My research focuses on the ecology of human-managed ecosystems at local, regional and global scales. I am particularly concerned with nutrient limitations to food security and how landscapes can be managed to overcome these limitations without damaging local and global environments. Methods used in this work include high-resolution remote sensing, GPS, GIS, household surveys, expert and elder interviews and a variety of ecological field methods including vegetation and soil sampling and analysis.

Recent projects include:
• Measuring long-term changes in land use and biogeochemistry across rural China. More...
• Anthropogenic biomes: a global analysis of human/ecosystem interactions. More...
• High-resolution ecosystem mapping in anthropogenic landscapes. More...

Complete list & downloads: http://www.ecotope.org/people/ellis/publications

Ellis, E. C., and N. Ramankutty. 2008. Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment 6, doi:10.1890/070062.

Jiao, J.G., Li, H.X., Wu, J.X., Yang, L.Z., & Ellis, E. C. 2007. Soil organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus distribution in the densely populated village landscapes of different hilly regions (in Chinese). Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology, 18(7):1471-1478.

Ellis, E. C., Wang, H., Xiao, H., Peng, K., Liu, X. P., Li, S. C., Ouyang, H., Cheng, X., and Yang, L. Z. 2006. Measuring long-term ecological changes within densely populated landscapes using current and historical high resolution imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment 100(4):457-473.

Ellis, E. C. 2004. Long-term ecological changes in the densely populated rural landscapes of China. Pages 303-320 in R. S. DeFries, G. P. Asner, and R. A. Houghton, editors. Ecosystems and Land Use Change. Geophysical Monograph Series Vol. 153. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.

Ellis, E. C., R. G. Li, L. Z. Yang, and X. Cheng. 2000a. Long-term change in village-scale ecosystems in China using landscape and statistical methods. Ecological Applications 10:1057-1073.

Ellis, E. C., R. G. Li, L. Z. Yang, and X. Cheng. 2000b. Changes in village-scale nitrogen storage in China's Tai Lake Region. Ecological Applications 10:1074-1089.

Ellis, E.C., 2007. Long-term changes within China's densely populated rural landscapes. International Association for Landscape Ecology World Congress, July 8 - 12, 2007, Wageningen, Netherlands.

Ellis, E.C., 2007. Assessing the regional and global impacts of local land use changes across rural China. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, April 17-21, 2007, San Francisco, California.

Ellis, E.C., 2006. Global impacts of long-term land cover changes within China's densely populated rural regions. American Geophysical Union Fall 2006 Meeting, December 11 to 15, 2006, San Francisco, California.

Ellis, E.C., 2005. Linking local measurements with regional data to measure long-term biogeochemical changes across China’s densely populated agricultural landscapes. Ecological Society of America/INTECOL Joint Meeting, August 7-12, 2005, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.