Faculty Directory
Dr.
Laurie Osher
Research Area:
Soil and Water Quality
E-mail:
laurie@maine.edu
Phone:
207-581-2957
Office:
214B Deering
Bio: Dr. Osher
received her B.S. from Cornell University in 1982 and her M.S. from
North Carolina State University in 1985. She worked for the US
Forest Service
prior to attending the University of California-Berkeley (Ph.D.
1997). She joined the faculty
in 1999 and is an Assistant Professor of Soil & Water Quality
Current Research:
My research investigates organic C
stored in Maine’s estuary soils. This work includes describing the
soils and studying soil-landscape relationships, pedogenesis, and
distribution of estuary soils. I utilize natural abundance stable
isotope geochemistry to identify the sources of organic matter in
these ecosystems. I am also interested in quantifying the impact of
population growth and changing coastal land use on estuary
ecosystems. This work focuses on the processes that move
contaminants and nutrients from uplands to estuaries, and the
impacts of these additions.
Peer Reviewed Papers:
Jespersen, J. L. and L. J. Osher. 2007. Carbon
storage in the soils of a mesotidal Gulf of Maine estuary. Soil
Science Society of America Journal. (in press).
Keats, R., and L. J. Osher. 2007. The
macroinvertebrates of Ruppia beds in an estuary. accepted
Northeastern Naturalist. Keats, R, and LJ Osher. 2007. Faunal
community composition in Ruppia
maritima beds in a
northeastern USA
estuary. Northeastern Naturalist (in press)
Osher, L. J., L. Leclerc, G. B. Wiersma, C. T. Hess,
and V. E. Giuseppe. 2006. Heavy metal contamination from historic
mining in upland soil and estuarine sediments of Egypt Bay, Maine,
USA. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 70:169-179.
Keats, R, L. J. Osher, and H. Neckles. 2004. The
effect of nutrient loading on an estuarine faunal community: a
stable isotope approach. Estuaries
27:460-471.
Osher, L. J., P. A. Matson, and R. Amundson. 2003.
The effect of land use change on soil carbon in Hawaii.
Biogeochemistry 65:213-232.
Burke, R. A., M. Molina, J. E. Cox, L. J. Osher, and
M. C. Piccolo. 2002. Stable carbon isotope ratio and composition of
bacterial fatty acids in tropical soils. Journal of Environmental
Quality 32:198-206.
Chapela, I. H., L. J. Osher, T. R. Horton, and M. R.
Henn. 2001. Ectomycorrhizal fungi introduced with exotic pine
plantations induce soil carbon depletion. Soil Biology and
Biochemistry 33:1733-1740.
Osher, L. J. and S. W. Buol, 1998. Relationship of
soil properties to parent material and landscape position in eastern
Madre de Dios, Peru. Geoderma 83:143-166.
Book Chapters:
Osher, L. J. and E. F. Kelly, 1998. Stable Isotopes
and the Water Cycle. p 135-165 In
D S
Schimel, R Monson (Editors) Terrestrial Ecosystems
and the Atmosphere, Workshop Proceedings. National Center for
Atmospheric Research, Boulder.
Wang, Y., T. G. Huntington, L. J. Osher, L.
Wassenaar, S. Trumbore, et al. 1998.
Carbon Cycling in the Terrestrial Environment. In
J. J. McDonnell and C. Kendall (Eds) Isotope Tracers in Catchment
Hydrology. Elsevier, NY.
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