Steve W. Blecker

Interests: 

Pedology

Isotope geochemisty

Metal and nutrient biogeochemistry

Watershed scale weathering process, specifically links between terrestrial and aquatic systems

775-784-5036

Fax 775-784-5079

sblecker@usgs.gov

Education

Experience

• Mendenhall Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dec 2007-present, USGS, Reno, Nevada - Metal biogeochemistry in mineralized areas: impacts on ecosystem health
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2005-2007, University of Idaho, Forest Resources Dept., University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho - Water and carbon flux in forested mountain ecosystems
• Research Associate/Assistant Lab Manager, 2000-2005, Natural Resource Ecology Lab, Colorado State University - Field and lab analyses, training, equipment maintenance and troubleshooting in support of various soil biogeochemistry related projects
• Soil Scientist, 1999-2000, Umpqua National Forest, US Forest Service, Roseburg Oregon - Soil survey work utilizing ArcView; impacts of logging on forest productivity

Publications

• Ippolito JI, SW Blecker, CL Freeman, EF Kelly. In review. Phosphorous transformations across a Great Plains climosequence. Biogeochemistry.
• Blecker SW, S Connolly, GW Cardon, EF Kelly. In review. The role of mining and agriculture in creating coexisting but divergent soils, San Luis Valley, CO, USA. Geoderma.
• Blecker SW, SL King, LA Derry, OA Chadwick, JA Ippolito, and EF Kelly. 2007. The ratio of germanium to silicon in plant phytoliths:  Quantification of biological discrimination under controlled experimental conditions. Biogeochemistry 86:189-199.
• Saccone L, DJ Conley, E Koning, D Sauer, M Sommer, D Kaczorek, SW Blecker, and EF Kelly. 2007. Assessing the extraction and quantification of amorphous silica in soils of forest and grassland ecosystems. European Journal of Soil Science 58:1446-1459.
• Blecker SW, RL McCulley, OA Chadwick, and EF Kelly. 2006. Biologic cycling of silica across a grassland bioclimosequence. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 20, GB3023, doi:10.1029/2006GB002690.
• Blecker SW, JI Ippolito, JE Barrett, DH Wall, RA Virginia, and KL Norvell. 2006. Phosphorous fractions in soils of Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Soil Science Society Of America Journal 70:806-815. (A summary of this paper was featured in Crops, Soils, Agronomy News under “Phosphorous Fractionation in Antarctic Soils”. May 2006 51(5):2-3).
• Yonker CM, EF Kelly, SW Blecker, and CG Olson. 2005.  Factors that influence the development of shortgrass steppe soils: An example from northeastern Colorado, In Ecology of the shortgrass steppe; perspectives from long-term research, WK Lauenroth and IC Burke, eds. Oxford University Press. 320 pp.
• Cipra JE, EF Kelly, M Petersen, T Wheeler and S Blecker. 2003.  Use of geostatistics and remotely sensed data in conducting the soil survey of Rocky Mountain National Park.  Soil Survey Horizons 44:9-15.