Jill Baron

United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Senior Research Ecologist
Jill Baron Image

Dr. Jill S. Baron is an ecosystem ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and a Senior Research Ecologist with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. Her interests include applying ecosystem concepts to management of human-dominated regions, and understanding the biogeochemical and ecological effects of climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition to mountain ecosystems. Recently Baron served as Lead Author of the US Climate Change Science Program report on Climate Change Adaptation Options for National Parks, and was a member of the Department of Interior Climate Change Task Force and the USGS Science Strategy Team. She has edited two books: Rocky Mountain Futures: an ecological perspective (Island Press 2002), which addresses the past present, and possible future human influences on ecosystems of the Rocky Mountains, and Biogeochemistry of a Subalpine Ecosystem (Springer-Verlag 1992) which summarized the first 10 years of long-term research to the Loch Vale Watershed in Rocky Mountain National Park. Her research was instrumental in establishing a nitrogen deposition critical load for the Central Rocky Mountains. Dr. Baron received her Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1991, and has undergraduate and master's degrees from Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin. She has received a number of achievement awards from the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and USDA Forest Service, including the Department of Interior Meritorious Service Award in 2002. She has been a member of the Governing Board of the Ecological Society of America, serves on several Science Advisory Boards, has given testimony to Congress on western acid rain, and is Editor in Chief of Issues in Ecology, a publication of the Ecological Society of America that uses commonly-understood language to report the consensus of a panel of scientific experts on issues related to the environment.