Mike Philben joined the departments of Chemistry and Geology and Environmental Science in 2019. Before starting at Hope, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Memorial University (Canada) and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Mike’s interest in the soils of cold regions in the crosshairs of climate change have led him from the boreal forests of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, to the tundra of Nome, Alaska. He is currently leading a project (funded by an NSF CAREER award) investigating the role of Michigan peat bogs in the global carbon cycle.

At Hope College, Mike teaches a wide range of Environmental Science courses and contributes to teaching in the Day1: Watershed program.

See Dr. Philben’s current research 

Areas of expertise

Mike’s research focuses on the feedbacks between climate change and the carbon and nitrogen cycles. He is particularly interested in ecosystems such as peat bogs and Arctic tundra that contain vast quantities of organic carbon that could be destabilized and decomposed to CO₂ with further warming.

His current project involves field research at a network of seven Michigan peat bogs along a north-south transect, spanning from Portage in the south to Newberry (in the Upper Peninsula) in the north. The natural climate variability across the transect is used as a “space for time” experiment to evaluate how current and future climate change will impact these critical ecosystems. A large and active group of Hope research students are involved with every aspect of the project, from participating in field sampling to manuscript writing.

Education

• Ph.D., marine science, University of South Carolina, 2014
• B.A., earth and planetary science, Northwestern University, 2010

Selected Publications

• “Iron availability regulates carbon accumulation and methane production in a Lake Michigan interdunal wetland,” Wetlands, 2024
• “Sphagnan in Sphagnum-dominated peatlands: bioavailability and effects on organic matter stabilization,” Biogeochemistry, 2024
• “Enrichment of 13C with depth in soil organic horizons is not explained by CO2 or DOC losses during decomposition,” Geoderma, 2022
• “Unravelling biogeochemical drivers of methylmercury production in an Arctic fen soil and a bog soil,” Environmental Pollution, 2022
• “Expert assessment of future vulnerability of the global peatland carbon sink,” Nature Climate Change, 2021
• “Influences of Hillslope Biogeochemistry on Anaerobic Soil Organic Matter Decomposition in a Tundra Watershed,” with  Neslihan Taş et al., Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 2020
• “Stimulation of anaerobic organic matter degradation by nitrogen addition in tundra soils,” Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 2019
• “Decomposition dynamics and chemical composition of upland boreal forest moss tissues,” Biogeosciences, 2018
• “Amino acid δ¹⁵N indicates lack of N isotope fractionation during soil organic nitrogen decomposition,” Biogeochemistry, 2018
• “The origin of soil organic matter controls its composition and bioreactivity across a mesic boreal forest latitudinal gradient,” Global Change Biology, 2017
• “Climate warming can accelerate carbon fluxes without changing soil carbon stocks,” Frontiers in Earth Science, 2017
• “Rates of soil organic nitrogen cycling increase with temperature and precipitation along a boreal forest latitudinal transect,” Biogeochemistry, 2016
• “Temperature, oxygen, and vegetation controls on decomposition in a James Bay peatland,” Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2015
• “Does oxygen exposure time control the extent of organic matter decomposition in peatlands?” Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 2014