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I’m a budding forest ecologist, biogeochemist, pedologist, and geospatial-ist; aka a "critical-zonist." I’m interested in how ecosystems respond to and recover from human disturbance, particularly agriculture via old-field succession. Some of the tools and techniques I use in my research include: remote sensing, geomorphic terrain analysis, gas chromatography, 3D printing, X-ray computed tomography, dataloggers & environmental sensor probes, and others to enhance field-based soils and forestry research. My training from undergraduate (NMSU) through graduate (Duke University) education has been inherently cross-disciplinary as I have studied and worked with scholars and researchers from earth sciences, social sciences, and the humanities as part of the NSF-funded US Critical Zone Observatory network at the Calhoun CZO and the broader global Critical Zone Network. As a current postdoc at Purdue University in the NEXUS Institute I am currently working to map and quantify agricultural expansion over the last 40 years using Landsat data and preparing field instrumentation to monitor and study soil-profile respiration.

Feel free to contact me if interested in collaboration: zbrecheisen@gmail.com