Skip to main content

Dr. Peter M. Groffman

Microbial Ecologist | PhD, University of Georgia

Expertise
soil ecology, water quality

Profile (pdf)

845 677-7600 x128

Peter Groffman studies how microbial processes impact gas exchange - particularly nitrogen - between the soil and air. His work encompasses rural and urban ecosystems, and is primarily centered at two of the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research sites located in Hubbard Brook, New Hampshire and Baltimore, Maryland.

As a result of climate change, forests in the northeastern US are experiencing reduced winter snow cover. This change leaves the forest soil exposed to subfreezing temperatures for extended periods. Without a layer of insulating snow, important biological activity that usually continues throughout the winter stops. Freezing damages tender tree roots. Increased winter rain washes nitrogen and phosphorus - nutrients critical to tree growth - out of the soil, threatening forest productivity and water quality. Bare soils produce more nitrous oxide and consume less methane - both potent greenhouse gases. Understanding these processes will inform forest management as climate warms.

Urbanization is a global trend marked by increasing homogenization of the landscape; imagine the cookie cutter properties that characterize ‘suburbia’. Understanding landscape homogenization will help predict the impacts of urban land use change and its effects on carbon storage and nitrogen pollution, on multiple spatial scales.

Groffman was a Convening Lead Author for the third National Climate Assessment Chapter on Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Groffman is also a Professor at the City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center and the Brooklyn College Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Displaying 321 - 340 of 427
Venterea, R.T., Peter M. Groffman, L. V. Verchot, A.H. Magill, J. D. Aber, and P.A. Steudler. 2003. “Nitrogen Oxide Gas Emissions from Temperate Forest Soils Receiving Long-Term Nitrogen Inputs”. Global Change Biol. 9: 346-57.
Zaady, Eli, Peter M. Groffman, Moshe Shachak, and A. Wilby. 2003. “Consumption and Release of Nitrogen by Harvester Termite, Anacanthothermes Ubachi Naves in the Northern Negev Desert”. Soil Biol. Biochem. 35: 1299-1303.
Driscoll, Charles T., D. Whitall, J. D. Aber, E.W. Boyer, M.S. Castro, Christopher S. Cronan, Christine L. Goodale, et al. 2003. “Nitrogen Pollution in the Northeastern United States: Sources, Effects and Management Options”. BioScience 53: 357-74.
Groffman, Peter M., and M.K. Crawford. 2003. “Denitrification Potential in Urban Riparian Zones”. J. Environ. Qual. 32: 1144-49.
Driscoll, Charles T., D. Whitall, J. D. Aber, E.W. Boyer, M.S. Castro, Christopher S. Cronan, Christine L. Goodale, et al. 2003. “Nitrogen Pollution: Sources and Consequences in the U.S. Northeast”. Environment 45: 9-22.
Jacinthe, P.A., Peter M. Groffman, and Arthur J. Gold. 2003. “Dissolved Organic Carbon Dynamics in a Riparian Aquifer”. Journal of Environment Quality 32 (4): 1365. doi:10.2134/jeq2003.1365.
Fitzhugh, Ross D., Gene E. Likens, Charles T. Driscoll, Myron J. Mitchell, Peter M. Groffman, Timothy J. Fahey, and J.P. Hardy. 2003. “Role of Soil Freezing Events in Interannual Patterns of Stream Chemistry at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire”. Environ. Sci. Technol. 37: 1575-80.
Groffman, Peter M., D.J. Bain, Lawrence E. Band, Kenneth T Belt, G.S. Brush, Morgan Grove, Richard V. Pouyat, Ian D. Yesilonis, and Wayne C Zipperer. 2003. “Down by the Riverside: Urban Riparian Ecology”. Front. Ecol. Environ. 6: 315-21. http://www.caryinstitute.org/reprints/Groffman_et_al_2003_Down_Riverside_FEE.pdf.
Fitzhugh, Ross D., Charles T. Driscoll, Peter M. Groffman, G.L. Tierney, Timothy J. Fahey, and J.P. Hardy. 2003. “Soil Freezing and the Acid-Base Chemistry of Soil Solutions in a Northern Hardwood Forest”. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 67: 1897-1908.
Findlay, Stuart E. G., Peter M. Groffman, and S. Dye. 2003. “Effects of Phragmites Australis Removal on Marsh Nutrient Cycling”. Wetl. Ecol. Manage 11: 157-65.
Addy, Kelly, D.Q. Kellogg, Arthur J. Gold, Peter M. Groffman, G. Ferrendo, and C. Sawyer. 2002. “In Situ Push-Pull Method to Determine Ground Water Denitrification in Riparian Zones”. J. Environ. Qual. 31: 1017-24.
Groffman, Peter M., Arthur J. Gold, D.Q. Kellogg, and Kelly Addy. 2002. “Mechanisms, Rates and Assessment of N2O in Groundwater, Riparian Zones and Rivers”. In J. Van Ham, A. P. M. Baede, R. Guicherit, J. G. F. M. Williams-Jacobse (eds.). Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases: Scientific Understanding, Control Options and Policy Aspects, 159-66. Millpress, Rotterdam.
Lovett, Gary M., Lynn M. Christenson, Peter M. Groffman, Clive G. Jones, J.E. Hart, and Myron J. Mitchell. 2002. “Insect Defoliation and Nitrogen Cycling in Forests”. BioScience 52: 335-41. http://www.caryinstitute.org/reprints/Lovett_et_al_2002_Insect_defoliation_Bioscience_52_335-341.pdf.
Groffman, Peter M., Arthur J. Gold, D.Q. Kellogg, and Kelly Addy. 2002. “Nitrous Oxide Emissions Derived from N Leaching”. In S. O. Peterson and J. E. Olesen (eds.). Greenhouse Gas Inventories for Agriculture in the Nordic Countries, 143-55. Danish Institute of Agriculture Sciences, Tjele, Denmark.
Verchot, L. V., Peter M. Groffman, and D. A. Frank. 2002. “Landscape Versus Ungulate Control of Gross Mineralization and Gross Nitrification in Semi-Arid Grasslands of Yellowstone National Park”. Soil Biol. Biochem. 34: 1691-99.
Pouyat, Richard V., Peter M. Groffman, Ian D. Yesilonis, and L. Hernandez. 2002. “Soil Carbon Pools and Fluxes in Urban Ecosystems”. Environ. Pollut. 116: 107-88.
Groffman, Peter M., N. J. Boulware, Wayne C Zipperer, Richard V. Pouyat, Lawrence E. Band, and M.F. Colosimo. 2002. “Soil Nitrogen Cycling Processes in Urban Riparian Zones”. Environ. Sci. Technol. 36: 4547-52.
Christenson, Lynn M., Gary M. Lovett, Myron J. Mitchell, and Peter M. Groffman. 2002. “The Fate of Nitrogen in Gypsy Moth Frass Deposited to an Oak Forest Floor”. Oecologia 131: 444-52. http://www.caryinstitute.org/reprints/Christenson_2002_Oecologia.pdf.
Verchot, L. V., Z. Holmes, L. Mulon, Peter M. Groffman, and Gary M. Lovett. 2001. “Gross Versus Net Rates of N Mineralization and Nitrification As Indicators of Functional Differences Between Forest Types”. Soil Biol. Biochem. 33: 1889-1901.
Rosenblatt, A.E., Arthur J. Gold, M.H. Stolt, and Peter M. Groffman. 2001. “Identifying Riparian Sinks for Watershed Nitrate Using Soil Surveys”. J. Environ. Qual. 30: 1596-1604.