Thomas H. DeLuca

DeLuca, Thomas H.

Position Type:
Faculty
Job Title:
Cheryl Ramberg-Ford and Allyn C. Ford Dean
Department:
Forest Ecosystems & Society
Dean's Office
Office Location:
311 Peavy Forest Science Center (PFSC)
Phone Number:
(541) 737-1585
Email:
tom.deluca@oregonstate.edu
CV:
THD Vitae 25.pdf
Advising:  Graduate Major Advisor
Research Areas
Science of Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Management
Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum
Research Interests
  • Forest Soils and Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry
  • Ecosystem Ecology
Bio
Thomas H. DeLuca holds a doctorate from Iowa State University, a master’s degree from Montana State University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all in soil science, and lived in both Sweden and the United Kingdom during his research career. Prior to joining OSU, he was dean of the University of Montana College of Forestry and Conservation for over three years and spent five years as professor and director of the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. Before that he held faculty and research positions at Bangor University in North Wales; at the Wilderness Society; at SLU in Sweden; at the University of Montana; and at Slippery Rock University.
Graduate Students:
Selected Publications:

  1. McCredie, K.E., K.D. Bladon, and T.H. DeLuca. 2025. Stream and soil nitrogen response to overlapping forest disturbance: The impact of harvesting, wildfire, and post-fire management on a Western Oregon, USA watershed. Forest Ecology and Management 592: 122787.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122787

  2. DeLuca, T.H. 2025. Forests, carbon and climate change: Why our obsession with monetizing forest carbon may be counter productive. Forest Ecology and Management 586: 122691. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112725001999.&nb…;

  3. Sun, S., W. Xie, G. Wang; W. Zhang, Z. Hu, X. Sun, H. Sun, T.H. DeLuca. 2025. Evidence for phosphorus cycling parity in nodulating and non-nodulating N2-fixing pioneer plant species in glacial primary succession. Functional Ecology Functional Ecology 39:985–1000. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.70023.

  4. Jiao, P., T.H. DeLuca, K. Wang, X. Liu, Y. Hu, Y. Wang. 2024. Fire-deposited charcoal enhances soil microbial biomass in a recently harvested subtropical plantation forest.  Geoderma 448:116964. 

  5. Gao, S. C. Eisenberg, S.L. Morford, and T. H. DeLuca. 2024. Fire exclusion, pyrogenic carbon, and ecosystem function: What have we lost? Anthropocene 46:100438. 

  6. DeLuca, T.H., M.J. Gundale, M.D. MacKenzie, S. Gao, and D.L. Jones. 2024. Biochar effects on soil nutrient transformation. Chapter 16. P.p. 401 – 440. In: Lehmann, J. and Joseph, S. (eds), 3rd ed. Biochar for Environmental Management. Earthscan Publications Ltd, London.

  7. Gundale, M.J., E. P. Axelsson, V. Buness, T. Callebaut, T.H. DeLuca, S. Hupperts, T.S. Ibáñez, D.B. Metcalfe, M-C. Nilsson, M. Peichl, C.M. Spitzer, Z.R. Stangl, J. Strengbom, M. Sundqvist, D.A. Wardle, B. Lindahl. 2024. The biological controls of soil carbon accumulation following wildfire and harvest in boreal forests: A review. Global Change Biology, 30, e17276. 

  8. DeLuca, T.H. 2024. On being a forest soil scientist – Reflections at the 14th North American Forest Soils Conference. Soil Science Society of America Journal 88:203–206.

  9. DeLuca, T.H. and J.A. Hatten. 2024. Conservation from the bottom up: A forestry case study. Anthropocene 45:100423.

  10. Xiong, J., G. Wang, A. Richter, T.H. DeLuca, W. Zhang, H. Sun, Z. Hu, X. Sun, S. Sun. 2023. Soil organic carbon accumulation and microbial carbon use efficiency in subalpine coniferous forest as influenced by forest floor vegetative communities. Geoderma 438: 116648.

  11. Bidwell, A.L. P.C. Tobin, T.H. DeLuca. 2023. Nitrogen-fixation in Acer macrophyllum canopy bryophytes in the Pacific Northwest, USA.  Plant Soil 488.

  12. Zhang, J., T.H. DeLuca, Z. Chenpeng, A. Li, G. Wang, S. Sun. 2023. Comparison of the seasonal and successional variation of asymbiotic and symbiotic nitrogen fixation along a glacial retreat chronosequence. Science of the Total Environment 896:165163.

  13. Li, A., G. Wang, T.H. DeLuca, S. Sun, W. Zhang, P. Chen, A. Wu, X. Sun, H. Sun, Z. Hu. 2023. Soil nitrogen transformations differ under sedge and bryophyte communities in a subalpine forest on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Geoderma 430:116309

  14. Arróniz-Crespo, M. J. Bougoure, D.V. Murphy, N.A. Cutler, V. Souza-Egipsy, D.L. Chaput, D.L. Jones, N. Ostle, S.C. Wade, P.L. Clode, and T.H. DeLuca. 2022. Revealing the transfer pathways of cyanobacterial-fixed N into the boreal forest through the feather-moss microbiome. Frontiers in Plant Science 13

  15. Sun, S., DeLuca, T.H., Zhang, J., Wang, G., Sun, X., Hu, Z., Wang, W., Zhang, W., 2022. Evidence of endophytic nitrogen fixation as a potential mechanism supporting colonization of non-nodulating pioneer plants on a glacial foreland. Biol. Fert. Soil. 58, 527-539. 

  16. Gao, S. and T.H. DeLuca. 2022. Rangeland application of biochar and rotational grazing interact to influence soil and plant nutrient dynamics. Geoderma 408:115572

  17. DeLuca, T.H. O. Zackrisson, M-C. Nilsson, S. Sun, M. Arróniz-Crespo. 2022. Long-term fate of nitrogen fixation in Pleurozium schreberi brid (mit.) moss carpets in boreal forests. Applied Soil Ecology 169: 104215

  18. Pendergraph, D.P. J. Ranieri, L. Ermatinger, A. Baumann, A.L. Metcalf, T.H. DeLuca, M.J. Church.  2021. Differentiating sources of fecal contamination to Wilderness waters using droplet digital PCR and fecal indicator bacteria methods.  Wilderness and Environmental Medicine 32:332-339. 

  19. Pulido-Chavez, F. E.C. Alvarado T.H. DeLuca, R.L. Edmonds and S.I. Glassman. 2021. High-severity wildfire reduces richness and alters composition of ectomycorrhizal fungi in low-severity adapted ponderosa pine forests. Forest Ecology and Management 485: 118923. 

For a full list of publications, visit:
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=SS6NqRUAAAAJ&hl=en