served as the founding director of the Integrated Program in the Environment.
White’s most recent research areas have included climate change effects on greenhouse gas cycles in lakes, wetlands, and terrestrial soils of Arctic landscapes; plant and soil microbial community response to permafrost thaw; microbial processes affecting reactive nitrogen emissions in soils. The tools used in this research include chemical mass balances, stable isotopes, and environmental genomics.
White’s group has studied greenhouse gas emissions in northern landscapes under changing climate, including a NASA-funded project investigating methane cycling in lakes, wetlands, and soils at the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet and plant methane emissions at DOE’s SPRUCE project. The results help refine mechanistic models of methane cycling used to predict methane emissions in northern landscapes in response to climatic change.
In his teaching program, White has taught courses in Aquatic Chemistry, Environmental Engineering, and Environmental Science. He mentored undergraduate and graduate research projects spanning a wide range of fields, including environmental science, environmental chemistry, hydrogeology, biogeochemistry, and applied ecology.
