Dr. Brian Strahm

FACULTY AFFILIATE   |   Global Change Center

Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation

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(540) 231-8627 •  brian.strahm@vt.edu

Brian Strahm is a professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation.  He received a doctoral degree in forest resources from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on the soil properties and processes that regulate productivity and environmental quality. Forests cover approximately one-third of the Earth’s land surface and are important focal points for the supply of ecosystem goods and services. In forests, as with nearly all terrestrial ecosystems, soils are the hub of biological and chemical activity. Specifically, soils are largely responsible for the sustained productivity of forest ecosystems and regulate key processes that influence larger-scale environmental conditions, such as water quality and atmospheric chemistry.

By understanding the relationships between forest ecosystems and external forces, such as forest management, land use, or global change, scientists can predict how these changes affect soil/ecosystem function, such as carbon sequestration and nitrogen leaching.

Dr. Strahm’s recent research examines:

• the role of forest soils in the adaptation of southern pine ecosystems to climate variation
• how to return natural processes to ecosystems that have been severely altered by mining
• ways to utilize reclaimed lands to bring the American Chestnut tree back to North America