Alistair Rogers, Ph.D. Scientist Environmental Sciences Department Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973-5000 (631) 344 2948 arogers@bnl.gov

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Research Interests

My research aims to improve understanding of the mechanisms that underlie whole plant and ecosystem responses to global change, and to improve representation of these mechanisms in Earth System Models.  Much of my research has been focused on the long-term response of plants to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration in large field experiments where Free Air CO₂ Enrichment technology has been used to expose vegetation to the levels of CO₂ predicted to occur in the middle of the century.  We have found that a sustained stimulation in photosynthesis and growth is dependent on the capacity to utilize the extra photosynthate produced at elevated CO₂ and on an adequate nitrogen supply.  Signals for the carbon and nitrogen status of a plant, and to an extent the ecosystem, are brokered in the leaf and my lab is focused on understanding the interactions between carbon and nitrogen metabolism that underlie many of the commonly observed responses of plants and ecosystems to global change.

Recent Publications

• Gray SB, Strellner RS, Puthuval KK, Ng C, Shulman R, Siebers MH, Rogers A, Leakey ADB (2012) Minirhizotron imaging reveals nodulation of field-grown soybean is enhanced by Free-Air CO₂ Enrichment only when combined with drought stress. Functional Plant Biology. In Press.
• Rogers A, McDonald K, Muehlbauer MF, Hoffman A, Koenig K, Newman L, Taghavi S, van der Lelie D (2012) Inoculation of hybrid poplar with the endophytic bacterium Enterobacter sp. 638 increases biomass but does not impact leaf level physiology. Global Change Biology - Bioenergy 4, 364-370. (pdf)
• Gillespie KM, Rogers A, Ainsworth EA (2011) Growth at elevated ozone or elevated carbon dioxide concentration alters antioxidant capacity and response to acute oxidative stress in soybean (Glycine max). Journal of Experimental Botany 62, 2667-2678. (pdf)
• Best M, Koenig K, McDonald K, Schueller M, Rogers A, Ferrieri R (2011) Inhibition of trehalose breakdown increases new carbon partitioning into cellulosic biomass in Nicotiana tabacum. Carbohydrate Research 346, 595-601. (pdf)

Invited Talks

• 2011 Seminar, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
• 2010 Seminar, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, IL, USA.
• 2010 Seminar, City University of New York, Lehman, NY, USA.
• 2010 Speaker, BNL-SBU Joint Symposium on Climate Change, Stony Brook University, NY, USA.
• 2010 Seminar, INRA, Bordeaux, France.
• 2009 Speaker, Earth Day and 449th Brookhaven Lecture, Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA.
• 2009 Seminar, Consortium for Inter-Disciplinary Environmental Research, Stony Brook University, USA.
• 2009 Speaker, Ground Level Ozone Workshop, Stony Brook University, USA.
• 2008 Seminar, Bayer Crop Sciences, Ghent, Belgium.
• 2007 Speaker, FACEing the Future:Planning the Next Generation of Elevated CO₂ Experiments on Crops and Ecosystems, European Science Foundation, Rome, Italy (Science Position Paper resulting from this meeting).
• 2007 Speaker, Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA, USA.
• 2006 Speaker, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, International Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, USA.
• 2004 Speaker, International Photosynthesis Congress, Montreal, Canada.
• 2004 Speaker, International FACE workshop, Ascona, Switzerland.
• 2003 Speaker, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, International Annual Meeting, Denver, USA.
• 2001 Seminar, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA.

Professional Activities and Affiliations

• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board, Global Change Biology.
• Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists and the Ecological Society of America.

Awards

• 2009 Outstanding Mentor.  Department of Energy, Office of Science, Undergraduate Research Programs.
• 2004 Outstanding Mentor.  Department of Energy, Office of Science, Undergraduate Research Programs.
• 2002 Outstanding Mentor.  Department of Energy, Office of Science, Undergraduate Research Programs.

Education

• Ph.D. Biology, 1998, University of Essex, UK.
• B.Sc. Biochemistry & Botany, 1994, University of Wales, Bangor, UK.

Media

• Dr. Rogers talks about FACE and rising carbon dioxide concentration on MyLITV.com
• Dr. Rogers talks about how he ended up at Brookhaven National Laboratory on MyLITV.com
• Daniel Bornstein selected as a 2010 Intel Science Competition semifinalist (Brookhaven TODAY article).

Last Modified: September 20, 2012
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