Dr. Neil D. Bettez
Terrestrial Ecologist
Ph.D., 2009, Cornell University

Dr. Bettez's research focuses on whole-system ecological processes, particularly on nitrogen (N) biogeochemistry in human dominated systems. Excess N has been shown to contribute to the declining health of forests and lakes because of acid rain and the eutrophication of coastal rivers and estuaries because of increased N loading. In the United States, especially in urban areas where more than three quarters of the population lives, a significant portion of this N is from fossil fuel combustion. My current research investigates the fluxes and transformations within and among terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the city of Baltimore.

Current Research

Contributions of mobile source emissions to watershed N budgets along an urban to rural gradient.
Excess nitrogen (N) is a serious water-quality problem in most of the estuaries in the US, especially those downstream of developed coastal basins. Understanding sources of N is a key first step in managing and mitigating N pollution. Although it is relatively easy to compute how much N is emitted from various sources such as fossil fuel combustion, industrial processes, fires, and animal feeding operations, measuring where, how much, and in what form it is deposited is much more problematic, primarily due to the difficulties in measuring the amount of deposition due to dry deposition. Current monitoring networks miss a portion of the nitrogen that is emitted from mobile sources such as highway vehicles (cars and trucks) and off-highway vehicles (construction equipment, planes, boats, etc.) primarily because they were specifically located in areas uninfluenced by local pollution sources and thus pointedly avoided urban areas. The goal of this research, which takes place in the Baltimore Ecosystem LTER study site, is to calculate watershed N budgets in multiple sub-watersheds along a gradient from Baltimore's urban core to the rural fringe 30 km away.