Matthew Vadeboncoeur (2011)
Fellowship Year: 2011
Academic Background: University of New Hampshire - Ph.D. candidate - (Natural Resources and Earth System Science)
Matt Vadeboncoeur is a Ph.D. candidate in the Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science program at the University of New Hampshire, where he is advised by Dr. Erik Hobbie. His research focuses on understanding management- and disturbance-related changes to the cycling of nutrients in forest ecosystems. Currently he is using a detailed regional soil chemistry data set he collected with collaborators to characterize variation in the long-term sustainability of forest harvesting across the northern hardwood forest region. This question is highly relevant to current policy discussions about the potential to increase the use of local forest biomass for energy production in the northeast. Matt is particularly interested in investigating geochemical tracers of mineral weathering, the process by which most nutrients are ultimately derived from rocks and soils. Matt has spent several summers leading field crews in soil and vegetation sampling at the Hubbard Brook and Bartlett Experimental Forests in the White Mountain National Forest, and is also involved in tropical forest research in Taiwan and Malaysia. Matt has a Sc.B. with Honors in Environmental Science from Brown University.
Expertise: Conservation Science & Biology, Natural Resource Management, Energy & Climate Change