B.S., Biology, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, 1980
Ph.D. Ecology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 1986
Contact Information
Until July, 2007
Phone: 612-625-6790
Fax: 612-624-6777
E-mail: stern007@umn.edu
Beginning July, 2007
Phone: (703) 292-8480
Fax: (703) 292-9064
E-mail: rsterner@nsf.gov
Research Interests
· Ecological Stoichiometry
· Limnology of Lake Superior
· Aquatic Food Webs
· Community/Ecosystem Interface
My research combines ecosystem science, for
example nutrient flux, with population and community processes such as
competition and predation. I am intrigued by the fact that the content of
essential elements, such as N and P, varies both inter- and intraspecifically.
This observation helps unite studies on community structure with those on
nutrient processing. Work performed by myself and others in my lab has dealt
with: nutrition (specifically mineral element limitation) in freshwater
zooplankton; importance of recycled N and P for algae and bacteria; nutrient
limitation of algal growth; the role of fish in nutrient cycles in lakes; and
mathematical models for nutrient cycling by consumers. Work has ranged from pure
mathematical models, to carefully controlled laboratory experimentation, to the
nitty gritty of whole-lake studies and whole ecosystem experimentation. Most of
this research has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
I like to refer to myself as a limnologist because this allows me a huge amount
of freedom to study intriguing things, be they chemical, physical or biological,
and I may utilize many different approaches to solving questions. I am currently
pursuing questions from the sub-organismal to the whole ecosystem. It is the
opportunity to integrate facts about our natural world that seem disparate,
independent, even conflicting, that most intrigues me about ecology.