Rate My Professor Jason Keller

Jason Keller, Ph.D., serves as the Kravis Professor of Integrated Sciences: Ecology in the Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences at Claremont McKenna College. He earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame. Prior to his current position, which he assumed in 2023, Keller held the role of Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Chapman University. His areas of expertise include environmental science.

Keller's research interests encompass anaerobic biogeochemistry, ecosystem ecology, global change biology, and wetlands. He studies the flow of carbon and nutrients through ecosystems and how ecosystems respond to global change, with particular emphasis on the controls of anaerobic decomposition and greenhouse gas dynamics in a variety of wetlands. His publications demonstrate this focus. Key works include: Bridgham, S.D., et al. (2025). Methane transport pathways and oxidation in a Minnesota bog. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 130, e2025JG009408; Rush, J.E., et al. (2025). Direct and indirect effects of water-table levels on redox-active organic matter reduction in an Alaskan rich fen. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 130: e2025JG009000; Arias-Ortiz, A., et al. (2024). Methane fluxes in tidal marshes of the conterminous United States. Global Change Biology 30:e17462; Barney, M., et al. (2024). Anaerobic oxidation of methane mitigates net methane production and responds to long-term experimental warming in a northern bog. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 190:109316; Keller, J.K., et al. (2023). Microbial organic matter reduction regulates carbon dioxide and methane production across an ombrotrophic-minerotrophic peatland gradient. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 182:109045; Defrenne, C.E., et al. (2023). Peat loss collocates with a threshold in plant-mycorrhizal associations in drained peatlands encroached by trees. New Phytologist 240:412-425; Song, T., et al. (2023). Porewater inhibits greenhouse gas production and regulates the response of organic matter decomposition to warming in anoxic peat from a Sphagnum-dominated bog. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 99:1-15; LeeWays, C., et al. (2022). Homoacetogenesis competes with hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis for substrates in a peatland experiencing ecosystem warming. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 172:108759; Rush, J.E., et al. (2021). Warming promotes the use of organic matter as an electron acceptor in a peatland. Geoderma 410:115303; and Wilson, R.M., et al. (2021). Radiocarbon analyses quantify peat carbon losses with increasing temperature in a whole ecosystem warming experiment. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 126, e2021JG006511. Several publications involve collaboration with undergraduate researchers.