About
Dr. Aimée Classen is an ecosystem ecologist who studies how warming and environmental change reorganize ecological communities and alter the flows of carbon, water, and nutrients through ecosystems. Much of her work focuses on hidden biological interactions, particularly the partnerships between plants and fungi that shape soil carbon storage and mediate ecosystem responses to a warming world. Her lab combines long-term experiments, field studies, global research networks, and ecological synthesis to understand how ecosystems are changing and what those changes mean for the movement of carbon, water, and nutrients through the biosphere, including coordinated research across nine mountains on five continents through the Warming and Removal in Mountains (WaRM) network.
Dr. Classen was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for transformative contributions to ecosystem science and for leadership advancing a sustainable future. She was also elected a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in recognition of her contributions to global change ecology, international scientific collaboration, and service to the field and was a Promising young scholar by the US National Academy of Sciences Frontiers in Science Program (2007 & 2014). She has received mentoring awards from her U-M department, The Department of Energy, and the Association for Women Soil Scientists, reflecting a longstanding commitment to supporting the next generation of ecologists.
As Director of the University of Michigan Biological Station, one of North America's longest-running field research stations, Aimée works closely with scientists and students engaged in long-term ecological research. Some of her favorite moments happen along the shores of Douglas Lake after a day in the field, talking science, exploring ecosystems, and helping students see ecological connections in new ways.
Originally from Kinston, North Carolina, Aimée spent her childhood swimming in the ocean and she developed a passion for ecology while studying a wildlife ecology unit in high school.
Fields of study
Ecosystem ecology, environmental change, nutrient and carbon cycling, plant-soil interactions, biodiversity
Graduate students
Aadia Moseley-McCloud; Ariana Di Landro; Brenda Hernandez; Giovanna Munoz-Gonzalez; Ronan Montgomery-Taylor
Post doc
Olivia Vought
Research team
Karin Rand (research & lab manager); Isabel Thornberry (research tech)
