Synergistic impacts of wildfire and habitat fragmentation
The area burned in the Australian 2019-20 bushfires was the largest in a single season globally. This area included the Wog Wog Habitat Fragmentation Experiment in southeastern Australia where native Eucalyptus forest was fragmented in 1987 for the establishment of an exotic pine plantation. Despite the escalation of anthropogenic disturbances, we know little about their interactions' impacts on biodiversity. We document the response of a Eucalyptus forest community following a wildfire in an experimentally fragmented forest. We found that fire intensity and severity were greater in experimentally fragmented plots compared to continuous Eucalyptus forest controls. A surprising result was higher burn intensity/severity at the center of experimental fragments compared to fragment edges. This result went against our hypothesis that proximity to an exotic pine plantation matrix would lead to higher burn intensity and severity. Satellite imagery suggested that fragment cores were drier than edges before the fire, potentially explaining this result. Collaborators: Dr. Kendi Davies, Dr. Brett Melbourne Poster at Ecological Society of America Meeting 2021 Background video on Wog Wog |
Accounting for species misclassification in dynamic occupancy models
Biodiversity surveys are prone to various types of observation error, including false positive/negative detection, and misclassification (e.g., 'unknown', morphospecies designations, taxonomic identifications coarser than species). Disregarding these types of species misclassification in biodiversity monitoring datasets can bias estimates of ecologically important quantities such as demographic rates, occurrence, and species richness. We present a joint classification-occupancy model makes contributions to occupancy model development through accommodating extinction and colonization dynamics, allowing for additional uncertain 'morphospecies' designations, and making use of individual specimens with known species identities in a semi-supervised setting. |
Estimating aboveground tree-based carbon stock in Washington
Funded through an NSF INTERN grant, I am completing an internship with The Nature Conservancy Washington assessing carbon storage and sequestration across timberland managed and owned by different agencies including state, private, and tribal to strategically guide the implementation of carbon offset projects. My work focuses on the Olympic Peninsula, WA and will be generalized to the larger Emerald Edge area across the Pacific Northwest. To scale this effort across other regions and influence other landowners to adopt altered forest management practices, we need to demonstrate the ecological, financial, and carbon benefits from extended harvesting to increase the uptake of improved forest management. All these efforts require a better insight into the spatial distribution of carbon in the landscape. |
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Global flagship restoration case studies
Flagship case studies are selected from thousands of restoration actions around the world to document how effective and long-lasting restoration practices can provide broad social and environmental benefits for local people. These case studies are pioneering efforts with a proven track record of success and potential for scaling. They provide inspiration and valuable learning experiences for other restoration journeys. Case studies are hosted by the Restor platform. I am part of the research team at Forestoration International that researches, verifies, and updates each case study in a systematized format, including interviews with the main practitioners and stakeholders. |
Understory microclimate modeling: solar radiation estimation methods comparison
Forest canopy structure regulates understory solar radiation and temperature. Mapping canopy structure can therefore improve both predictions of abiotic changes following disturbance and subsequent responses of ground dwelling species. Previous work using solar raytrace models makes solar radiation estimates based off of canopy structure data from airborne lidar. We compare forest understory estimates of solar radiation between raytrace models derived from drone-derived structure-from-motion and airborne lidar data. We evaluate the tradeoffs in data collection, post-processing, and model fitting. Collaborators: Scott Nordstrom, Matt Bitters, Dr. Brett Melbourne, Dr. Kendi Davies, Dr. Keith Musselman |
Contributions of drones to measuring forest traits
Traits are notoriously challenging to measure at a desirably large spatial extent with traditional field methods, which limits the discoveries that forest ecologists can make with these data. There is a ripe opportunity for unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) to contribute to ecology through forest trait mapping. Here we review what forest traits can be derived from UAS-based data, describe considerations unique to UAS fieldwork and post-processing, and dive into a case example of how researchers derive a particular trait, carbon stock, from UAS-based data. Collaborators: Dr. Megan Cattau, Victoria Scholl, Joe McGlinchy, Dr. Jennifer Balch EcoEvoRxiv pre-print Poster at Ecological Society of America Meeting 2019 |