Stuart Chapin, UNLV's 1998 Juanita Greer White Distinguished Lecturer, will give a lecture titled "Sustainability of Ecosystem Processes and Diversity," on Thursday, April 23.

The lecture is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Robert L. Bigelow Physics Building, Room 102, and will be followed by a reception in the Great Hall of Engineering.

A professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, Chapin is currently doing research on ecosystem water and energy exchange in the tundra and forest. His research especially addresses concerns about global change. For example, he has used several comparative and experimental approaches to determine how changes in vegetation caused by global warming might feedback and alter regional and global climate.

Chapin's other research interests include plant physiology and nutrient uptake, competitive interactions between plants and soil microbes, and the influence of biodiversity and species extinction on ecosystem processes.

A long-time member of the Ecological Society of America, Chapin has worked to develop scientific policy in several national and international committees on global change. He has also served on the editorial boards of several international journals, including "Ecology," "Oecologia," and "The American Naturalist."

For more information, call Daniel Thompson, associate professor of biology, at 895-3269.