A5090708727- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Forest ecology and management
- Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
- Plant and animal studies
- Geochemistry and Geologic Mapping
- Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Agroforestry and silvopastoral systems
- Forest Biomass Utilization and Management
- Agriculture and Rural Development Research
- Climate change and permafrost
- Tree-ring climate responses
- Geological Studies and Exploration
- Fire dynamics and safety research
- Crop Yield and Soil Fertility
- Phosphorus and nutrient management
- Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
- Cocoa and Sweet Potato Agronomy
- Mosquito-borne diseases and control
University of Cambridge
2020-2025
Conservation Leadership Programme
2023-2024
University of Michigan
2023
Stanford University
2016-2021
Princeton University
2011-2018
Ecological Society of America
2016
John Wiley & Sons (United States)
2016
Colgate University
2009
University of Minnesota System
2009
Abstract Fire is a powerful ecological and evolutionary force that regulates organismal traits, population sizes, species interactions, community composition, carbon nutrient cycling ecosystem function. It also presents rapidly growing societal challenge, due to both increasingly destructive wildfires fire exclusion in fire‐dependent ecosystems. As an process, integrates complex feedbacks among biological, social geophysical processes, requiring coordination across several fields scales of...
Abstract Soil is the largest terrestrial reservoir of organic carbon and central for climate change mitigation carbon-climate feedbacks. Chemical physical associations soil with minerals play a critical role in storage, but amount global capacity storage this form remain unquantified. Here, we produce spatially-resolved estimates mineral-associated stocks carbon-storage by analyzing 1144 globally-distributed profiles. We show that current total 899 Pg C to depth 1 m non-permafrost mineral...
Abstract Soil organic matter decomposition and its interactions with climate depend on whether the is associated soil minerals. However, data limitations have hindered global-scale analyses of mineral-associated particulate carbon pools their benchmarking in Earth system models used to estimate cycle–climate feedbacks. Here we analyse observationally derived global estimates quantify relative proportions compute climatological temperature sensitivities as decline increasing temperature. We...
Fire and nutrients interact to influence the global distribution dynamics of savanna biome, but results these interactions are both complex poorly known. A critical unresolved question is whether short-term losses carbon caused by fire can trigger long-term potentially compensatory responses in nutrient stoichiometry plants, or abundance dinitrogen-fixing trees. There disagreement literature about potential role on nutrients, and, turn, plant composition. major limitation has been lack...
Fire regimes in savannas and forests are changing over much of the world. Anticipating impact these changes requires understanding how plants adapted to fire. In this study, we test whether fire imposes a broad selective force on key fire-tolerance trait, bark thickness, across 572 tree species distributed worldwide. We show that investment thick is pervasive adaptation frequently burned areas both temperate tropical regions where surface fires occur. Geographic variability thickness largely...
Abstract Fires shape the biogeochemistry and functioning of many ecosystems, fire frequencies are changing across much globe. Frequent fires can change soil carbon (C) nitrogen (N) storage by altering quantity chemistry plant inputs through changes in biomass composition as well decomposition organic matter. How rates with shifting remains uncertain because most studies focus on effects single fires, where transient responses may not reflect to decadal burning frequencies. Here, we sampled...
Abstract Recent extreme wildfire seasons in several regions have been associated with exceptionally hot, dry conditions, made more probable by climate change. Much research has focused on fire weather and its drivers, but natural regimes—and their interactions human activities—are far from being comprehensively understood. There is a lack of clarity about the ‘causes’ wildfire, how ecosystems could be managed for co-existence people. We present evidence supporting an ecosystem-centred...
Humid tropical forests play a dominant role in the functioning of Earth but are under increasing threat from changes land use and climate. How forest vulnerability varies across space time what level stress can tolerate before facing tipping point poorly understood. Here, we develop index (TFVI) to detect evaluate global threats time. We show that climate change together with land-use have slowed recovery rate carbon cycling. Temporal autocorrelation, as an indicator this slow recovery,...
Fire is an integral component of ecosystems globally and a tool that humans have harnessed for millennia. Altered fire regimes are fundamental cause consequence global change, impacting people the biophysical systems on which they depend. As part newly emerging Anthropocene, marked by human-caused climate change radical changes to ecosystems, danger increasing, fires having increasingly devastating impacts human health, infrastructure, ecosystem services. Increasing vexing problem requires...
Fire is an integral part of the Earth System and humans have skillfully used fire for millennia. Yet human activities are scaling up reinforcing each other in ways that reshaping patterns across planet. We review these changes using concept regime, which describes timing, location, type fires. then explore consequences regime on biological, chemical, physical processes sustain life Earth. Anthropogenic drivers such as climate change, land use, invasive species shifting regimes creating...
Fire regimes are changing across the globe, with new wildfire behaviour phenomena and increasing impacts felt, especially in ecosystems without clear adaptations to wildfire. These trends pose significant challenges scientific community understanding communicating these changes their implications, particularly where we lack underlying evidence inform decision-making. Here, present a perspective on priority directions for science research—through lens of academic government scientists from...
Abstract Nutrients have been hypothesized to influence the distribution of savanna biome through two possible mechanisms. Low nutrient availability may restrict growth rates trees, thereby allowing for intermittent fires maintain low tree cover; alternatively, deficiency even place an absolute constraint on ability forests form, independent fire. However, we little understanding scales at which limitation operates, what nutrients are limiting, and mechanisms that how regulates savanna–forest...
The expansion of tropical forest into savanna may potentially be a large carbon sink, but little is known about the patterns sequestration during transitional formation. Moreover, it unclear how nutrient limitation, due to extended exposure fire‐driven losses, constrain accumulation. Here, we sampled plots that spanned woody biomass gradient from in response differential fire protection central Brazil. These were used investigate process formation affects size and distribution (C) nitrogen...
Tropical savannas are hypothesized to be hot spots of nitrogen-fixer diversity and activity because the high disturbance low nitrogen characteristic savanna landscapes. Here we compare abundances nitrogen-fixing non-fixing trees in both tropical forests under climatically equivalent conditions, using plant inventory studies across 566 plots South America Africa. A single factor, aridity, explained 19-54% variance fixer abundance, unexpectedly was more important than fire frequency, biome,...
Abstract The impact of shifting disturbance regimes on soil carbon (C) storage is a key uncertainty in global change research. Wildfires coniferous forests are becoming more frequent many regions, potentially causing large C emissions. Repeated low‐intensity prescribed fires can mitigate wildfire severity, but repeated combustion may decrease unless compensatory responses stabilize organic matter. Here, we tested how 30 years decadal burning affected and nitrogen (N) plants, detritus, soils...
Summary Elephants and fire are individually well‐known disturbance agents within savanna ecosystems, but their interactive role in governing tree‐cover dynamics savanna–forest biome boundaries remains unresolved. Of central importance the mechanisms by which elephants vs. affect tree biomass cover, how – over long time periods both factors interact with rainfall soils to govern carbon dynamics. Here, we evaluated response of woody vegetation 56 years manipulation South Africa's Kruger...