Contact Information

• Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
• University of Georgia
  
• Athens, Georgia 30602
  
• Room:4-303
• Phone:706.542.2532
• Fax:706.542.8356
• lmorris@uga.edu

Education

BS Forest Science 1974 - University of Maine

MS Forest Soils 1978 - State University of New York

Ph.D. Soil Science - University of Florida

Areas of Interest

• Soil management and forest productivity (US and Brazil)
• Environmental impacts of forest management
• Land application and treatment of waste and wastewater

My Courses

• Forest Soil Management (FRNS 4000/6000)
• Senior Project in Forestry and Natural Resources (FRNS 4730)
• Urban Tree Management (FRNS 500/7010)
• Principles of Forest Land Treatment (FRNS 8180)
• The Industrialized Ecosystem (Honors seminar) (HONS 1990H)
• International Forest Management (FRNS 4250/6250)
  
  

Recent Activities and Projects

Soil Management and Forest Productivity
In the Southeast, pine plantations provide the resource base for our active pulp, paper and wood products industries. Plantation establishment is one of the most costly and most important aspects of management. Growth-limiting soil conditions not corrected at establishment can have long-term impacts on overall growth and health of the forest. Research on root-soil interactions, soil tillage and tree nutrition have been a focus of my research for over 25 years. Recent efforts have focused on developing models for predicting seedling growth response to soil management.

Environmental Impacts of Forest Management
Forests play a unique role in our society. They are the productive base that provides raw material for a large segment of our manufacturing industry (including housing, paper production, plastic production and energy); they are the area we depend on to supply clean water, to recreate, to hunt and fish and they are the lands we needed to buffer climate change and preserve biodiversity. Managing forests to meet these multiple goals depends on research and cooperation. Forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) are one way of ensuring responsible management. One best management practice that is commonly employed is to leave undisturbed or lightly disturbed streamside management zones (SMZs) adjacent to streams in managed forests These SMZs trap sediment and contaminants in surface runoff before it reaches the stream. Recent work includes a series of studies to evaluate the effect of SMZ characteristics on their sediment and pesticide trapping abilities.

Former student Jim White checking surface runoff samplers in a study of SMZ filter strip sediment trapping ability. In this photograph you are looking upslope at a pipe system used to spread a water-clay mixture on an SMZ with the forest floor removed.

Student Exchange and study in Brazil
With a population of 180 million, an area as large as Europe, a major exporter of food, wood and minerals and home to the Amazon, Brazil is one of the most exciting places in the world. Dr. Morris leads an active exchange and study program in Brazil. In 2002 the US Department of Education FIPSE program funded an undergraduate exchange between two Brazilian universities: the Federal University of Bahia (Salvador) and the Federal University of Viçosa (Minas Gerais), UGA and the University of Florida. This program provides an opportunity for students to send and accept students with interests in natural resources to spend one or two semesters taking classes at a partner university. Students take classes that are part of their normal academic program (so they graduate on time) and the program provides a stipend to the students for both language training and to assist with expenses while abroad. Thirteen UGA students have spent a semester or more in Brazil since this program began. For students wishing for a shorter-term experience, Dr. Morris and his Warnell colleague Dr. Dan Markewitz also lead a summer study abroad that travels from the Amazon in the north to the metropolitan areas of southern Brazil.
More information

Former UGA student Yoni Azulai taking a break from classes on a beach in northern Brazil.

Students celebrating in Viçosa after a Brazilian World Cup victory

University of Georgia students learning about special uses of Brazilian trees in Curitiba

Research and Service in Brazil
Research projects in Brazil range from work on Ilha Marajo (near Belem) where Dr. Morris has been a contributor on a Fome Zero project aimed at increasing sustainable economic development for ribarian communities to work on phytoremdiation projects in the industrialized south near Sao Paulo.

Children at their school on Ilha Marajo where we are conducting research on sustainable economic development

Collecting soil samples in the Amazon…. I’ve got the auger and my team looks pretty wet

Installing sap flow and soil water monitoring equipment in a eucalypts plantation near Sao Paulo established for phytoremediation

Land Application and Treatment of Waste and Wastewater
Development of beneficial use of waste and wastewater has been an important focus of my research. Both undergraduate and graduate students have conducted research in this area. Past projects have included research on the fate of N applied to forests treated with municipal wastewater, environmental effects of pulp mill residue application to pine plantations and, most recently, the response of crops and trees to incorporation of waste char produced during generation of biofuels.
Applying char created during biodiesel production to a small field plot in southern Georgia

Municipal wastewater application in the Piedmont just south of Atlanta

Advisor to Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) - Student Chapter at UGA
Dr. Morris has served as SWCS club advisor since 2004. The student chapter of SWCS is open to all students interested in promoting conservation of soil and water resources. Although housed in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, the club includes members from other academic units. Recent service projects have included participation in several river clean-ups, outdoor education training for middle and high school students and evaluation of a wetland mitigation site. At the end of each academic year, the club takes a trip. In April 2006 we white water rafted down the Ocoee River. In April 2007, we canoed the Okefenokee Swamp.

SWCS rafting trip on the Ocoee River in 2006

Book Chapters:

Articles:
Meding, S. M., L. A. Morris, C.M. Hoover and W. L. Nutter. 2001. Denitrification at a long-term forested land treatment system in the Piedmont of Georgia. J. Environ. Qual. 30: 1411-1420.

Shan, J., L. A. Morris and R. L. Hendrick. 2001. The effects of management on soil and plant carbon sequestration in slash pine plantations J. Appl. Ecol. 38: 932-941. (Dr. Shan was awarded the Southwood Prize by the British Ecological Society for the best paper published by a young scientist).

Croker, T. L., R. L. Hendrick, R. W. Ruess, K. S. Pregitzer, A. J. Burton, M. F. Allen. J. Shan and L. A. Morris. 2003. Substituting root numbers for length: improving the use of minirhizotrons to study fine root dynamics. Appl. Soil. Ecol. 23:127-135.

Echeverria, M. E. , D. Markewitz, L. A. Morris, R. L. Hendrick, L. Lucia and A. Ragualskis. 2004. Fractionations of soil carbon under pine stands on varying soil textures with herbicide treatments. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J.68: 950-958

Kissel, D. E., M. L. Cabrera, N. Vaio, J. R. Craig, J. A. Rema and L. A. Morris. 2004. Rainfall timing and ammonia loss from urea in a loblolly pine plantation. Soil Sci Soc. Amer. J. 68: 1744-1750.

Pinho, A. P. ; Matos, A. T. ; Costa, L. M. ; Morris, L. ; Jackson, R. C. ; White, W. ; Martinez, M. A. 2004. Retenção de atrazina, picloram e caulinita em zona ripária localizada em área de silvicultura. Engenharia na Agricultura, Viçosa-MG, v. 12: .260-270.

Morris, L.A., K. H. Ludovici, S. J. Torreano, C. Lincoln1, E. A. Carter and R. E. Will. in press. Integrating Root Response to Soil Physical Conditions into Prediction of Pine Seedling Growth Response to Site Preparation Tillage. For. Ecol. Managmt.

Cabrera, M. L. D. E. Kissel, N. Vaio, J. R. Craig, J. A. Rema and L. A. Morris. 2005. Loblolly pine needles retain fertilizer that can be lost as ammonia. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 69: 1525-1531.

Kissel, D. E. Kissel, M.L. Cabrera, N. Vaio, J.R. Craig, J.A. Rema, and L.A. Morris. Forest floor management and ammonia loss from urea in a loblolly pine plantation. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J.

Morris, L. A., K. H. Ludovici, S. J. Torreano, E. A. Carter, M. C. Lincoln and R. E. Will. 2006. An approach for using general soil physical condition-root growth relationships to predict seedling growth response to site preparation tillage in loblolly pine plantations. For. Ecol. Manage. 227: 169-177.

Lincoln, M. C., R. E. Will, L. A. Morris, E. A. Carter, D. Markewitz, J. R. Britt, B. Cazell and V. Ford. in press. Soil change and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) seedling growth following site preparation tillage in the Upper Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. For. Ecol. Manage.

White, W. J., L. A. Morris., A. P. Pinho ,C. R. Jackson and L. West. accepted. Sediment Retention Potential of Forested Filter Strips in the Piedmont. J. Soil. Water Conserv.

Pinho, A. P., L. A. Morris, C. R. Jackson. W. J. White, P. B. Bush and A. T. Matos. submitted. Contaminant Retention Potential of Forested Filter Strips Established as SMZs in the Piedmont of Georgia. J. Amer. Water. Resour. Assoc.

Galang, M. A., D. Markewitz, L. A. Morris and P. Brussell. accepted. Land use change and gully erosion in the Piedmont region of South Carolina. J. Soil and Water Conserv.

Proceedings and Technical Reports:
Morris, L. A. W. P. Miller and W. L. Nutter. 2001. Fate and utilization of waste-derived nutrients in plantations forests of the US Southeast. Land Treatment Research Review New Zealand Land Treatment Collective Tech. Rev. 22 92: 96., Rotorua.

Jackson, C.R and L.A. Morris, 2002. Methodological issues in BMP effectiveness studies. In Forestry best Management Practices Research Symposium. April 15-17, 2002. Atlanta, GA/

Bush, P.B., D. Dickens, L. Morris, P. F. Vendrell, R. Boland and B. Mitchell. 2003. Impact of poultry litter application on near surface water quality. In K. J. Hatcher (ed.) Proc.2003 Georgia Wat. Resour. Conf., April 23-24, Athens, GA.

White, W J., A. Pinho, L. A. Morris and E. R. Jackson. 2003. Retention of phosphorus from simulated run-off within forested streamside management zones (SMZs) of the Piedmont. In K. J. Hatcher (ed.) Proc. 2003 Georgia Wat. Resour. Conf., April 23-24, Athens, GA.

Ogden, E. A. and L. A. Morris. 2004. Effects of annual pinestraw removal and mid-rotation fertilization on pine growth in unthinned plantations. p 90-97 In Slash Pine”Still Growing and Growing, USDA Forest Service Gen Tech Rep. SRS-76. 145 p.

Miller, R. E., S. R. Colbert and L. A. Morris. 2004. Effects of heavy equipment on physical properties of soils and on long-term productivity: a review of literature and current research. NCASI Bull 887. 76 p.

Bush, P. B. E. D. Dickens, L. A. Morris, P. F. Vendrell, R. T. Boland, Jr., B. R. Mitchell and W. E. Harrison. 2005. Impact of poultry litter application to forestland on water quality. In Proceedings Animal Waste Symposium, Oct. 5-7 2005, Research Triangle Park, NC.

da Costa, L. M., I. M.R. Guedes, L. A. Morris, L. T. West and A. P. Oliveira. 2005. Biogeochemistry of silica phytoliths in agriculture. p. 23-25. In Third International Silicon in Agriculture Conference, Oct. 22-36, 2005, Uberlandia City, Brazil.

Morris, L. A. N. B. Comerford, N. F. Barros and A. Cristina Soares. 2005. The promotion of academic integration between Brazil and the United States: Forest and wetland resource management of tropical and temperate ecosystems. Proc. Fifth US-Brazil Consortia meeting, Oct. 12-15, 2005. Washington DC.

Pinho, A. P. ,Matos, A. T. ; Costa, L. M. ; Morris, L. ; Jackson, R. C. ; White, W. 2005, Retenção de atrazina, picloram e caulinita em zona ripárea localizada em área de silvicultura. In Congresso Brasileiro de Ciência do Solo, Recife. Solos, Sustentabilidade e Qualidade Ambiental. Recife, BR.