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Ecology and Evolution
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
109
Citations
65109
World Ranking
184
National Ranking
77

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2019 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences

Overview

James J. Elser is affiliated with the University of Montana in the United States. Their research focuses primarily on environmental science, with significant contributions in ecology, environmental chemistry, atmospheric science, industrial and manufacturing engineering, and oceanography.

Elser's work extensively covers the dynamics of aquatic ecosystems and phytoplankton, soil and water nutrient cycles, cryospheric studies, marine and coastal ecosystems, polar research and ecology, phosphorus and nutrient management, and microbial community ecology and physiology.

Frequent publication venues for their research include:

  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Ecology Letters
  • Limnology and Oceanography
  • Aquatic Sciences
  • Biogeochemistry

Recent publications by Elser include:

  • "Water Depth Underpins the Relative Roles and Fates of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Lakes" (2020, Environmental Science & Technology)
  • "Improvement in municipal wastewater treatment alters lake nitrogen to phosphorus ratios in populated regions" (2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
  • "Effects of grassland degradation on ecological stoichiometry of soil ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau" (2020, The Science of The Total Environment)
  • "Aeolian dust transport, cycle and influences in high-elevation cryosphere of the Tibetan Plateau region: New evidences from alpine snow and ice" (2020, Earth-Science Reviews)
  • "Key rules of life and the fading cryosphere: Impacts in alpine lakes and streams" (2020, Global Change Biology)

Elser collaborates frequently with several researchers, including Ze Ren, Decao Niu, Pablo Almela, Trinity L. Hamilton, and Hua Fu.

In 2019, Elser was recognized as a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Best Publications

  • Ecological Stoichiometry: The Biology of Elements from Molecules to the Biosphere

    Robert Warner Sterner;James J. Elser

  • Global analysis of nitrogen and phosphorus limitation of primary producers in freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

    James J. Elser;Matthew E.S. Bracken;Elsa E. Cleland;Daniel S. Gruner

  • TRY - a global database of plant traits

    J. Kattge;S. Díaz;S. Lavorel;I. C. Prentice

  • The Global Carbon Cycle: A Test of Our Knowledge of Earth as a System

    P. Falkowski;R. J. Scholes;E. Boyle;J. Canadell

  • Nutritional constraints in terrestrial and freshwater food webs

    James J. Elser;William F. Fagan;Robert F. Denno;Dean R. Dobberfuhl;Dean R. Dobberfuhl

  • TRY plant trait database : Enhanced coverage and open access

    Jens Kattge;Gerhard Bönisch;Sandra Díaz;Sandra Lavorel

  • Biological stoichiometry from genes to ecosystems.

    James Elser;R. W. Sterner;E. Gorokhova;W. F. Fagan

  • Organism size, life history, and N:P stoichiometry

    James J. Elser;Dean R. Dobberfuhl;Neil A. MacKay;John H. Schampel

  • Nutrient co-limitation of primary producer communities

    W. Stanley Harpole;Jacqueline T. Ngai;Elsa E. Cleland;Eric W. Seabloom

  • REGULATION OF LAKE PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY BY FOOD WEB STRUCTURE

    S. R. Carpenter;J. F. Kitchell;J. R. Hodgson;P. A. Cochran

  • Growth rate–stoichiometry couplings in diverse biota

    J. J. Elser;K. Acharya;M. Kyle;James B Cotner

  • Biological stoichiometry of plant production: metabolism, scaling and ecological response to global change

    James Elser;W. F. Fagan;A. J. Kerkhoff;N. G. Swenson

  • Beyond the Plankton Ecology Group (PEG) Model : Mechanisms Driving Plankton Succession

    Ulrich Sommer;Rita Adrian;Lisette N. de Senerpont Domis;James J. Elser

  • Shifts in Lake N:P Stoichiometry and Nutrient Limitation Driven by Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition

    James J. Elser;Tom Andersen;Jill S. Baron;Ann Kristin Bergström

  • Phosphorus and nitrogen limitation of phytoplankton growth in the freshwaters of North America : a review and critique of experimental enrichments

    James J. Elser;Erich R. Marzolf;Charles R. Goldman

  • Phosphorus cycle: A broken biogeochemical cycle

    James Elser;Elena Bennett

  • THE STOICHIOMETRY OF CONSUMER-DRIVEN NUTRIENT RECYCLING: THEORY, OBSERVATIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES

    James J. Elser;Jotaro Urabe

  • CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN ECOSYSTEMS: THE ROLE OF STOICHIOMETRY

    Dag O. Hessen;Göran I. Ågren;Thomas R. Anderson;James J. Elser

  • Sustainability challenges of phosphorus and food: Solutions from closing the human phosphorus cycle

    Daniel L. Childers;Jessica Corman;Mark Edwards;James J. Elser

  • Phylogenetic and Growth Form Variation in the Scaling of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in the Seed Plants

    Andrew J. Kerkhoff;William F. Fagan;James J. Elser;Brian J. Enquist

  • The Light: Nutrient Ratio in Lakes: The Balance of Energy and Materials Affects Ecosystem Structure and Process

    Robert W. Sterner;James J. Elser;Everett J. Fee;Stephanie J. Guildford

Frequent Co-Authors

Robert W. Sterner
Robert W. Sterner University of Minnesota, Duluth
Valeria Souza
Valeria Souza National Autonomous University of Mexico
Jotaro Urabe
Jotaro Urabe Tohoku University
William F. Fagan
William F. Fagan University of Maryland, College Park
Dag O. Hessen
Dag O. Hessen University of Oslo
Charles R. Goldman
Charles R. Goldman University of California, Davis
Stephen R. Carpenter
Stephen R. Carpenter University of Wisconsin–Madison
Luis E. Eguiarte
Luis E. Eguiarte National Autonomous University of Mexico
Xingguo Han
Xingguo Han Hebei University
Paul C. Frost
Paul C. Frost Trent University

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