C. Vernon Cole

Dr. C. Vernon Cole (November 12, 1922 – August 30, 2013) was a soil scientist known primarily for his work on nutrient cycling in agroecosystems.

He was a member of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Second Assessment report, and the lead author of Chapter 23 “Agricultural Options for Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions”.

After the war, he obtained his B.S. in Chemistry (1947) and in M.S. in Agronomy (1948) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Cole then went to Madison, Wisconsin and earned his Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1950.

Soon after, Cole settled in Fort Collins, Colorado where he worked jointly for the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University and the Agricultural Research Service (USDA).

He conducted research at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University and Agricultural Research Service (USDA) from 1950 to 1993.

During this time, he contributed significant advances in the knowledge of phosphorus chemistry, including a method for extracting phosphorus from soil that has been adopted worldwide and cited over 5,000 times.

His research expanded into plant responses to phosphorus and then into broader studies of phosphorus cycling in relation to organic carbon and nitrogen transformations.

He was the principal investigator on two major interdisciplinary projects, entitled “Organic Matter and Nutrient Cycling in Semiarid Agroecosystems” (1979-1985) and “Organic C, N, S and P Formation and Loss from Great Plains Agroecosystems” (1985-1989).

These two projects were major undertakings that were at the forefront of ecosystem science (which was only just beginning to develop as its own field of research) because they integrated ecological and pedological principles, and employed scientists from the two disciplines.

This work led to significant advances in the understanding of management impacts on nutrient cycling and long-term productivity in agroecosystems, and paved the way for collaborative research in ecosystem science.

Around the same time, Cole and his colleagues were pioneering the development of ecosystem models to understand and predict plant nutrient dynamics in the soil and ecosystem.

At the time, modeling was not widely used for this purpose, but the idea gained traction over the 1980s and 90s and modeling is now a standard tool in ecosystem science.

Cole was a leader in the international scientific community.

He was highly involved in the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), serving as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Biogeochemical Cycles and as the chairman of the International Phosphorus Project.

As part of that work, he organized four regional workshops on Phosphorus Cycling that brought together 240 scientists from 51 countries.

He retired in 1993, and moved to Estes Park, CO.

Cole was a soil scientist who specialized in soil chemistry, especially phosphorus cycling.

These took place in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa, and culminated in a final synthesis workshop in Budapest in 1993.

After his retirement in 1993, Cole continued his research contributions through publications and working with students and colleagues.

The IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Cole was born in Wenatchee, Washington to Frederick and Olive Cole.

He was raised and educated in Stow, Massachusetts.

He served as a member of the US Army in WWII in the Philippines and Japan.