Faculty

Val H. Smith - Ecosystem Ecology
Professor
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Phone: (785) 864-4565
FAX: (785) 864-5321

Area of Interest and Research

My research program focuses on the relationships between resource supplies and the structure and function of biological systems. My primary area of expertise is in the area of phytoplankton ecology, and I have worked extensively on the relationships between nutrient loading and the occurrence of bloom-forming blue-green algae in lakes and estuaries worldwide. I have extensive experience in the quantitative comparative analysis of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and have strong interests in the mechanisms that generate and maintain biological diversity. In addition, I interested in the mechanisms that regulate the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. I have recently expanded my research into the area of microbial ecology, and I am involved in both empirical and experimental investigations of the relationships between host nutrition and the outcome of disease in both plants and animals.

Representative Publications

Hall, S.D., M.A. Leibold, D.A. Lytle, and V.H. Smith. 2007. Grazers, producer stoichiometry, and the light:nutrient hypothesis revisited. Ecology 88:1142-1152.
 
Smith, V.H. 2007. Host resource supplies influence the dynamics and outcome of infectious disease. Integrative and Comparative Biology 47:310-316.

Hughes Martiny, J.B., B.J.M. Bohannan, J.H. Brown, R. Colwell, J. Fuhrman, J. Green, M.C. Horner-Devine, M. Kane, J. Krumins, C. Kuske, P. Morin, S. Naeem, L. Øvreas, A.L. Reysenbach, V.H. Smith, and J. Staley.  2006.  Microbial biogeography: putting microbes on the map.  Nature Reviews Microbiology 4:102-112.

Smith, V.H.  2006.  Responses of estuarine and coastal marine phytoplankton to nitrogen and phosphorus enrichment.  Limnology and Oceanography 51:377-384.

Smith, V.H. T.P. Jones II, and M.S. Smith.  2005.  Nutrition and disease: An ecological view. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3:268-274.

Hall, S.R., V.H. Smith, D.A. Lytle, and M.A. Leibold.  2005.  Contraints on primary producer N:P stoichiometry along N:P supply ratio gradients.  Ecology 86:1897-1904.

Smith, V.H., B.L. Foster, J.P. Grover, R.D. Holt, M.A. Leibold, and F. deNoyelles, Jr.  2005.  Phytoplankton species richness scales consistently from laboratory microcosms to the world's oceans.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 102:4393-4396. [This paper is ranked as Exceptional (8.1) by the Faculty of 1000 Biology.]

Smith, V.H.  2003.  Eutrophication of freshwater and marine ecosystems: A global problem.  Environmental Science and Pollution Research 10:126-139.