Photo of Franco Biondi, Extension

Franco Biondi

Professor

Summary

I am a tree biologist with a specialty in dendroecology, which is the study of tree rings and wood formation to infer ecological changes. In collaboration with students and colleagues, I have studied tree-dominated landscapes in the Western USA, Mexico, and southern Europe. I am now involved in grant-funded projects aimed at understanding the environmental drivers of intra-annual tree-ring features. Studies performed by DendroLab personnel are focused on examining the connection between wood form and function in conifer species of the western US. We use automated point dendrometers, wood anatomy, and cellular phenology to uncover the exquisitely intricate connections between dendrochronology, wood science, tree physiology, forest ecology, mensuration, and allometry. These new activities also include domestic and international collaborations, the latter with scientists in Canada, Germany, France, Finland, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy.

My teaching responsibilities are closely tied to my research experience and interests. At UNR I have taught several courses, from introductory undergraduate classes to graduate seminars (see list below). I also developed, proposed, and established a few new classes on climate and environmental change.

From 2010 to 2023 I served as Subject Matter Editor for Ecosphere, the open‐access journal published by the Ecological Society of America. Starting in 2024 I have become the Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Vegetation Ecology track for that journal.

Education

Diploma, Liceo Scientifico, Piacenza, Italy, 1979 / Istituto Magistrale, Piacenza, Italy, 1980
Laurea, University of Florence, Italy, 1985
M.S., University of Arizona, Tucson, 1987
Ph.D., University of Arizona, Tucson, 1994

Courses

  • Natural Resource Ecology (NRES  217): Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
  • Mountain Ecoclimatology (NRES  355): Spring 2021, Spring 2022
  • Regional and Global Issues in Environmental Sciences (ENV/NRES 467): Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020
  • Autocorrelation in time and space: Applied analysis using R (NRES 730): Spring 2024, Spring 2025

Honors and Awards

  • 2024-present Associate Editor-in-Chief, Ecosphere
  • 2022-present Invited Member, Academic Freedom Alliance, Princeton, New Jersey
  • 2007-present Senior Ecologist, Ecological Society of America (ESA) Board of Professional Certification
  • 2023 University of Bolu (Turkey) Honorary Award
  • 2023 Fulbright U.S. Senior Scholar Award, Commission for Cultural, Educational and Scientific Exchange between the USA and Spain and Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
  • 2021 Tansley Review in New Phytologist (links to news articles and social media reports listed in Altmetrics place this publication in the top 5% of all scientific articles)
  • 2020 Research and Innovation Leadership Fellow, University of Nevada, Reno
  • 2018 Haury Visiting Scholar, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, The University of Arizona, Tucson
  • 2018 and 2013 Participant in the Expert Witness Training Academy, William Mitchell College of Law, Saint Paul,  Minnesota
  • 2017 Habilitation Committee Member, Fakultät Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt, Technische Universität München, Germany
  • 2015 Visiting Professor ("Poste Rouge"), Laboratoire d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement (EcoLab), Université Toulouse III, France
  • 2014 Bullard Visiting Fellow, Harvard Forest, Petersham, Massachusetts
  • 2013 Visiting Scientist, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland
  • 2013 CIRES Visiting Fellow, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • 2011 Fulbright Senior Specialist in Environmental Science, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
  • 2008 Hyung K. Shin Award for Excellence in Research, College of Science, University of Nevada, Reno
  • 2008 Outstanding Researcher Award, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno
  • 2007 Foreign Member of the PhD Program in "Scienze e Tecnologie per la Gestione Forestale e Ambientale", University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
  • 2007 Blaustein Visiting Fellowship, Stanford University, School of Earth Sciences
  • 2007 Guest Professorship, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Chair of Forest Ecology
  • 2006 National Academy of Sciences Committee
  • 2002 NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award
  • 2001 AAG Paper of the Year Award
  • 1992 McGinnies Graduate Scholarship in Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson
  • 1992 Andrew E. Douglass Scholarship, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson
  • 1985 Fulbright Award

Accomplishments

My long-term goal is to understand drivers of tree and forest growth in current, past, and future environments. I pursue this goal using instrumental and proxy records (mostly from tree rings), with an emphasis on field observations, numerical calibration, and automated sensors to bridge temporal and spatial scales. My experience and interests are in climate and forest dynamics, particularly in mountain watersheds. This places my work at the intersection between ecology, climatology, biogeography, and hydrology.

My dissertation work  on forest growth trends in Arizona had both regional and global relevance. Regionally, it provided evidence for the impact of fire suppression on the ecology of southwestern conifer forests, ultimately contributing to landscape conservation plans. Globally, it showed the importance of placing twentieth-century patterns into a longer historical perspective to disentangle the impact of land use changes (in this case, European settlement) from stand dynamics and other factors. From 1994 to 2000 I conducted research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography on past climate using proxy records from terrestrial tree rings and oceanic sediments (varves). At Scripps I also established a research program in dendroclimatology, and assembled the tree-ring laboratory that I then transferred to UNR. My recent studies deal with quantifying climate and tree growth variability from mountain ecosystems in the Great Basin of North America. Special emphasis is placed on understanding responses to disturbance (wildfire, land use changes) in relation to climate dynamics and to the distribution of woody species at the watershed level.

From 2008 to 2013 I was the statewide lead for the Ecological Change component of an NSF-EPSCoR project entitled “Nevada Infrastructure for Climate Change Science, Education and Outreach”, which was funded for a total of $15 million. As part of the research infrastructure funded by this large multi-investigator project, we established the Nevada Climate-ecohydrological Assessment Network (NevCAN), which includes valley-to-peak instrumental transects designed to measure changes in atmospheric, hydrologic, and ecologic variables, including the spatial and temporal processes that control, and are recorded by, wood growth of lower and upper treeline species.

News & Journal Articles, Fact Sheets, Reports...

Book Chapter(s)
Dendrochronology, Volcanic Eruptions Biondi, F. 2015, W.J. Rink and J.W. Thompson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, Germany; pp. 221-227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_24-1
Journals
Longevity estimates of Canary palms and dragon trees via radiocarbon dating: Initial results Biondi, F., G.M. Santos, P.R. Rodríguez, and P.A. Sosa 2024, Plants 13: art. 45 (12 pp.), doi: 10.3390/plants13010045
No future growth enhancement expected at the northern edge for European beech due to continued water limitation Klesse, S., R.L. Peters, R. Alfaro-Sánchez, V. Badeau, C. Baittinger, G. Battipaglia, D. Bert, F. Biondi, and 63 other authors 2024, Global Change Biology 30(10): art. e17546 (16 pp.), doi: 10.1111/gcb.17546
Identifying drivers of non-stationary climate-growth relationships of European beech
The multiple significant interaction terms in our model elucidate the complexity of European beech's drought sensitivity, which needs to be taken into consideration when assessing this species' response to climate change.
 Leifsson, C., A. Buras, S. Klesse, C. Baittinger, B. Bat-Enerel, G. Battipaglia, F. Biondi, and 49 other authors 2024, Science of The Total Environment, 937: art. 173321 (14 pp.), doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173321
Runoff variability in the Truckee-Carson River basin from tree rings and a water balance model Meko, D.M., F. Biondi, A.H. Taylor, I.P. Panyushkina, R.D. Thaxton, A.A. Prusevich, A.I. Shiklomanov, R.B. Lammers, and S. Glidden. 2024, Earth Interactions 28(1): art. e230018 (19 pp.), doi: 10.1175/EI-D-23-0018.1
Partial asynchrony of coniferous forest carbon sources and sinks at the intra-annual time scale
Our findings suggest that high-resolution seasonal data of ecosystem carbon fluxes, wood formation and the associated physiological processes may reduce uncertainties in carbon source-sink relationships at different spatial scales, from stand to ecosystem levels.
 Silvestro, R., M. Mencuccini, R. García-Valdés, S. Antonucci, A. Arzac, F. Biondi, and 67 other authors 2024, Nature Communications, Volume 15, Article number: 6169 (2024)
Heartwood relationship with stem diameter in Pinus canariensis plantations of Gran Canaria, Spain Arencibia Aguilar, L.F., P. Rodríguez Rodríguez, and F. Biondi 2023, Forests 14 (9), art. 1719 (14 pp.), doi: 10.3390/f14091719
Maximum tree lifespans derived from public-domain dendrochronological data
Maximum tree lifespans for 157 conifers and 80 angiosperms; 22 conifers exceeded 1,000 years of age, whereas angiosperms peaked around 500 years.
 Biondi, F., D. Meko, and G. Piovesan 2023, iScience 26 (3), art. 106138 (13 pp.), doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106138
Stomatal regulation and xylem hydraulics of limber pine and Engelmann spruce in Great Basin sky-island ecosystems
Comparing canopy conductance and xylem hydraulics of limber pine and Engelmann spruce.
 Liu, X., E. Ziaco, and F. Biondi 2023, Science of the Total Environment 892, art. 164351 (13 pp.), doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164351
The longevity of fruit trees in Basilicata (southern Italy): Implications for agricultural biodiversity conservation
Some of the oldest scientifically dated fruit trees in the world: olive (680 ± 57 years), mulberry (647 ± 66 years), chestnut (636 ± 66 years), and pear (467 ± 89 years).
 Palli, J., M. Baliva, F. Biondi, L. Calcagnile, D. Cerbino, M. D'Elia, R. Muleo, A. Schettino, G. Quarta, N. Sassone, F. Solano, P. Zienna, and G. Piovesan 2023, Land 12(3), art. 550 (17 pp.), doi: 10.3390/land12030550
Bell-shaped tree-ring responses to air temperature drive productivity trends in long-lived mountain Mediterranean pines Piovesan, G., A. Rita, F. Biondi, M. Baliva, M. Borghetti, M. Brunetti, G. De Vivo, A. Di Filippo, A. Dinella, T. Gentilesca, M. Maugeri, J. Palli, A. Piotti, E. Presutti Saba, F. Ripullone, A. Schettino, and G.G. Vendramin 2023, Science of the Total Environment 890, art. 164103 (11 pp.), doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164103
Species sensitivity to hydrologic whiplash in the tree-ring record of the high Sierra Nevada Winitsky, A.G., D.M. Meko, A.H. Taylor, and F. Biondi 2023, Environments 10(1), art. 12 (17 pp.), doi: 10.3390/environments10010012
Dendroanatomy of xylem hydraulics in two pine species: Efficiency prevails on safety for basal area growth in drought-prone conditions
We investigated the relationships between xylem anatomy, plant hydraulic functioning, and stem growth in bristlecone pine and limber pine
 Ziaco, E., X. Liu, and F. Biondi 2023, Dendrochronologia 81, art. 126116 (13 pp.), doi: 10.1016/j.dendro.2023.126116
The North American tree-ring fire-scar network Margolis, E.Q., C.H. Guiterman, 53 other authors, F. Biondi, and other 31 authors 2022, Ecosphere 13(7), art. e4159 (36 pp.). doi: 10.1002/ecs2.4159
Wood anatomy of Douglas-fir in eastern Arizona and its relationship with Pacific Basin climate Balanzategui, D., H. Nordhauß, I. Heinrich, F. Biondi, N. Miley, A.G. Hurley, and E. Ziaco 2021, Frontiers in Plant Science - Functional Plant Ecology 12(1812), art. 702442 (14 pp.), doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.702442
Inter-specific transpiration differences between aspen, spruce, and pine in a sky-island ecosystem of the North American Great Basin Liu, X. and F. Biondi 2021, Forest Ecology and Management 491, art. 119157 (10 pp.), doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119157
Water-use efficiency of co-occurring sky-island pine species in the North American Great Basin Liu, X., E. Ziaco, and F. Biondi 2021, Frontiers in Plant Science - Functional Plant Ecology 12, art. 787297 (11 pp.). doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.787297
On tree longevity
Identifying old trees helps with managing entire landscapes, and to revisit classic ecological theories. Among the most-downloaded and most-cited New Phytologist articles from 2020 and 2021.
 Piovesan, G. and F. Biondi 2021, New Phytologist 231: 1318–1337 (Tansley Review), doi: 10.1111/nph.17148
From dendrochronology to allometry
How to use tree rings for much more than climate reconstructions.
 Biondi, F. 2020, Forests 11 (2), art. 146 (17 pp.), doi: 10.3390/f11020146
Photoperiod and temperature as dominant environmental drivers triggering secondary growth resumption in Northern Hemisphere conifers Huang, J.-G., Q. Ma, S. Rossi, F. Biondi, and other 47 authors 2020, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) 117 (34): 20645–20652. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2007058117
Post-wildfire regeneration in a sky-island mixed-conifer ecosystem of the North American Great Basin Kilpatrick, M. and F. Biondi 2020, Forests 11(9), art. 900 (17 pp.), doi: 10.3390/f11090900
Transpiration drivers of high-elevation five-needle pines (Pinus longaeva and P. flexilis) in sky-island ecosystems of the North American Great Basin Liu, X., and F. Biondi. 2020, Science of the Total Environment, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139861
Reconstruction of seasonal and water-year precipitation anomalies from tree-ring records of the southwestern United States Ziaco, E., N. Miley, and F. Biondi 2020, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 547, art. 109689 (11 pp.). doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109689
Long-term hydroclimatic patterns in the Truckee-Carson Basin of the eastern Sierra Nevada, USA Biondi, F. and D. Meko 2019, Water Resources Research 55(7): 5559–5574. doi: 10.1029/2019WR024735
Hierarchical modeling of space-time dendroclimatic fields: Comparing a frequentist and a Bayesian approach Cameletti, M. and F. Biondi 2019, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 51(1): 115–127. doi: 10.1080/15230430.2019.1585175
Fire history of an old-growth ponderosa pine stand in the Sheep Range, Desert National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada, USA Kilpatrick, M., J. Roberts, and F. Biondi 2019, Tree-Ring Research 75(2): 127–138. doi: 10.3959/1536-1098-75.2.127
Tree growth patterns associated with extreme longevity: Implications for the ecology and conservation of primeval trees in a changing world Piovesan, G., F. Biondi, M. Baliva, A. Dinella, L. Di Fiore, V. Marchiano, E. Presutti Saba, G. De Vivo, A. Schettino, and A. Di Filippo 2019, Anthropocene 26, art.100199 (14 pp.). doi: 10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100199
Lessons from the wild: Slow but increasing long-term growth allows for maximum longevity in European beech Piovesan, G., F. Biondi, M. Baliva, G. De Vivo, V. Marchiano, A. Schettino, and A. Di Filippo 2019, Ecology 100(9): art. e02737 (4 pp.), doi: 10.1002/ecy.2737
Slow growth leads to longevity in temperate hardwoods Piovesan, G., F. Biondi, M. Baliva, G. De Vivo, V. Marchiano, A. Schettino, and A. Di Filippo 2019, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 100(3): art.e01560 (6 pp.), doi: 10.1002/bes2.1560
Identifying the 993-994 CE Miyake event in the oldest dated living tree in Europe Quarta, G., A. Di Filippo, L. Calcagnile, M. D’Elia, F. Biondi, E. Presutti Saba, M. Baliva, G. De Vivo, A. Schettino, and G. Piovesan 2019, Radiocarbon (in press). doi: 10.1017/RDC.2019.37
Growth rate rather than growing season length determines wood biomass in dry environments Ren, P., E. Ziaco, S. Rossi, F. Biondi, P. Prislan, and E. Liang 2019, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 271: 46-53. doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.02.031
Seasonal analysis of the 2011–2017 North American Monsoon near its northwest boundary Truettner, C., M.D. Dettinger, E. Ziaco, and F. Biondi 2019, Atmosphere 10(7): art. 420 (18 pp.), doi: 10.3390/atmos10070420
Assessing near surface hydrologic processes and plant response over a 1600 m mountain valley gradient in the Great Basin, NV, U.S.A. Devitt, D., B. Bird, B. Lyles, L. Fenstermaker, R. Jasoni, S. Strachan, J. Arnone, F. Biondi, S. Mensing, and L. Saito 2018, Water 10(4), article 420 (21 pp.), doi:10.3390/w10040420
Climatically controlled reproduction drives inter-annual growth variability in a temperate tree species Hacket-Pain, A.J., D. Ascoli, G. Vacchiano, F. Biondi, L. Cavin, M. Conedera, I. Drobyshev , I. Dorado Liñán, A.D. Friend, M. Grabner, C. Hartl, J. Kreyling, F. Lebourgeois, T. Levanic, A. Menzel, E. van der Maaten, M. van der Maaten-Theunissen, L. Muffler, R. Motta, C.-C. Roibu, I. Popa , T. Scharnweber, R. Weigel, M. Wilmking, and C. Zang 2018, Ecology Letters 21(12): 1833-1844. doi: 10.1111/ele.13158
The oldest dated tree of Europe lives in the wild Pollino massif: Italus, a strip-bark Heldreich's pine
Finding the “oldest tree in the world” is a perfect motivation for doing science because it's closely linked with exploration and discovery, which are the purest scientific motives.
 Piovesan, G., F. Biondi, E. Presutti Saba, M. Baliva, L. Calcagnile, G. Quarta, M. D’Elia, G. De Vivo, A. Schettino, and A. Di Filippo 2018, Ecology 99 (7): 1682-1684. doi: 10.1002/ecy.2231
Dating old hollow trees by applying a multistep tree-ring and radiocarbon procedure to trunk and exposed roots Piovesan, G., F. Biondi, M. Baliva, L. Calcagnile, G. Quarta, and A. Di Filippo 2018, MethodsX 5: 495-502. doi: 10.1016/j.mex.2018.05.015
Conifer radial growth response to recent seasonal warming and drought from the southwestern USA Truettner, C., W.R.L. Anderegg, F. Biondi, G.W. Koch, K. Ogle, C. Schwalm, M.E. Litvak, J.D. Shaw, and E. Ziaco 2018, Forest Ecology and Management 418: 55–62. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2018.01.044
Stem circadian phenology of four pine species in naturally contrasting climates from sky-island forests of the western USA Ziaco, E. and F. Biondi 2018, Forests 9 (7), art.396 (21 pp.). doi: 10.3390/f9070396
Moisture-driven xylogenesis in Pinus ponderosa from a Mojave Desert mountain reveals high phenological plasticity Ziaco, E., C. Truettner, F. Biondi, and S. Bullock 2018, Plant, Cell & Environment 41 (4): 823–836. DOI: 10.1111/pce.13152
Tree-ring based metrics for assessing old-growth forest naturalness
The definition of "old-growth" forest stands needs to be revised and updated in light of modern scientific research results, especially from dendrochronology.
 Di Filippo, A., F. Biondi, G. Piovesan, and E. Ziaco 2017, Journal of Applied Ecology 54 (3): 737–749. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12793
Global patterns of drought recovery Schwalm, C.R., W.R.L. Anderegg, A.M. Michalak, J.B. Fisher, F. Biondi, G. Koch, M. Litvak, K. Ogle, J.D. Shaw, A. Wolf, D.N. Huntzinger, K. Schaefer, R. Cook, Y. Wei, Y. Fang, D. Hayes, M. Huang, A. Jain, and H. Tian 2017, Nature 548, 202–205 (10 August 2017). doi:10.1038/nature23021
Tree growth, cambial phenology, and wood anatomy of limber pine at a Great Basin (USA) mountain observatory Ziaco, E. and F. Biondi. 2016, Trees - Structure and Function 30: 1507–1521. doi: 10.1007/s00468-016-1384-7
Wood cellular dendroclimatology: Testing new proxies in Great Basin bristlecone pine Ziaco, E., F. Biondi, and I. Heinrich 2016, Frontiers in Plant Science - Functional Plant Ecology 7: 1602 (13 pp.), doi: 10.3389/fpls.2016.01602
Environmental drivers of cambial phenology in Great Basin bristlecone pine Ziaco, E., F. Biondi, S. Rossi, and A. Deslauriers 2016, Tree Physiology 36: 818–831. doi: 10.1093/treephys/tpw006
Pervasive drought legacies in forest ecosystems and their implications for carbon cycle models Anderegg,W.R.L., C. Schwalm, F. Biondi, J.J. Camarero, G. Koch, M. Litvak, K. Ogle, J.D. Shaw, E. Shevliakova, A.P. Williams, A. Wolf, E. Ziaco, and S. Pacala 2015, Science 349 (6247), 528-532. DOI: 10.1126/science.aab1833
Plant-water relationships in the Great Basin Desert of North America derived from Pinus monophylla hourly dendrometer records Biondi, F. and S. Rossi 2015, International Journal of Biometeorology 59(8): 939-953. doi: 10.1007/s00484-014-0907-4
A water-balance approach for reconstructing streamflow using tree-ring proxy records Saito, L., F. Biondi, R. Devkota, J. Vittori, and J. Salas 2015, Journal of Hydrology 529(Part 2): 535–547. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.11.022
A hydrological record extension model for reconstructing streamflows from tree-ring chronologies Salas, J.D., Z. Tarawneh, and F. Biondi 2015, Hydrological Processes 29(4): 544–556. DOI: 10.1002/hyp.10160
treeclim: an R package for the numerical calibration of proxy-climate relationships Zang, C., and F. Biondi 2015, Ecography 38: 431–436. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.01335