John Aber

Key takeaways

John Aber belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Aber to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Aber from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John D. Aber is University Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources & the Environment at the University of New Hampshire, and was also for many years affiliated with the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at UNH. His fields of study included Ecosystem Analysis and Modeling, Global Change, Acid Rain, Nitrogen Deposition and Sustainable Agriculture.

Career Aber received a Bachelor's degree in engineering and applied science (computer science) from Yale University in 1971, and Master's and Ph.D. degrees in 1973 and 1976 in Forest Ecosystem Analysis from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (now the School of the Environment). His thesis work was performed as part of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, with which he maintained an affiliation for many years. He was a professor at the University of Virginia (1977–78), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1979–1987), before moving to the University of New Hampshire in 1987. Aber served in administration at UNH as provost and vice president of academic affairs (2009–2013) and Vice President for Research and Public Service (2003–2007). In 1996, he was a Charles Bullard Fellow at Harvard University. Aber was selected in 2012 as one of four recipients of the Wilbur Cross Medal by the Yale Alumni Association. The medal celebrates a lifetime of academic achievement. He was also named a Distinguished Alumnus of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2003. At the University of New Hampshire, Aber received the Distinguished Professor Award in 2003 and was named one of 4 University Professors in 2009. In 2017, he received the USEPA Region 1 Lifetime Merit Award.

Research area Most of Aber's research career focused on the carbon, nitrogen and water dynamics of forested ecosystems as impacted by major sources of pollution, including acid rain and ozone, and the impact of a changing climate. He was a principal investigator at the NSF Long-term Ecological Research sites at Hubbard Brook in New Hampshire, and at the Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts. He used a combination of field measurements, advanced remote sensing techniques and computer modeling to predict the future of forests, especially in the Eastern U.S. and Ireland. Working with many close colleagues and graduate students, Aber was engaged in 56 funded projects over a 40-year period with support provided primarily by NASA, the National Science Foundation and the USEPA. Aber also worked with colleagues at the Harvard Forest on the Wildlands and Woodlands Project focused on maintaining 70% of the New England landscape in forest cover, and with colleagues at UNH on defining just what it means to be a sustainable university. While at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Aber worked with William Jordan and others at the university's Arboretum to develop a scientific approach to restoration ecology. He was for a short while Director of a Center for Restoration Ecology at the Arboretum. Aber's final funded project applied concepts learned from four decades of forest research to sustainable management of an agroecosystem located at New Hampshire's Organic Dairy Research Farm. The project focused on reducing dependence on external sources of energy and materials to help close the carbon and nutrient cycles on the farm. Aber retired from UNH in May 2021 and is pursuing a life-long interest in the writing of popular science. He has recently published a book through Yale University Press, and continues to post essays to the Substack site listed below. Both are titled Less Heat More Light and focus on providing accessible and hopefully interesting presentations on the science of weather, climate and climate change.

Bibliography Restoration Ecology: A Synthetic Approach to Ecological Research, William R. Jordan, III (Editor), Michael E. Gilpin (Editor), John A. Aber (editor), 1987, Cambridge University Press Terrestrial Ecosystems (2nd Edition), John D. Aber, Jerry M. Melillo, March 9, 2001, Academic Press First Edition 1991, Saunders College Publishing Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Years of Change in New England, David R. Foster (Editor), John D. Aber (Editor), 10, March, 2004, Yale University Press The Sustainable Learning Community: One University's Journey to the Future, John Aber (Editor), Tom Kelly (Editor), Bruce Mallory (Editor), 2009, University Press of New England Wildlands and Woodlands: A Vision for the New England Landscape by David R. Foster, John D. Aber (Contributor), Elizabeth A. Colburn (Contributor), Charles T. Driscoll (Contributor), Malcolm L. Hunter Jr. (Contributor), Lloyd C. Irland (Contributor), Aaron M. Ellison (Contributor), William S. Keeton (Contributor) ... , September 1, 2010, Harvard University Forest The Agroecosystem Project at the Organic Dairy Research Farm, University of New Hampshire: Summary of Results and Proposals for Applications. Aber, J.D., M.M. Smith, A.M. Leach, W.H. McDowell, M.D. Shattuck, N.A. Williamson, D.M. Hoffman and J.M. Davis. 2020. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA - Available through ResearchGate. Less Heat More Light: A Guided Tour of Weather, Climate and Climate Change, Aber, J.D., Yale University Press, 2023 Less Heat More Light: Essays on Weather, Climate and Climate Change. https://lessheatmorelight.substack.com/ Aber has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific publications. See link to Google Scholar below.

References

External links John D. Aber's Bio John D. Aber's publications John D. Aber's Substack site - https://lessheatmorelight.substack.com/

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Aber

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Aber claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Aber before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Aber ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Aber

In research: John Aber appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Aber in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Aber is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American ecologists, American environmental scientists, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Aber outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study John Aber in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Aber means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Aber out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Aber in simple terms?

John D. Aber is University Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources & the Environment at the University of New Hampshire, and was also for many years affiliated with the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at UNH.

Why does John Aber matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Aber?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Aber.