Joe Fargione
Lead Scientist
North America Region
Contact Information
Phone: (612) 331-0745
E-mail: jfargione@tnc.org
Brief Biography
Joe received his doctorate in Ecology from the University of Minnesota in 2004, and his B.A. in Ecology from Hampshire College. Prior to the joining The Nature Conservancy, he held positions as Assistant Research Faculty at the University of New Mexico (Biology Department), Assistant Professor at Purdue University (Departments of Biology and Forestry and Natural Resources), and Research Associate at the University of Minnesota (Departments of Applied Economics and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior). His research has focused on the benefits of biodiversity and the causes and consequences of its loss.
Current Projects:
- Wind Development by Design
Co-led with Joe Kiesecker
Rapid expansion of the wind industry is expected over the next two decades. Even if we generate 20% of our electricity from wind by 2030, this would only require developing a small fraction of the available wind resource, making it possible to site wind development in places with minimal impact on wildlife. We are working with the wind industry to provide the science needed to inform these siting decisions. We are partnering with the American Wind Wildlife Institute to create a publicly available website to share wildlife information in a format aimed to help improve siting decisions.
- Biofuels Science for Policy
Biofuels are the most land-intensive form of energy production, and therefore have significant land use implications. Given the subsidies necessary for biofuels, their implementation is highly dependent on policy. Policy on biofuels should be based on sound science, but this science is lacking. Our research focuses on the implications of biofuels for wildlife, land use, and carbon emissions.
Fargione JE, J Hill, D Tilman, S Polasky, P Hawthorne. 2008. Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt. Science 319: 1235-1238
Fargione J, TR Cooper, DJ Flaspohler, J Hill, C Lehman, T McCoy, S McLeod, EJ Nelson, KS Oberhauser, and D Tilman. 2009. Bioenergy and Wildlife: Threats and Opportunities for Grassland Conservation. BioScience 59: 767-777
McDonald RI, J Fargione, J Kiesecker, WM Miller, and J Powell. 2009. Energy sprawl or energy efficiency: Tradeoffs in U.S. climate policy effects on natural habitats. PLoS One 4(8): e6802.
Ravindranath NH, R Manuvie, J Fargione, JG Canadell, G Berndes, J Woods, H Watson, and J Sathaye. 2009. Green House Gas Implications of Land Use and Land Conversion to Biofuel Crops. Pages 111-125, in Scope Biofuels Report (B. Howarth, editor)
- Carbon Offsets from Avoided Rangeland Conversion
Rangeland conservation reduces carbon emissions by preserving the carbon stored in grassland soils, potentially allowing the sale of carbon offsets on voluntary carbon markets and providing a new funding source for grassland conservation. We are developing rigorous new methods that will allow us to quantify the amount of carbon saved by The Conservancy’s grassland protection activities. We are working with the Voluntary Carbon Standard to develop guidance for avoided conversion of non-forested lands as a new project category type. This will allow projects that protect grasslands from conversion to cropland to generate third-party certified carbon offsets that can be sold on the voluntary carbon market.
- Floodplain Ecosystem Services
Reconnecting floodplains through levee setbacks or removals could provide both flood control and improved ecosystem services, but its application is limited by high perceived costs. In the upper Mississippi River, we are working to quantify whether novel funding mechanisms may be able to overcome the opportunity costs and cultural barriers to changes in floodplain management by using payments for ecosystem services (carbon offsets, water quality, and flood reduction) combined with new markets for biomass from flood-tolerant crops (e.g. switchgrass).
Opperman, J, GE Galloway, J Fargione, J Mount, BD Richter, S Secchi. 2009. Sustainable floodplains through large-scale reconnection to rivers. Science 326: 1487-1488
Other Relevant Publications:
Clark CM, EE Cleland, SL Collins, JE Fargione, L Gough, KL Gross, SC Pennings, KN Suding, and JB Grace. 2007. Environmental and plant community determinants of species loss following nitrogen enrichment. Ecology Letters 10: 596-607
Baez S, J Fargione, DI Moore, SL Collins, JR Gosz. 2007. Nitrogen deposition in the northern Chihuahuan desert: Temporal trends and potential consequences. Journal of Arid Environments 68: 640-651
Diaz S, J Fargione, FS Chapin III, D Tilman. 2006. Biodiversity loss threatens human well-being. PLoS Biology 4: 1300-1305
Diaz S, D Tilman, J Fargione, et al. 2005. Biodiversity and the regulation of ecosystem services. In Millennium Ecosystem Assessment editors. Ecosystems and Human Well Being: Current State and Trends. Island Press, DC, USA
Fargione J, and D Tilman. 2005. Diversity decreases invasion via both sampling and complementarity effects. Ecology Letters, 8: 604-611
Fargione J, CS Brown, and D Tilman. 2003. Community assembly and invasion: An experimental test of neutral versus niche processes. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, 100: 8916-8920
Tilman D, J Fargione, B Wolff, C D’Antonio, A Dobson, R Howarth, D Schindler, W Schlesinger, D Simberloff, and D Swackhamer. 2001. Forecasting agriculturally driven global environmental change. Science 292: 281-284
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