Becky Ball

Becky Ball joined the faculty in 2010 after serving as a postdoctoral research associate at Dartmouth College as part of the McMurdo Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program in Antarctica (2007-2010). At Arizona State University, she is the program lead for the environmental science majors offered by the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences in New College of Interdisiciplinary Arts and Sciences, and a senior sustainability scientist with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.

Ball's primary research interests are soil biogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology. Her field- and laboratory-based research seeks to increase our mechanistic understanding of soil biogeochemical (nutrient cycling) processes and how they are being impacted by human-induced environmental change. To address these topics, she has worked in a variety of systems (including temperate deciduous forests, agricultural systems, and polar and hot deserts) to examine consequences of various types of human-induced environmental change (including species diversity, climate change, and land use), and has involved a variety of cross-system comparisons (including terrestrial-aquatic, above- and belowground, and cross-site). Currently, her research focuses on 'extreme' ecosystems, including the rapidly urbanizing Sonoran Desert in and around Phoenix, AZ and the polar ecosystems of Antarctica.