Jamie Duberstein

Research Assistant Professor
Forestry and Environmental Conservation Department, Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science

Office: Georgetown, SC
Phone: 706-410-6722

Email: JDUBERS@clemson.edu

Educational Background

Ph.D Forestry
Clemson University 2011

M.S. Interdisciplinary Ecology
University of Florida 2004

B.S. Wildlife Management, Biology
University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point 1998

Research Interests

My research centers around the contribution of trees and herbaceous plants to carbon and water cycling, often investigating the effect of environmental drivers on plant community composition and productivity. I enjoy contributing toward application-based investigations that address specific concerns of land managers ranging from private individuals to National Wildlife Refuge staff, whose questions require advancement of science on the subject. It is also exciting to contribute to advancing our ability to quantify carbon and water fluxes via data collected at various heights in the atmosphere, from within trees at various heights to include root fluxes, and sub-soil water conditions. I most often work in freshwater and oligohaline marshes, and forests of the upper estuary where there are dynamic flooding regimes and soil salinity conditions. The hummock and hollow microtopography found in tidal freshwater forests has always interested me. While I am most at home in the deepwater and tidally influenced freshwater swamps, I’ve also had the pleasure to conduct research in peatlands, southern pine forests, remote Pacific atoll forests, mangroves, and temperate rainforests as well.

Lab Members

Sidney Godfrey, MS, 2018
Jessica Waller, MS, 2021
Haley Miller, MS, 2022
Julian Halil, MS, 2024
Chris Shipway, MS, 2024

Publications

Halil JC, Whitmire SL, Duberstein JA, Van Bloem SJ (2026) Measuring stability of baldcypress and laurel oak with static winching. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 56:1-9. DOI 10.1139/cjfr-2025-0259.

Krauss KW, Conrad JR, Duberstein JA, Ward EJ, Drexler JZ, Buffington KJ, Benscoter BW, Miller HJ, Faron NT, Merino S, From AS, Peneva-Reed E, Zhu Z, Thorne KM, Feller IC (2026) Excessive phosphorus loading contributes to future vulnerability of mangrove ecosystems by reducing net ecosystem exchange of carbon. Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures. 4:1-16. DOI 10.1017/cft.2026.10025.

Helton AM, et al. (21 co-authors) 2025. Over, Under, and Through: Hydrologic Connectivity and the Future of Coastal Landscape Salinization. Water Resources Research 61(7):e2024WR038720. DOI 10.1029/2024WR038720.

Duberstein JA, Blosser G, Conner WH (2025) Forest community structure and aboveground net primary productivity across an elevation gradient in the Congaree River floodplain, South Carolina, USA. Wetlands 45:126. DOI 10.1007/s13157-025-02004-9.

Long JF, Duberstein J, Costin K, Callaway T, Abrams A, Wassel B, Toal K, and Duberstein K 2024. Environmental impacts and daily voluntary movement of horses housed in pasture tracks as compared to conventional pasture housing. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 143. DOI 10.1016/j.jevs.2024.105215.

Shipway CJ, Duberstein JA, Conner WH, Krauss KW, Noe GB, Whitmire SL. 2024. Aboveground carbon stocks across a hydrological gradient: ghost forests to non-tidal freshwater forested wetlands. Forests 15(9):1502. DOI 10.3390/f15091502.

Krauss KW, Noe GB, Duberstein JA, Cormier N, From AS, Doody TR, Conner WH, Cahoon DR, Johnson DJ. 2023. Presence of hummock and hollow microtopography reflects shifting balances of shallow subsidence and root zone expansion along forested wetland river gradients. Estuaries and Coasts:14. DOI: 10.1007/s12237-023-01227-5.

Conner WH, Whitmire S, Duberstein JA, Stalter R, Baden J. 2022. Changes within a South Carolina coastal wetland forest in the face of rising sea level. Forests, 13: 414. DOI 10.3390/f13030414.

Noe GB, Bourg NA, Duberstein JA, Hupp CR. 2021. Watershed and estuarine controls both influence tree growth and plant community changes in tidal freshwater forested wetlands along two U.S. mid-Atlantic rivers. Forests 12, 1182. DOI 10.3390/f12091182

Diamond JS, Epstein JM, Cohen MJ, McLaughlin DL, Hsueh Y-h, Keim RF, Duberstein JA. 2020. A little relief: ecological functions and autogenesis of wetland microtopography. WIREs Water. 22 pp. DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1493.

Godfrey ST, Waddle JH, Baldwin RF, Conner WH, Bridges Jr WC, Duberstein JA. 2020. Herpetofauna occupancy and community composition along a tidal swamp salinity gradient. Wetlands 40: 1561-1575. DOI: 10.1007/s13157-019-01260-w.

Wang H, Krauss KW, Noe GB, Stagg CL, Swarzenski CM, Duberstein JA, Conner WH, DeAngelis DL. 2020. Modeling soil porewater salinity response to drought in tidal freshwater forested wetlands. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 125: e2018JG004996. DOI: 10.1029/2018JG004996.

Please see my Google Scholar profile for a more complete list of publications:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ut5yB1EAAAAJ&hl=en

Links