Jesse Bell

Jesse E. Bell, Ph.D. is the USCRN Drought and Soil Climate Specialist in the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS-NC) at the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Dr. Bell’s expertise is in ecosystem ecology and situ measurements of soil moisture/temperature. As part of his position at NCDC, he is responsible for maintaining the USCRN soil probes and developing products that will assist in drought monitoring. USCRN is an evenly distributed network of technologically advanced climate monitoring stations across the continental United States. As of 2011, there are 113 USCRN stations in the contiguous United States that have three independent sets of probes to monitor soil moisture/temperature. Dr. Bell currently focuses on improving the quality assurance of soil moisture/temperature data. He also is working on a method of using soil temperature data and satellite data to accurately determine the onset and end of the phenological growing season. Another main focus of his is developing a long-term soil climatological record using a point-based ecosystem model. Both of these products will provide an understanding of soil conditions on vegetation processes and assist in national drought monitoring. Outside his duties with USCRN, Dr. Bell works with other researchers at NCDC to develop climatological indicators for plant growth and development.

Jesse Bell’s doctoral degree was awarded in 2009 from the University of Oklahoma and focused on the fields of ecosystem ecology and ecohydrology. His dissertation explored the consequences of climate change on carbon and water cycles. Part of his doctoral work was researching the role extreme events play on soil moisture dynamics by using a manipulative ecosystem experiment that produced a one-year “pulse” change in temperature and precipitation. He also performed an ecosystem modeling study that used multifactor combinations of different climate change scenarios to understand possible changes to carbon-water coupling and ecohydrological processes.

Dr. Bell continues to be active in researching the relationship of carbon-water coupling and climate change. He has increased a section of his doctoral work to determine that experimental warming causes a common change in carbon-water coupling and the results of these changes can be seen in the entire terrestrial water cycles. Working with a team of researchers from China, he investigated processes that control carbon-water coupling across a xeric precipitation gradient on the Tibetan Plateau. He is now using satellite imagery to research carbon-water coupling in the Inner Mongolian precipitation gradient. He is also in the process of researching the role of precipitation frequency/intensity on carbon-water coupling by using AmeriFlux measurements.

Dr. Bell has also been active in pursuing a variety of scholarship and funding opportunities. As a doctoral student, he was awarded a NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Fellowship that allowed him to work at the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing. He also spent two years as a NSF GK-12 “Engineering in Practice” Fellow. The GK-12 Fellowship provided STEM graduate students the tools to understand the importance of science outreach and communication. This fellowship also funded a three-month research trip to southern Thailand. Dr. Bell was selected as a participant of the EU/NSF funded symposium “Terrestrial Ecosystems Response to Climate Change” and was a contributing author to a publication that came from the working group discussions on extreme precipitation. He was also selected to partake in the American Meteorological Society’s Summer Policy Colloquium in Washington, D.C. In addition, Dr. Bell has been the recipient of multiple honors and awards; including CoRP/NESDIS/NOAA award for outstanding oral presentation, an honorary inductee into Sigma Xi, The University of Oklahoma’s Research and Creativity Grant, George L. and Cleo Cross Graduate Student Endowed Scholarship (for outstanding graduate student), and Emporia State University’s award for Undergraduate Excellence in Academics and Research.

Dr. Bell joined CICS- NC as a research associate on October 30, 2010.