Karen M. Brown

Post Baccalaureate Research Technician

Research Interest My interests currently revolve around global climate change and carbon budget research but also include restoration ecology and ecosystem dynamics. I have been fortunate to work in ecosystems from the boreal forest to the desert with very talented people. I am currently maintaining sap flow, tunable diode laser spectroscopy, and vegetation studies in the piñon-juniper woodland here on-site at LANL. Along with these major research areas, I also help run smaller related research objectives and assist in the maintenance of the extensive data sets and data analysis for all of these projects. Contact Karen M. Brown kmbrown at lanl.gov (505) 606-0746 - Phone

Education

University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois (1999-2001).
  BS in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois (1996-1999).
  AS in Biology

Publications and Presentations

Hanson,  D.T.,  C. Bickford, K.M. Brown, H. Powers, and N. McDowell. Online estimation of carbon discrimination and mesophyll conductance via tunable diode laser spectroscopy. Plant, Cell and Environment (in review).

Bond-Lamberty, B., K.M. Brown, C. Goranson, and S.T. Gower. Spatial dynamics of soil moisture and temperature in a black spruce boreal chronosequence. Canadian Journal of Forest Research (in press).

White, S., K.M. Brown, N. McDowell, H. Powers. 2005. Comparison of regional water flux patterns across disparate species located along a steep climatic transect in the Rio Grande Basin. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. San Francisco, California, December 5-9, 2005. (Poster.)

K.M. Nielsen. 2004. Using digital imagery to quantify whole-plant leaf area. Invited presentation, Nevada Desert Research Center Annual Meeting. Las Vegas, Nevada, June 2004. (PowerPoint Presentation.)

Related Professional Experience

Pinon-Juniper Ecosystem Dynamics (Mar 2006 - Present). Post Baccalaureate Research Technician with Dr. Nate McDowell, Atmospheric, Climate and Envirnomental Dynamics (EES-2), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico.

High Desert and Island Climate Change (Feb 2005-Mar 2006). Research Specialist II with Dr. Chris Still, Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Mojave Desert Climate Change (Feb 2004-Jan 2005). Research Assistant with Dr. Stan Smith Nevada Desert Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Temperate Forest Old Growth Ecology (Jun-Nov 2003). Research Gardener with Dr. David Mladenoff Forest Landscape Ecology, Department of Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Boreal Forest Climate Change (Jun-Oct 2002). Boreal Forest Technician with Dr. Stith T. Gower Forest Ecosystem Ecology, Department of Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Freshwater Wetland Predator-Prey Interactions (Aug-Dec 2001). Independent Study Project with Dr. Daniel Soluk (Freshwater Population Dynamics and Conservation), Center for Aquatic Ecology, Illinois Natural History Survey.

Endangered Species Conservation (Jun-Aug 2001). Internship with Dr. Daniel Soluk (Freshwater Population Dynamics and Conservation), Center for Aquatic Ecology, Illinois Natural History Survey.

Agrarian Prairie Stream Restoration (Sep 2001-Jun 2002). Lab Assistant with Dr. David Wahl (Fish Population Dynamics), Center for Aquatic Ecology, Illinois Natural History Survey.