Emily S. Bernhardt is an American ecosystem ecologist,

biogeochemist Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment (including the biosphere, the cryosphere, ...

, and professor at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. Bernhardt studies the effects of

land use change Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: for ...

global change Global change in broad sense refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system. It is most commonly used to encompass the variety of changes connected to the rapid increase in human activities which started around mid-20th century, i.e., the G ...

, and chemical pollution on

aquatic Aquatic means relating to water; living in or near water or taking place in water; does not include groundwater, as "aquatic" implies an environment where plants and animals live. Aquatic(s) may also refer to: * Aquatic animal, either vertebrate ...

and

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

ecosystems and is the co-author of an award-winning text book on biogeochemistry. She also served as the president of the

Society for Freshwater Science The Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) is an international scientific society whose members study freshwater ecosystems (rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries) and ecosystems at the interface between aquatic and terrestrial habitats ...

from 2016 to 2017.

Education and early career

Bernhardt received her Bachelor of Sciences degree in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

with a minor in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

from the

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

in 1996. Her love for nature, including hiking in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

, as well as many research experiences as an undergraduate (including an

REU Reu or Ragau (; ), according to Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, was the son of Peleg and the father of Serug, thus being Abraham's great-great-grandfather and the ancestor of the Israelites and Ishmaelites. In scriptures According to the apo ...

University of Michigan Biological Station The University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) is a research and teaching facility operated by the University of Michigan. It is located on the south shore of Douglas Lake in Cheboygan County, Michigan. The station consists of 10,000 acre ...

) inspired her to become an ecologist. Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest 2015 Mariel Carr

In her final year at UNC, Bernhardt was awarded an

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party * National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political g ...

Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue a PhD at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, co-advised by Cornell faculty Bobbi Peckarsky and Institute of Ecosystem Studies director

Gene Likens Gene Elden Likens (born January 6, 1935) is an American limnologist and ecologist. He co-founded the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in 1963, and founded the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbro ...

. Bernhardt conducted her dissertation research at the

Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is an area of land in the towns of Woodstock, Ellsworth and Thornton in the White Mountains of New Hampshire that functions as an outdoor laboratory for ecological studies. It was established in 1955 by the Un ...

, in

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, USA, studying how headwater streams modify

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

export. Bernhardt also conducted research in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

during her graduate career. While presenting a poster at the

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

conference, Bernhardt met her future

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

advisor, Bill Schlesinger, who was a professor at Duke University at the time and offered her a position on the spot. As a postdoc, Bernhardt continued to work on

nitrogen cycling The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it circulates among atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of nitrogen can be carried out through both biologi ...

, however, this time focusing in the rooting zones of

pine trees A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

in poorly drained soils rather than in streams. She returned to working in aquatic systems as a postdoc in 2002, organizing the National River Restoration Science Synthesis under guidance from Margaret Palmer and Dave Allen which resulted in a highly cited publication in the journal ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

''. As a postdoc in Palmer's lab, Bernhardt also organized the Ecological Society of America's "Visions" project which identified future priorities for ecological sciences in the 21st century, stating that "Ecological knowledge can and must play a central role in helping achieve a world in which human populations exist within sustainable ecological systems".

Career

Bernhardt became a professor at

in 2004 in the Department of Biology, and as of 2019, has mentored 15

graduate students Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

and 11 postdocs while at Duke. Broadly, Bernhardt and her lab members research how

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s retain and transform elements and energy and how these ecosystem processes may be changing as the result of human activities. The ecosystems that Bernhardt studies include both aquatic and terrestrial systems, and her lab strives to make their research applicable to "political, legal and

regulatory Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

discussions about the protection and management of ecosystems".

Stream ecosystem function

Bernhardt started studying stream ecosystem function beginning in graduate school, when she examined how headwater streams modify watershed nutrient export at

, and she has continued to work on questions related to stream ecosystem function throughout her career. Bernhardt and colleagues synthesized over 37,000

stream restoration Stream restoration or river restoration, also sometimes referred to as river reclamation, is work conducted to improve the environmental health of a river or stream, in support of biodiversity, recreation, flood management and/or landscape develop ...

projects across the US to identify the common elements of successful restoration projects finding that on average greater than one billion

US dollars The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

are spent on stream restoration each year since 1990. Most stream restoration projects are small in scale and cost (~$45k) but poorly reported, and collectively, these small projects' costs are greater and their impact is broader than higher-cost projects, and Bernhardt and colleagues urged for better effort to collect and disseminated data on small restoration projects. Leveraging long-term datasets at Hubbard Brook and other sites, Bernhardt and her colleagues have studied the effects of

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and whole-ecosystem experimental treatments on watershed nitrogen export. Bernhardt and colleagues have leveraged a network of

in situ is a Latin phrase meaning 'in place' or 'on site', derived from ' ('in') and ' ( ablative of ''situs'', ). The term typically refers to the examination or occurrence of a process within its original context, without relocation. The term is use ...

sensors and created a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

for hosting

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

stream sensor datasets to address questions relating to stream ecosystem function. There work has primarily focused on variation and patterns of

stream metabolism Stream metabolism, often referred to as aquatic ecosystem metabolism in both freshwater (lakes, rivers, wetlands, streams, reservoirs) and marine ecosystems, includes gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) and can be express ...

across hundreds of U.S. streams, but plan to expand to measure and host data from streams globally.

Mountaintop coal mining

Funded by the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

from 2014 to 2017 and from the Foundation for the Carolinas, Bernhardt and her colleagues have studied the impacts of mountaintop removal mining with valley fills (MTMVF) on stream ecosystems. Mountaintop removal mining uses

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An ex ...

s to remove up to 400 vertical feet of mountain to expose underlying

coal seam Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

s for extraction and excess rock is dumped into nearby

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

s where

headwater stream The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

s reside. It's estimated that nearly 1,800 miles of headwater streams have been buried by mountain top mining since 1990. Bernhardt's research showed that the extent of surface mining in

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

catchments was highly correlated with stream sulfate concentrations and

ionic strength The ionic strength of a solution is a measure of the concentration of ions in that solution. Ionic compounds, when dissolved in water, dissociate into ions. The total electrolyte concentration in solution will affect important properties such a ...

, causing biological impairment when only 5.4% of a stream's contributing catchment is occupied by surface coal mines. In 2005, 22% of West Virginia's regional stream network length drained catchments with >5.4% of their surface area converted to mining operations. Bernhardt and colleagues have also shown that mountaintop removal mining can have significant impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, for example, they estimate that previously forested mine sites would take around 5,000 years for a hectare of reclaimed mine land to sequester the same amount of carbon that is released when the coal is extracted and burned. Bernhardt's lab has also used trace elements found in fish

otolith An otolith (, ' ear + , ', a stone), also called otoconium, statolith, or statoconium, is a calcium carbonate structure in the saccule or utricle (ear), utricle of the inner ear, specifically in the vestibular system of vertebrates. The saccule ...

s as biogenic tracers to track

coal ash Coal combustion products (CCPs), also called coal combustion wastes (CCWs) or coal combustion residuals (CCRs), are byproducts of burning coal. They are categorized in four groups, each based on physical and chemical forms derived from coal combust ...

contamination in affected lakes, marking the first time that

strontium Strontium is a chemical element; it has symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, it is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is exposed to ...

isotope ratio The term stable isotope has a meaning similar to stable nuclide, but is preferably used when speaking of nuclides of a specific element. Hence, the plural form stable isotopes usually refers to isotopes of the same element. The relative abundan ...

s have been used to track coal ash's impacts in living

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

s. Bernhardt wrote an article for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

in which she explained what

Clean Coal Coal pollution mitigation is a series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate health and environmental impact of burning coal for energy. Burning coal releases harmful substances that contribute to air pollution, acid rain, and greenho ...

is and some of the myths behind clean coal, ending with an urge to use the label 'clean energy' more sparingly.

Scientific training and culture

In addition to writing about scientific results, Bernhardt also writes about scientific career trajectories, academic training, science culture, and

work–life balance In the intersection of Employment, work and personal life, the work–life balance is the equilibrium between the two. There are many aspects of one's personal life that can intersect with work, including family, leisure, and health. A work–lif ...

in academic positions across many career stages. In an article in

The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is an American newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscription ...

, Bernhardt and co-authors urge scientists to prioritize

intellectual curiosity Intellectual curiosity (also called epistemic curiosity) is curiosity that leads to an acquisition of general knowledge. It can include curiosity about such things as what objects are composed of, the underlying mechanisms of systems, mathematical r ...

, societal impact, and creativity rather than focusing only on traditional academic success metrics (e.g.

H-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

). As president of the

, Bernhardt wrote an essay titled "Being Kind" which was featured in the journal ''Nature''. In this essay, Bernhardt addresses two issues surrounding the Society for Freshwater Science 2017 annual meeting, 1) concerns of the meeting being held in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

after the state passed the controversial

Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, commonly known as House Bill 2, Bathroom Bill, or HB2, was a North Carolina statute passed in March 2016 and signed into law by Governor of North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory. The bill amended st ...

, and 2) reported incidents from Society for Freshwater Science members in which senior scientists said unpleasant of hurtful things to junior members at annual meetings. Bernhardt expresses her disgust of both issues and offers her thoughts on how to amend the culture within the Society for Freshwater Science, focusing on a quote that was popular on Twitter stating, "Everyone here is smart, distinguish yourself by being kind." Bernhardt goes on to reflect on specific instances in her career when her mentors and colleagues expressed kindness to her and how those acts impacted her graduate school experience and career trajectory. She encourages everyone to counteract

implicit bias An implicit bias or implicit stereotype is the pre-reflective attribution of particular qualities by an individual to a member of some social out group. Implicit stereotypes are thought to be shaped by experience and based on learned association ...

es by being kind to everyone with whom we interact, ending the essay with an unofficial and aspirational motto for the 2017 SFS meeting of "Everyone here is smart and kind".

Awards

* Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). * Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2022). * Fellow of the

(2018) * Bass Society Fellow of Duke University (2017) * Mercer Award for best paper by scientists under 40 by the

(2015). Marcelo Ardón was lead author
Link to paper.
* Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award,

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...

, (Germany) (2015)
Leopold Leadership Fellow
(2015) * International IGB Fellowship in Freshwater Sciences, Leibniz-Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany (2014) *Textbook Excellence Award (Texty) from the Text and Academic Authors Association for ''Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change, Third Edition'' (2014)
Yentsch-Schindler Early Career Award

Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), formerly known as the Limnological Society of America and the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, is a scientific society established in 1936 with the goal of advan ...

(2013) * Thomas Langford Lectureship, Duke University (2010) * Outstanding Postdoctoral Mentor Award, Duke University Postdoctoral Association (2008) *

NSF CAREER Award The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through rese ...

for New Investigators (2005) * Hynes Award for New Investigators from the

(2004)

Publications

Books

''Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change, Third Edition''

Selected journal articles

* Bernhardt, E.S., et al. 2005. Synthesizing US river restoration efforts. ''Science'' 308: 636–637 * Bernhardt, E.S. and Palmer, M.A., 2007. Restoring streams in an urbanizing world. ''Freshwater Biology'', ''52''(4), pp. 738–751. * Bernhardt, E.S., et al. 2007. Restoring rivers one reach at a time: results from a survey of US river restoration practitioners. ''Restoration Ecology'', ''15''(3), pp. 482–493 * Bernhardt, E.S. and Palmer, M.A., 2011. River restoration: the fuzzy logic of repairing reaches to reverse catchment scale degradation. ''Ecological applications'', ''21''(6), pp. 1926–1931.

Personal life

Bernhardt is married and has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernhardt Emily American ecologists American women ecologists American limnologists University of North Carolina alumni Duke University faculty Biogeochemists Cornell University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Women limnologists Presidents of the Society for Freshwater Science