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FLC professor of biology named Visiting Faculty Program Fellow by U.S. Department of Energy
Dr. Heidi Steltzer, associate professor in the Biology Department at Fort Lewis College, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy as a member of the Visiting Faculty Program, which seeks to increase the research competitiveness of faculty members and their students at institutions historically underrepresented in the research community. Steltzer, an environmental scientist, will spend July 2015 working at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado.
Steltzer is teaming up with Dr. Kenneth Williams, an earth system scientist from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who resides in Carbondale, Colorado. They will examine the interrelationship of climate, phenology, plant abundance and hydrology in a mountain catchment, striving to improve our understanding of how plants influence the timing and amount of water in mountain streams that flow into the Colorado River. Steltzer stated, ‘We expect to document patterns of phenological resistance at the community level or catchment level that stabilize water availability, but we may find the opposite.” She will present their work in early August at the Berkeley Lab in Berkeley, California.
In 1993, Steltzer participated in a Research Experience for Undergraduates at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory when she was an undergraduate at Duke University. “In the 22 years since I worked at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, I’ve researched how environmental change affects plants, ecosystems and human wellbeing in Alaska, Greenland and here in Colorado,” says Steltzer. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with an amazing community of scientists this summer to study this familiar landscape with new eyes.”
The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory is an internationally renowned center for scientific research and education located on the remains of the abandoned Colorado mining town, Gothic, near Crested Butte. The Lab strives to advance the scientific understanding of nature that promotes informed stewardship of the earth. It is home to one of the largest annual migrations of field biologists, with the ecosystems around Gothic being some of the most intensely studied in the world.
Steltzer is an environmental scientist with 20 years of experience studying the impacts of environmental change on plants and ecosystem function, primarily in alpine and arctic regions including Greenland and Alaska. Her work has appeared in Nature, Global Change Biology, Science and elsewhere. View Steltzer’s full profile.
About Fort Lewis College
Fort Lewis College is the Southwest's crossroads of education and adventure. Located in mountainous and historic Durango, Colorado, the college’s liberal arts perspective leads to transformative learning experiences that foster entrepreneurship, leadership, creative problem solving, and lifelong learning. Fort Lewis has been named one of America’s Top Colleges and a Best Western College by Forbes and a Best Western College by Princeton Review. With students from all 50 states, 155 American Indian tribes and Native Alaskan villages, and 17 countries and a 19:1 student-to-faculty ratio, Fort Lewis offers students a rich community in which to engage and explore. Learn more at www.fortlewis.edu.