Forest ThreatNet

 Special publications

• Special issue highlights cutting-edge research in landscape ecology. The state of  landscape pattern analysis science is assessed in a new special issue of the journal Landscape Ecology. Appearing three decades after the first scientific papers on landscape patterns, this special issue assesses the state of the science and suggests future research directions. Threat Center researchers organized the issue and contributed to four papers. “The special issue demonstrates that research on landscape patterns remains an essential and vibrant topic in the field,” said Jennifer Costanza, lead editor and faculty member at North Carolina State University. Read more...

• Annual summaries of forest health are key to our understanding of forest change over short and long time frames. Annual Forest Health Monitoring publications are now more accessible than ever, thanks to fully re-designed web pages of the U.S. Forest Service Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) program.  “Forest Health Monitoring: National Status, Trends, and Analysis 2020” is the twentieth such summary in a series published by the Southern Research Station. The entire series is available to be browsed, searched and downloaded by year, topic, or chapter, along with highlights and additional resources.

• The Forest Service Research and Development newsletter highlights science news across the agency. Check out the latest issue, and subscribe to receive future issues.

 Center awards & honors

• Kurt Riitters honored with the 2019 Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award. Forest Service scientist Kurt Riitters was named the 2019 Distinguished Landscape Ecologist by the North American Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology(IALE-NA) at their annual meeting held in Fort Collins, CO. The award recognizes individuals whose thinking and writing have helped to shape the field of landscape ecology and is the highest honor bestowed by the society.  Read More about Dr. Riitters' award...
• EFETAC scientists received multiple Forest Service awards in 2019. Research Ecologist Qinfeng Guo (pictured) received the 2018/19 Southern Research Station Director’s Distinguished Scientist Award; the Threat Center’s High-resolution Forest Mapping (HiForm) Team received the 2018/19 Station Director's Science Achievement Award; Biologist Michelle Baumflek, along with SRS scientists John Schelhas and Jim Chamberlain, received the 2018/19 Station Director’s Partnership Award. In addition to these science and partnership awards, Administrative Support Assistant Valerie Cooper received the 2018/19 Station Director’s Business Operations Support Award. Read more...
  
• Tree range shift paper wins award from the Ecological Society of America. The paper “Divergence of species responses to climate change,” coauthored by Kevin Potter, a North Carolina State University scientist cooperating with the Eastern Threat Center, has been awarded the 2019 W.S. Cooper Award by the Ecological Society of America. Learn more about the study and the award here. 

Select new Center publications

• Guo, Q., S. Fei, K. M. Potter, A. M. Liebhold, and J. Wen. 2019. Tree diversity regulates forest pest invasion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116:7382-7386.
• Hallema, D., G. Sun, P. Caldwell, F. Robinne, K. Bladon, S. Norman, Y. Liu, E. Cohen, and S. McNulty. 2019. Wildland fire impacts on water yield across the contiguous United States. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-238. Asheville, USA, US Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southern Research Station.
• Niles, M., S. Wiener, R. Schattman, G. Roche-McNally, and J. Reyes. 2019. Seeing isn’t always believing: crop loss and climate change perceptions among farm advisors. Environmental Research Letters 14: 044003.
• Nunez‐Mir, G. C., Q. Guo, M. Rejmánek, B. V. Iannone III, and S. Fei. 2019. Predicting invasiveness of exotic woody species using a traits‐based framework. Ecology 100:e02797.
• Potter, K. M., M. E. Escanferla, R. M. Jetton, G. Man, and B. S. Crane. 2019. Prioritizing the conservation needs of United States tree species: Evaluating vulnerability to forest insect and disease threats. Global Ecology and Conservation 18:e00622.
• Wickham, J., and K. Riitters. 2019. Influence of high-resolution data on the assessment of forest fragmentation. Landscape Ecology 34:2169-2182.
• Zhang, Y., W. Li, G. Sun, and J. S. King. 2019. Coastal wetland resilience to climate variability: A hydrologic perspective. Journal of Hydrology 568:275-284.

• Visit Treesearch for access to more than 50,000 full-text, peer-reviewed Forest Service publications.

Personnel updates

Threat Center scientist Bjorn Brooks has taken a position with the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies in Asheville, NC. Bjorn (BJ) spent five years with the Threat Center as an ORISE Fellow. He is a computational scientist specialized in applying scientific computing to geoscience applications, environmental monitoring, and prediction. His Threat Center work included investigating ecosystem dynamics through remote sensing and land surface phenology. At NCICS he plans to continue with data-driven work in climate and environmental science, helping the center develop greater scientific cloud computing capacities.

Threat Center scientist Johnny Boggs began serving in a detail position in January that allows him to devote his expertise to the Southern Experimental Forest (EF) Network. There are 19 EFs across 10 southern states. Boggs is co-leading network activities with SRS biologist Stephanie Laseter. Work includes facilitating data access and archiving; helping to coordinate regional scale forest research; and making connections with scientists to aid in field data collection at EFs. Boggs will continue in his current Threat Center position, while devoting time to the EF&R initiative during his detail. Read more about the EF&R initiative in CompassLive.  

Adam Alsamadisi is joining the Threat Center's Asheville group in June as a new ORISE post-doctoral research Fellow. Adam holds PhD and Master's degrees in geography from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a BA from Rhodes College in International Relations and Environmental Science. Adam will join a new Threat Center project focusing on decision analysis as a tool for working with regional natural resource management partners under Shared Stewardship. Welcome Adam!

Kristen Emmett is joining the Threat Center's Asheville group as a new ORISE post-doctoral research Fellow in September. Kristen holds a PhD in Ecology & Environmental Science from Montana State University and a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Oregon. Kristen will join a new Threat Center project studying forest dynamics in relation to forest management activities, land use patterns and change, climate variability, and other drivers across the Southern Region. Welcome Kristen!