Eric Slessarev

I am an Assistant Professor of Environmental Geochemistry in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. I was previously appointed in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University (2023 – 2026). Before becoming a professor, I was a postdoctoral researcher and staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2019 – 2023). I completed my PhD at University of California Santa Barbara in 2018 and my undergraduate degrees at Stanford University in 2011.

Research Description

I study soil and its role in terrestrial ecosystems. My work is guided by two major objectives: (1) understanding how soil geochemical processes unfold at continental to global scales; and (2) understanding how the soil environment influences microbial physiology and mediates carbon and nutrient cycling. In addition to these fundamental objectives, I study soil-based climate solutions.

Education

Ph.D., Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 2018

B.A., History, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2011

B.S., Earth Systems, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2011

Selected Publications

Soil chemistry at large scales

• Slessarev, E.W., Chadwick, O.A., Sokol, N.W., Nuccio, E.E., Pett-Ridge, J. (2022) Weathering controls the potential for soil carbon storage at a continental scale. Biogeochemistry. 157 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00859-8
• Visioni, D., Slessarev, E. W., MacMartin, D., Mahowald, N., Goodale, C., Xia, L. (2020). What goes up must come down: impacts of deposition in a sulfate geoengineering scenario. Environmental Research Letters. 15 (9) 40-63. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab94eb
• Slessarev, E.W., Feng, X., Bingham N.L., & Chadwick, O.A. (2019). Landscape age as a major control on the geography of soil weathering. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 33, 1513-1531. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GB006266
• Slessarev, E.W., Lin, Y., Bingham, N.L., Johnson J.E., Dai, Y., Schimel J.P. & Chadwick, O.A. (2016) Water balance creates a threshold in soil pH at the global scale. Nature, 540, 567-569. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20139

Microbial physiology, carbon, and nutrient cycling

• Sokol, N. W., Slessarev, E.W., Marschmann, G. L., Nicolas, A., Blazewicz, S. J., Brodie, E. L., Firestone, M. K., Foley, M. M., Hestrin, R., Hungate, B. A., Koch, B. J., Stone, B. W., Sullivan, M. B., Zablocki, O., LLNL Soil Microbiome Consortium, Trubl, G., McFarlane, K., Stuart, R., Nuccio, E., … Pett-Ridge, J. (2022). Life and death in the soil microbiome: How ecological processes influence biogeochemistry. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 20(7), 415–430. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-022-00695-z
• Min, K., Slessarev, E.W., Kan, M.P., McFarlane, K.J., Oerter, E., Pett-Ridge, J., Nuccio, E.E., Berhe, A.A. (2021) Depth Gradients in microbial growth kinetics under deeply rooted versus shallow rooted plants. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 162, 108401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2021.108401
• Slessarev, E.W., Greene, A.C., Homyak, P.M., Ying, S.C., Schimel, J.P. (2021) High resolution measurements reveal abiotic and biotic mechanisms of elevated NOx emission after wetting dry soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 160, 108316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2021.108316
• Bingham, N.L., Slessarev, E.W., Homyak, P.M., Chadwick, O.A. (2021) Rock-sourced nitrogen in semi-arid, shale-derived California soils. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 57, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2021.672522
• Homyak, P.M., Slessarev, E.W., Hagerty, S., Greene, A.C., Marchus, K., Dowdy, K., Iverson, S., Schimel, J.P. (2021). Amino acids dominate diffusive nitrogen fluxes in acidic tussock tundra. New Phytologist. 231 (6) 2162-2173. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17315
• Slessarev, E. W., & Schimel, J. P. (2020). Partitioning sources of CO2 emission after soil wetting using high-resolution observations and minimal models. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 107753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.107753
• Slessarev, E. W., Lin, Y., Jiménez, B. Y., Homyak, P. M., Chadwick, O. A., D’Antonio, C. M., & Schimel, J. P. (2020). Cellular and extracellular C contributions to respiration after wetting dry soil. Biogeochemistry, 147, 307-328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-020-00645-y

Natural climate solutions

• Mayer, A.C., Dumortier, J., Hausfather, Z., Pett-Ridge, J., Slessarev, E.W. (2026) The value of reversible carbon storage in a zero emissions world. Environmental Science & Technology 60(24) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c00333
• Slessarev, E. W., Pett-Ridge, J., Min, K., Berhe, A. A., Das, S., Jackson, R. D., Jastrow, J.D., Kan, M., Kumar, S., Longbottom, T., McFarlane, K.J., Oerter, E., Richards, B.K., Robertson G.P., Sanford G.R., Nuccio, E.E. (2026). Assessing the effect of a deep-rooted grass on belowground carbon storage in cultivated land: Insights from a multi-site US study. Earth’s Future, 14, e2025EF007102. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EF007102
• Slessarev, E. W., Mayer, A., Kelly, C., Georgiou, K., Pett‐Ridge, J., & Nuccio, E. E. (2023). Initial soil organic carbon stocks govern changes in soil carbon: Reality or artifact? Global Change Biology, gcb.16491. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16491
• Slessarev, E.W., Nuccio, E. E., McFarlane, K. J., Ramon, C., Saha, M, Firestone, M. K., Pett-Ridge, J. (2020) Quantifying the effects of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) on deep organic C stocks using natural abundance 14C in three marginal soils. Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 12 (10), 834-847. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12729

Selected Honors and Awards

• (2020) Lawrence Livermore Director’s Award: Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow