Summary
My primary areas of specialization are forest ecology and silviculture, and my research evaluates forest compositional and structural responses to silvicultural treatment, interacting disturbances, and ongoing climate change. I am particularly interested in how species’ adaptations shape the forest community, stand dynamics, and associated ecosystem services. My research program is designed to support scientifically based management and conservation that increases the sustainability and resiliency of forest ecosystems. I focus my work around fundamental gaps in ecological knowledge that are critical to understanding the consequences of changing climate and altered disturbance regimes on western forests. I use observational, experimental, and long-term studies to address these knowledge gaps. Projects are currently underway on a gradient of landscape scales, from a local study of salvage logging impacts on conifer regeneration to a range-wide study of coast redwood resilience to compound disturbances. Many of these projects include a permanent plot network that will facilitate long-term monitoring of forest ecosystem change over time. We work closely with local land managers and researchers to identify the gaps in knowledge necessary for management and conservation of forest ecosystems.Research is driven by the need for an understanding of the role that species’ adaptations and novel disturbances play in determining establishment and success of ecologically and economically important conifers.
