Jason West

Dr. West, an associate professor with expertise in plant physiological ecology and ecosystem ecology, joined the Department in July 2008. He obtained a B.S. degree in Range Science from Utah State University and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Georgia. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota and then was at the University of Utah on the research faculty of the Department of Biology. His interests include the roles of vegetation in such ecosystem functions as water, carbon and nitrogen cycling, with a particular interest in the characteristics of tissues found below ground. Understanding the consequences of global change for ecological systems is also a central focus, including the effects of changing atmospheric compositions, human activities that affect available nitrogen, biodiversity, climate change, and land use decisions. Stable isotope ratio analysis forms an important component of many of Dr. West’s projects and is an active area of research, primarily targeting questions related to the water cycle and to the development of approaches to scaling up mechanistic understanding to address questions at large spatial scales.

Plant Physiological and Ecosystem Ecology

Work in the West Lab Group generally falls in the broad domain of terrestrial ecology, with an emphasis on how the physiology and growth of plants interact with other components of ecological systems. The team likes to contribute to efforts to use fundamental understanding of ecological processes to solve a variety of modern anthropogenic problems. Ongoing projects include work on ecophysiological and biogeochemical processes in seasonally dry environments, drivers of isotope fractionation in plants, and trait-genome relationships in loblolly pine drought tolerance.

ǂLin, W, J-C Domec, EJ Ward, J Marshall, JS King, MA Laviner, TR Fox, JB West, G Sun, S McNulty, A Noormets. in press. Using δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O to analyze loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) response to experimental drought and fertilization. Tree Physiology

*Adams, R, A Hyodo, T SantaMaria, C Wright, T Boutton, J West. in press. Bound and mobile soil water isotope ratios are affected by soil texture and mineralogy while extraction method influences their measurement. Hydrological Processes

*Adams, RR, T Iliffe, JB West. in press. Digging deeper: documenting deep roots in caves in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Plants, People, Planet

 ǂChang, B, BG Wherley, J Aitkenhead-Peterson, JB West. in press. Irrigation Chemistry Effects on Tifway Bermudagrass Growth Response and Nitrogen Uptake. Crop Science

Fiorella, RP, JB West, GJ Bowen. in press. Biased estimates of the isotope ratios of steady-state evaporation from the assumption of equilibrium between vapor and precipitation. Hydrological Processes

Hyodo, A, S Malghani, Y Zhou, RM Mushinski, S Toyoda, N Yoshida, TW Boutton, JB West. 2019. Biochar amendment suppresses N₂O emissions but has no impact on ¹⁵N site preference in an anaerobic soil. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 33:165-175.

*Chaired or co-chaired graduate student, ǂOther graduate student