Peter B Reich

Peter B Reich is a Research Professor in the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. He is affiliated with the Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center and maintains an active research program focused on plant ecology, biodiversity, and ecosystem responses to environmental change. His work spans multiple scales from leaf physiology to ecosystem dynamics, with particular emphasis on forest, prairie, and savanna ecosystems.

Dr. Reich's research interests center on understanding how biodiversity influences ecosystem function, particularly in the context of climate change. His work examines plant traits, photosynthetic processes, and the mechanisms by which diverse plant communities enhance productivity and stability. He investigates how ecosystems respond to elevated CO2, warming, and other global change factors, with significant focus on Minnesota ecosystems as model systems for understanding broader ecological principles. His fingerprint analysis reveals strong expertise in grassland ecology, elevated CO2 effects, biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships, photosynthesis, and plant diversity.

Analysis of his recent publications (2020-2025) shows a clear trend toward integrating remote sensing approaches with traditional ecological methods to understand biodiversity effects on ecosystem function. His work increasingly focuses on spectral reflectance of trees as an indicator of climate change impacts, stomatal optimization under multiple stressors (drought, heatwaves, elevated CO2), and the long-term responses of ecosystems to environmental change. The research spans theoretical ecology, applied conservation, and climate change mitigation strategies, with strong connections to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to climate action and life on land.

Dr. Reich has secured substantial research funding, including multiple active NSF grants such as the Biodiversity Stabilizes Ecosystems project (2023-2027), a project on leaf respiration-photosynthesis relationships with Australian National University (2022-2026), and the BII-Implementation project on plant biodiversity (2020-2026). He is also a key participant in the long-term LTER project studying multi-decadal ecosystem responses (2019-2026).

His collaborative network is extensive, with frequent co-authorship with colleagues including Sarah Hobbie, Forest Isbell, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Rebecca Montgomery, and Adam Stefanski. His work has significant real-world impact, as evidenced by media coverage of his research on saving Minnesota's North Woods from climate change.