Richard B. Thomas

Professor of Biology

5226 Life Sciences Building

Morgantown, WV 26506-6057

 

304.293.5201 ext 31516

304.293.6363 (fax)

rthomas@wvu.edu

Research interests

 

Global environmental change includes complex, interrelated phenomena such as greenhouse warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, tropical deforestation, loss of biodiversity, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, and a host of other environmental changes. My research focuses on understanding how plants interact with a changing environment, both physical and biotic, and the physiological adaptations of plants to environmental stress. I am also interested in scaling plant physiological processes to the ecosystem level, for example, defining the role of nitrogen-fixing plants in ecosystem nitrogen balance or understanding the role of forest productivity in the global carbon balance.

 

Duke FACE experiment

 

SoyFACE experiment

 

Effect of tree harvest strategy on forest productivity of temperate deciduous forest in the Central Appalachian Mountains

 

Physiological ecology of old red cedar trees in West Virginia

 

Using ice age refugia tree species in West Virginia as indicators of climate change

 

Recent Publications

 

Students and Postdocs

 

Teaching

 

Biology 361 Plant Ecology

 

Biology 493 Trees in the Environment

 

Biology 752 Physiological Plant Ecology