A5015427800- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Forest Insect Ecology and Management
- Forest ecology and management
- Entomological Studies and Ecology
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Plant and fungal interactions
- Ecology and biodiversity studies
- Bioenergy crop production and management
- Archaeology and Natural History
- Soil Geostatistics and Mapping
- Seedling growth and survival studies
- Tree-ring climate responses
- Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications
- Remote Sensing in Agriculture
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Fire dynamics and safety research
- Forest Management and Policy
- Study of Mite Species
- Urban Heat Island Mitigation
- Flood Risk Assessment and Management
- Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing
- Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Studies
- Urban Stormwater Management Solutions
The Nature Conservancy
2018-2024
University of Colorado Boulder
2009-2022
Rocky Mountain Research (United States)
2022
Rocky Mountain Research Station
2022
Northern Arizona University
2022
Western Colorado University
2022
Science Exchange (United States)
2022
US Forest Service
2022
Large-scale global reforestation goals have been proposed to help mitigate climate change and provide other ecosystem services. To explore potential in the United States, we used GIS analyses, surveys of nursery managers foresters, literature synthesis assess opportunities challenges associated with meeting goals. We considered a scenario where 26 million hectares (64 acres) natural agricultural lands are reforested by 2040 30 billion trees at an estimated cost $33 ($24–$53) USD. Cost per...
Increasing fire severity and warmer, drier postfire conditions are making forests in the western United States (West) vulnerable to ecological transformation. Yet, relative importance of interactions between these drivers forest change remain unresolved, particularly over upcoming decades. Here, we assess how interactive impacts changing climate wildfire activity influenced conifer regeneration after 334 wildfires, using a dataset from 10,230 field plots. Our findings highlight declining...
The current mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreak in the southern Rocky Mountains has impacted approximately 750 000 ha of forest. Weather and habitat heterogeneity influence forest insect population dynamics at multiple spatial temporal scales. Comparison two principal host species may elucidate relative contribution weather landscape factors initiating driving extensive outbreaks. To investigate potential drivers MPB outbreak, we compared broadscale spatiotemporal...
Because of increasing concern about the effects catastrophic wildland fires throughout western United States, federal land managers have been engaged in efforts to restore historical fire behavior and mitigate wildfire risk. During last 5 years (2004–2008), 44,000 fuels treatments were implemented across States under National Fire Plan (NFP). We assessed extent which these conducted near wildland–urban interface (WUI), where they would greatest potential reduce risk neighboring homes...
Significance Across western North America, abundant susceptible pine hosts and a suitable climate during the early 21st century have promoted widespread mountain beetle (MPB) outbreaks, leading to concern that dead fuels may increase wildfire risk. The assumption outbreaks raise fire risk is driving far-reaching policy decisions involving expenditures of hundreds millions dollars. Contrary expectation an MPB outbreak increases risk, spatial overlay analysis shows no effect on subsequent area...
Abstract Climate warming is contributing to increases in wildfire activity throughout the western United States, leading potentially long‐lasting shifts vegetation. The response of forest ecosystems thus a crucial indicator future vegetation trajectories, and these responses are contingent upon factors such as seed availability, interannual climate variability, average climate, other components physical environment. To better understand variation resilience across vulnerable dry forests, we...
Restoration of riparian and wet meadow ecosystems in semiarid rangelands the western United States is a high priority given their ecological hydrological importance region. However, traditional restoration approaches are often intensive costly, limiting extent over which they can be applied. Practitioners increasingly trying new techniques that more cost‐effective, less intensive, practically scale up to scope degradation. Unfortunately, practitioners typically lack resources undertake...
Abstract Background Planting tree seedlings may help promote forest recovery after extensive high-severity wildfire. We evaluated the influence of growing environment characteristics on performance planted in 2016 Cold Springs Fire, Colorado, USA. In 2021, four seasons planting, we measured survival, height, and 2021 height growth for 300 ponderosa pine, limber Douglas-fir permanently marked along “stake rows.” For each seedling, also recorded one site-level characteristic, aspect, two...
R angelands have garnered attention for their potential to store carbon (C) and been included in France's 4 per 1,000 initiative ([Minasny et al. 2017][1]), methods maintaining or increasing C grassland soils ([American Carbon Registry 2013][2]; [Verified Standard 2017][3]),
Abstract Amplified by warming temperatures and drought, recent outbreaks of native bark beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) have caused extensive tree mortality throughout Europe North America. Despite their ubiquitous nature important effects on ecosystems, forest recovery following such disturbances is poorly understood, particularly across regions with varying abiotic conditions outbreak effects. To better understand post‐outbreak a topographically complex region, we synthesized data from...
Abstract Recent shifts in global forest area highlight the importance of understanding causes and consequences change. To examine influence several potential drivers cover change, we used supervised classifications historical (1938–1940) contemporary (2015) aerial imagery covering a 2932‐km 2 study northern Front Range (NFR) Colorado linked observed changes with abiotic factors, land use, fire history. Forest NFR demonstrated broad‐scale 1938–2015 overall increased 7.8%, but there was...
Since the late 1990s, extensive outbreaks of native bark beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) have affected coniferous forests throughout Europe and North America, driving changes in carbon storage, wildlife habitat, nutrient cycling, water resource provisioning. Remote sensing is a crucial tool for quantifying effects these disturbances across broad landscapes. In particular, Landsat time series (LTS) are increasingly used to characterize outbreak dynamics, including presence severity...
Climate warming, land use change, and altered fire regimes are driving ecological transformations that can have critical effects on Earth's biota. Fire refugia-locations burned less frequently or severely than their surroundings-may act as sites of relative stability during this period rapid change by being resistant to supporting post-fire recovery in adjacent areas. Because value forest ecosystem persistence, there is an urgent need anticipate where refugia most likely be found they align...
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), which includes features like rain gardens, constructed wetlands, or urban tree canopy, is now widely recognized as a means to reduce runoff impacts and meet municipal water quality permit requirements. Many co-benefits of GSI are related increased vegetative cover, can be measured with satellite imagery via spectral indices such the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). In landscapes, there remain critical gaps in understanding how greenness...
Forested fire refugia (trees that survive fires) are important disturbance legacies provide seed sources for post-fire regeneration. Conifer regeneration has been limited following some recent western fires, particularly in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. However, the extent, characteristics, and predictability of largely unknown. Within 23 fires pine-dominated forests Colorado Front Range (1996–2013), we evaluated spatial characteristics refugia: first using Monitoring Trends Burn...
Abstract The escalating climate and wildfire crises have generated worldwide interest in using proactive forest management (e.g. thinning, prescribed fire, cultural burning) to mitigate the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss forests. To estimate western United States (US) conifer forests, we used a generalizable framework evaluate interactions among hazard exposure vulnerability. By evaluating where high social adaptive capacity for overlaps with most vulnerable loss, identified opportunity...
The mountain pine beetle (MPB) infested 1.6 million ha of forest in Colorado and southern Wyoming from 1996 to 2010, causing extensive tree mortality, especially lodgepole forests. Identifying the extent which MPB outbreaks have occurred past will further our understanding current outbreak's causes consequences. We explore use dendroecological methods reconstruct a prior outbreak event, northwestern early 1980s. used coarse-scale maps GIS layers suitable habitat based on stand attributes...
Remotely sensed data acquired by multispectral sensors can be used to monitor soil moisture (SM) across a larger land area than in situ monitoring alone. Although there have been wide-ranging applications of remote sensing tools SM estimation on many ecosystems, is limited understanding their accuracy restored wetlands. The objective this study was examine the potential remotely from Landsat-9, Sentinel-1A SAR, and Blackswift E2 Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) predicting wetland complex...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is an important deciduous species in western U.S. forests. Existing maps of distribution are based on Landsat imagery and often miss small stands (<0.09 ha or 30 m²), which rapidly regrow when managed following disturbance. In this study, we present methods for deriving a new regional map forests using one year Sentinel-1 (S1) Sentinel-2 (S2) Google Earth Engine. We assessed the annual phenology Southern Rockies leveraged frequent...
Quaking aspen is an important deciduous tree species across interior western U.S. forests. Existing maps of distribution are based on Landsat imagery and often miss small stands (<0.09 ha or 30 m2), which rapidly regrow when managed following disturbance. In this study, we present methods for deriving a new regional map forests using one year Sentinel-1 (S1) Sentinel-2 (S2) in Google Earth Engine. Using observed annual phenology the Southern Rockies leveraging frequent temporal resolution...