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The Speakers Bureau is a directory of arctic researchers and experts that are available to visit organizations, communities or schools to give presentations. The directory contains names, addresses, science specialties, and presentation experience.
We encourage organizations and communities applying to the Arctic Visiting Speakers Series to use the Speakers Bureau to select a visiting speaker. If a particular subject or speaker is not listed, please contact Judy Fahnestock at avs [at] arcus [dot] org, for suggested speakers.
Syndonia (Donie) Bret-Harte
About:
Dr. Syndonia Bret-Harte is currently a plant/ecosystem ecologist at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She has worked in both the tundra and boreal forest, and has been a researcher at Toolik Lake, Alaska for more than ten years. Dr. Bret-Harte is interested in how plant species affect the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in northern ecosystems, and how the growth responses of individual plant species may influence the response of northern ecosystems to climate change. Dr. Bret-Harte is just starting a new research project on how the interactions between shrubs and winter snow cover may influence carbon and nitrogen cycling in tundra as shrubs expand in tundra ecosystems.
Dr. Bret-Harte has experience lecturing to a broad range of audiences including high school students, teachers, tourists, community residents, congressional staffers, and scientists. Because of summer fieldwork, Dr. Bret-Harte can only participate in the Arctic Visiting Speakers' program during the winter. If a venue in northern Alaska was available during the summer, however, she could possibly participate since her fieldwork is at Toolik Field Station.
Representative lecture titles include:
- Climate change and tundra plants
- The role of different plant species in the response of northern ecosystems to environmental perturbation
- Plant and soil responses to neighbor removal and fertilization in tussock tundra
Through participating in the Arctic Visiting Speakers' Program, Dr. Bret-Harte hopes to help inform the public of scientific issues.
