Research

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise

1. Dendroecology and forest stand history reconstruction

2. Disturbance ecology, especially wildland fire

3. Projecting impacts of climate change on successional dynamics

4. Vegetation modeling; coupled natural and human system modeling

Sustainable human interactions with ecosystems depend on the abilities of land managers to account for the direct effects of changes in climate, ecological succession, disturbance regimes and land management, as well as the interactions among these processes. Exploring how these processes may interact in the future requires new modeling tools – tools that can link the output from global climate and vegetation models to land-use decision models. Parameterizing such models will require assembling available data sources and, in some cases, collecting new empirical data in the field. My research has focused on developing and parameterizing new computer modeling tools to inform sustainable landscape planning decisions.

The challenges of making sustainable land-use decisions are apparent in the conservation and restoration of Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) savanna in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, which is a critically imperiled ecosystem. Concern over increased fire risk in the wildland-urban interface makes conservation and restoration of this ecosystem a high priority. My fieldwork has focused on collecting data to describe tree growth and wildland fire behavior in computer modeling tools.

My modeling system will also allow me to explore dynamics ranging from the conversion of forested lands to residences, to the effects of competing potential economic policies on global carbon flux to the atmosphere, and then offer new and often surprising information to concerned stakeholders and policy-makers. Through a combination of computer modeling and empirical fieldwork, my goal is to use my skills as a research scientist to explore the uncertainties of our swiftly changing planet.