Joe Fargione
Regional Science Director
Central U.S. Region
Contact Information
Phone: (612) 331-0745
E-mail: jfargione@tnc.org
Brief Biography
Joe manages a Central U.S. Conservation Science team of six, including GIS, data management, and climate change specialists. He coordinates scientific input to regional issues of planning, threats, and measures. He also serves as the chief science advisor to the Central U.S. Regional Director, represents the field on Peter Kareiva’s Science Leadership Team, and represents Conservancy science on the U.S. Government Relations Cabinet. His current work focuses on biofuel impacts, wind energy siting, grassland carbon offset projects, and climate change impacts and adaptation.
Fargione 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 published research has focused on the benefits of biodiversity and the causes and consequences of its loss. Specifically, his work has addressed climate change, invasive species, ecosystem services, global agricultural land use, and nitrogen pollution, and has been published in several leading scientific journals, including Ecology, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Proceedings of the Royal Society. He was a coordinating lead author for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment chapter titled “Biodiversity and the regulation of ecosystem services.” His recent paper in Science, “Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt” was covered in many national media outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, and Time magazine. Fargione is the author of 19 peer reviewed publications.
Selected Publications:
Fargione JE, J Hill, D Tilman, S Polasky, P Hawthorne. 2008. Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt. Science 319: 1235-1238
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
Fargione J, and D Tilman. 2002. Competition and coexistence in terrestrial plants. Pages 156-206 In U. Sommer and B Worm editors. Competition and Coexistence. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany
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
Join The Nature Conservancy on