Jon Wells

My research examines how ecosystems respond to environmental change and disturbance, with an emphasis on the movement and storage of carbon and nutrients across landscapes. I combine field measurements, remote sensing, geospatial analysis, ecological modeling, and large environmental datasets to understand ecosystem processes across scales ranging from soils and individual field sites to continental and pan-Arctic regions.

A major focus of my current research is understanding how wildfire, climate change, and permafrost thaw are reshaping northern ecosystems. Fire can rapidly alter vegetation, soils, permafrost, and carbon cycling, but these components do not necessarily recover along the same trajectory. My work investigates how changes in fire severity and post-fire vegetation influence the long-term recovery of Arctic and boreal ecosystems and whether disturbance can push forests toward persistent alternative ecosystem states. I am particularly interested in combining long-term field observations with satellite and airborne remote sensing to identify these changes across large landscapes.

My broader research has examined soil carbon dynamics, forest carbon cycling, and bioenergy systems. Across these projects, a common goal is to understand how interacting biological, physical, and environmental processes produce ecosystem-level patterns and how we can use observations, experiments, remote sensing, and models together to better predict ecosystem change.

My goal in teaching is not simply for students to learn a collection of biological facts or statistical methods, but to develop the ability to ask questions, evaluate evidence, and solve problems independently.

I emphasize learning through real biological data and reproducible analysis. Students should understand why an analysis is being performed, what assumptions are being made, and what the results tell us about a biological question rather than treating statistical or computational methods as a sequence of steps to memorize. In courses involving R and biostatistics, I place particular emphasis on data exploration, visualization, interpretation, and applying methods to realistic biological problems.

I believe computational and quantitative skills become more approachable when students have opportunities to experiment, make mistakes, and revise their work. My courses provide repeated opportunities to practice these skills while becoming increasingly independent. Ultimately, I want students to leave my courses confident in their ability to encounter an unfamiliar dataset or scientific problem, identify what they need to learn, and develop a defensible approach to finding an answer.

• Poe, J., Huntzinger, D., Riley, W.J., Wells, J.M., Schuur, E.A.G., Schwalm, C., Berner, L.T., et al. (2026). Informing Robust Functional Relationship Benchmarks: An Evaluation of the Temperature Sensitivity of Ecosystem Respiration Across the Arctic-Boreal Region. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JG009307
• Mathes, H., Damseaux, A., Westermann, S., Beer, C., Boone, A., Burke, E., et al., Wells, J.M., Wieder, W. (2025). Advances in Permafrost Representation: Biophysical Processes in Earth System Models and the Role of Offline Models. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2269
• Poe, J., Huntzinger, D., Collier, N., Schwalm, C., Wells, J.M., Schädel, C., Riley, W., Sitch, S. (2025). Impacts of benchmarking choices on inferred model skill of the Arctic-Boreal terrestrial carbon cycle. Environmental Research: Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/adacee
• Wells, J.M., Aguilos, M.M., Huang, X., Gao, Y., Hou, E., Huang, W., et al. (2023). Attributing interannual variability of net ecosystem exchange to ecological processes across forests of contrasting age. Landscape Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-023-01768-x
• Wells, J.M., Crow, S.E., Sierra, C.A., Deenik, J., Carlson, K., Meki, M.N., Hashimoto, A., Kiniry, J.R. (2022). Edaphic controls of soil carbon in tropical agricultural landscapes. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24655-y
• Wells, J.M., Crow, S.E., Khanal, S.K., Turn, S.Q. (2022). Lignin chemical controls on bioconversion of tropically grown C4 bioenergy grasses to biofuels and biobased products. Bioresource Technology Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biteb.2022.101015

• Wells J.M. et al (2025). “Effects of shifting temperate conifer forest vegetation regimes on above- and belowground carbon and nitrogen cycling.” Department of Energy, Environmental System Science PI Meeting.
• Wells, J.M. et al. (2023). “State-of-the-Arctic: Confronting state-of-the-art carbon cycle models with Pan-Arctic Warming Responses.” American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
• Wells, J.M. et al. (2021). “Separating the Effects of Stand Age and Interannual Variability on Net Ecosystem Carbon Exchange: Data-Model Fusion in Loblolly Pine.” American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
• Wells, J.M. et al. (2017). “Effects of Anaerobic Digestion and Hot Water Pretreatment on Lignin.” 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition 

• Andrew Slater Memorial Award, US Permafrost Association, 2023

• Member, Ecological Society of America
• Member, American Geophysical Union