Gregory Starr

Gregory Starr

Professor

  • gstarr@ua.edu
  • (205) 348-0556
  • 3097-A Shelby Hall
  • Website
  • Accepting Undergraduate Students Not Accepting Students

Education

  • Postdoctoral research: University of Florida
  • Ph.D., Biological Sciences, Florida International University, 2000

Research Interests

My research focuses on understanding the controls over carbon, water, and energy fluxes through terrestrial ecosystems. This includes the interaction between abiotic and biotic processes and the feedbacks to global biogeochemical cycles and climate change. I am particularly interested in understanding these processes across multiple scales (e.g. internal plant signals to continental level carbon dynamics) using plant physiological ecology as a foundation for my research. My research makes use of the latest environmental instrumentation to understand the relationships among climate, biogeochemistry, and plant physiology. For more detailed information regarding my current research projects visit the Starr Laboratory Site.

Ecosystems of Study

Over the past decade I have been involved with research in a multitude of ecosystems around the world, these include but are not limited to: Arctic Tundra, Everglades, Southern Pine, and Lowland Neo-Tropical Rain Forest Ecosystems. I would encourage my students to focus their studies on these ecosystems but I would not restrict them to these systems.

Research Opportunities

Motivated undergraduate and graduate students interested in joining my laboratory should contact me directly, gstarr@bama.ua.edu. Interested individuals should be open to working on ecosystem or individual species addressing questions associated with plant physiological ecology, ecosystems ecology, or atmospheric transport. Both basic and applied approaches are appropriate. I expect all students to incorporate ecological theory into their studies.

 

a crane-like piece of equipment suspended over a forest
Long Leaf Pine Canopy and Eddy Covariance Equipment at the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center
a vast expanse of tall grass
Everglades Sawgrass Prairie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selected Publications

  • Kunwor, S., G. Starr, H.W. Loescher, and C.L. Staudhammer (2017) Preserving the variance of long-term eddy-covariance measurements using parameter prediction in gap filling. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 232(2017), 635 – 649.
  • Viner, B., M. Parker, P. Varnedoe, M. Leclerc, G. Starr, D. Aubrey, G. Zhang, H. Duarte (2016). Micrometeorological conditions before, during, and after a prescribed fire in a longleaf pine forest. Journal Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences. http://doi: 10.1002/2016JG003351
  • Blood, A., G. Starr, F. Escobedo, A. Chappelka, E. Wiseman, R. Sivakumar, and C.L. Staudhammer (2016) Resolving uncertainties in allometric relationships for urban trees of the Southeastern United States: local and general equations for 98 common species. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening. 20, 282 – 294.
  • *Malone, S.L., J. Barr, J. Fuentes, S. F. Oberbauer, C. L. Staudhammer, E. Gaiser, G. Starr (2016). Sensitivity to low temperature episodes: implications for CO2 dynamics in coastal wetland ecosystems. Wetlands. doi:10.1007/s13157-016-0810-3
  • Blood, A., G. Starr, F. Escobedo, A. Chappelka and C.L. Staudhammer (2016). How do urban forests compare? Tree diversity in urban and periurban forests of the Southeastern US. Forests. doi:10.3390/f7060120
  • *Starr, G., C. L. Staudhammer, S. Wiesner, S. Kunwor, H. W. Loescher, A. F. Baron, A. Whelan, R. J. Mitchell, L. Boring (2016). Carbon dynamics of Pinus palustris ecosystems following drought. Forests. http://doi:10.3390/f7050098
  • Publications (υ represents undergraduates, * graduates student and Φ post doctoral authors from my research group)