Home For Graduate Students The Cutting Edge: Interdisciplinary Possibilities Josh Schimel
Josh Schimel PDF  | Print |  E-mail
Program Chair, Environmental Studies, Professor, Evolution, Ecology and Marine Biology

Professor Schimel’s research sits at the interface of ecosystem and microbial ecology. He is interested in the role of soil microbes in controlling ecosystem scale processes, particularly the linkages between plant and soil processes, and how changes in microbial community structure affects ecosystem-scale dynamics. His work currently focuses on three ecosystems: the Arctic tundra in Alaska, the taiga forest of Alaska, and the California annual grassland-oak savanna.

The greatest thing about being a scientist at UCSB is that disciplinary boundaries don't really exist. Every single one of my Ph.D. students has had committee members from at least one other department, including Geography, the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, and others. At the same time, I have worked with students in the Bren School, the Geography Department, and even Anthropology. Even within Ecology and Evolution, my students in soil ecology are likely to have committee members who are marine scientists, interested in analogous processes but in a very different environment.

My students’ work has had a great impact on my own research. For example, Izaya Numata, a Brazillian student working with Dar Roberts in Geography, was using remote sensing to evaluate how fast pastures in Brazil degrade after being cleared of the forest, and what factors control how fast they degrade. An important part of that project was to do the "ground truthing," doing the on-site characterization of soil fertility that could be matched against the satellite-based signals. I knew nothing about remote sensing, while Dar knew little about measuring soil fertility. Izaya was able to put together a team including Dar, Oliver Chadwick, and me to take advantage of Oliver's expertise in soil characterization, my expertise in soil nutrients and fertility, and Dar's expertise in remote sensing, to do a really exciting and important piece of research that has resulted in four published papers of which we are all co-authors. I also learned a lot about remote sensing.

A second example is Noah Fierer, who is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado. Noah was interested in soil microbes and how they regulate ecosystem functioning. As part of his Ph.D. work, he put together a number of collaborations, including with Manny Gabeh, a Ph.D. geomorphology student of Tom Dunne. Manny was interested in how rain events mobilize sediments on hill slopes. Noah was interested in how rain events stimulate microbial activity in dry soils. Together, they built a device to simulate rainfall, with drops of the right size, energy, and overall intensity. Manny measured sediment yield and Noah microbial processes in the rainfall plots. Noah also worked closely with Dr. Patricia Holden in the Bren School to integrate the molecular biology tools she was expert in with his ecological process work to explore how microbial communities change through the soil profile and as a result of dry/wet stress cycles. He also worked with Oliver Chadwick to take advantage of Oliver's large-scale isotope biogeochemistry expertise.

There are many ways to build interdisciplinary projects that don't require established programs to define the nature of the program. Many, perhaps most, faculty really enjoy expanding their repertoire, working with students and faculty from across campus. In many of these, the students are the glue that bring the faculty together, tightening the interdisciplinary web that defines UCSB. Doing so here is very easy. If something or someone is on campus, the chances are good that you can connect up.

This ease of flow cross campus is actually one of the benefits of UCSB's size. We are a "small big University;" big enough to have a wealth of resources and talent, yet small enough that we know each other and have a communal culture that is campus-based rather than department-based. I don't feel like a member of Ecology & Evolution, I feel like a member of UCSB.