DURHAM, N.C. – Ram Oren, Nicholas Professor of Earth System Science at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, has been elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.

Oren, an internationally cited expert in forest hydrology and forest carbon balance, was one of 25 scientists elected to the academy this year, and one of only two elected as Foreign Fellows of the academy’s forestry section.

He and the other new inductees will receive certificates recognizing their election as Fellows at a ceremony in Sweden on Jan. 28, 2012.

The Royal Swedish Academy was founded in 1811 to promote ecologically, ethically and socially sustainable use and care of the Earth, its forests, plants, animals, water and air.  In recent years, its primary mission has been to apply cutting-edge science to help advance the world’s green industries, including agriculture, horticulture, food production, forestry and forest products, fishing, hunting and aquaculture, and other fields related to environmental and natural resources management.  Its members also work to promote agricultural and forest history.   Following the induction of the 2012 Fellows, the academy will have 449 Swedish members and 139 foreign members.

A prolific researcher, Oren has evaluated the responses of forest ecosystems to environmental change from Alaska to Brazil. His detailed studies at the Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) facility in Duke Forest, together with studies at several AmeriFlux sites, have helped quantify the carbon and water balance in forests under both current and projected future atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, and shed new light on the effect of soil fertility on carbon sequestration and water yield in pine forests.

He has published nearly 130 peer-reviewed studies, and in 2008 co-authored the second edition of the textbook Forest Ecosystems, widely considered a seminal work in the field.  He has served as primary advisor for 15 PhD or masters students at the Nicholas School.  Oren received his PhD in physiological ecology from Oregon State University in 1984.