Thomas DeLuca (thdeluca)

I am currently working as a senior forest ecologist with the Wilderness Society and live in Bozeman Montana.  Prior to starting with TWS I had been a professor of forest soils at the University of Montana where I remain an adjunct professor.  My long-term research interests are in soil processes specifically addressing natural and anthropogenic disturbance effects on soil carbon and nitrogen cycling.  Some areas of particular interest include symbiotic and associative nitrogen fixation in forest ecosystems and the role of charcoal, as a natural byproduct of fire, in mediating biotic processes in soil.  In collaboration with Swedish colleagues we identified a cyanobacteria-feathermoss association that accounts for much of the nitrogen present in northern boreal forests.  A semi-current list of publications can be found at http://www.cfc.umt.edu/personnel/deluca/deluca.mht or at http://wilderness.org/about-us/experts/tom-deluca
Please feel free to contact me to discuss soils, soil processes, forest ecosystems, or disturbance ecology (emphasis on fire as a disturbance).