简介

My research focuses on North American forests, especially in the eastern United States. As a biogeographer, I am interested in the patterns that emerge from the interactions of the physical environment, biotic processes, and disturbance. Currently, I am working on several projects that involve field work, GIS, and archival research. As part of an NSF-funded collaboration with OSU and the US Forest Service, I am using witness trees surveyed two centuries ago to develop a map of presettlement forest regions in southeastern Ohio. This map will serve as our baseline for investigating changes to the forests since settlement. A future change that we can likely expect in our hemlock forests are high rates of mortality caused by the invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) that is spreading westward from the Appalachians. Another ongoing project involves the establishment of permanent plots in the Hocking Hills to monitor changes associated with HWA infestation. A third project centers around a GIS-based water balance tool I developed for modeling moisture demand and availability within a landscape. Assessing moisture stress is important for understanding contemporary forest patterns, as well as the potential response to changing climate conditions. Feel free to contact me if you might be interested in participating in any of these research projects.