What you should do if you're interested in working with me:

First, please read some of my publications to get a sense of the types of questions I ask and the approach that I take. These recent papers should be a good start:

Hungate and Marks, 2002. Impacts of global change on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. In, Canadell J and Mooney HA (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Change Volume 2: The Earth System: Biological and Ecological Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. John Wiley.

Hungate et al., 2002. Evapotranspiration and soil water content in a scrub-oak woodland under carbon dioxide enrichment. Global Change Biology.

Cardon et al., 2001. Contrasting effects of elevated CO2 on old and new soil carbon pools. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 33:365-373.

Hungate BA et al., 2000. Soil microbiota in two annual grasslands: responses to elevated atmospheric CO2. Oecologia 124:589-598.

Second, if you are still interested, please contact me and let me know what types of research questions you are interested in, what experiences you've had to prepare yourself for graduate school, and how a graduate degree will serve your long-term career goals.

My philosophy... Choosing a thesis topic is really important. It should be one that keenly interests you, and one where you feel you can take responsibility for its intellectual development. This is critical, as your thesis project is far more important than any courses you will take in helping you develop into an independent and creative scientist. At the same time, the topic should be one where I feel I can offer useful advice, and I encourage students to develop independent projects in one of the systems where I'm currently working.

My current students are working on a number of topics. Lilly Goodman (MS) is studying how management of stands killed by the spruce bark beetle affects recovery of spruce forests. Megan Hedlund (MS) is studying the effects of herbivory by the piñon-needle scale on whole plant water use, part of a broader effort to understand how this insect alters ecosystem processes in piñon woodlands. Adam Langley (PhD) is examining the influence of mycorrhizal infection on fine root decomposition and nutrient cycling. If you are interested in working with me, please contact these students to ask them about their research and their experience with me as an advisor.

I also advise several postdoctoral associates: Jiahong Li is studying the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on plant water use and ecosystem water balance; Paul Dijkstra is studying how increased temperature and altered precipitation affect nitrogen cycling in grassland ecosystems; Oleg Meniailo is developing a system for Keeling-plot measurements to partition components of ecosystem respiration and evapotranspiration in response to restoration of ponderosa pine forests; and Mario Montes-Helu is studying piñon water use along environmental gradients and in response to insect herbivory.

Funding.... My students are supported by my research grants, their own grants or fellowships, and by departmental teaching assistantships. Sources of funding vary among students, but most will have a combination of RA and TA support. I expect students to attempt to procure their own funding; grant writing is an important part of graduate training.