@skookumchuck.bsky.social
Assistant Teaching Professor of Ecology @umontana & research fellow @USFS Missoula Fire Sciences Lab // Terrestrial ecosystem ecology, 🔥, soils and biogeochemistry // Affinity for C and N fluxes
On the hunt for some fat (for a semi-arid climate) mollisol A horizons. #soilsluething
Soil texturing by feel may be more art than science but it sure is a gratifying skill to master (for those soil inclined 😉). @umontana.bsky.social
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Please see our new paper just published in Global Change Biology: “Intensifying fire season aridity portends ongoing expansion of severe wildfire in western US forests”. 🧪🌍🔥
I am pleased to share the most significant study that I have so far contributed to. We find overwhelming evidence that mechanical thinning and prescribed fire reduce subsequent wildfire severity across seasonally dry forests in the western USA. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Alright, let’s finally get to the bottom of this question: how do shorter high-severity fire return intervals impact soil carbon fluxes in subalpine conifer forests? Undergraduate research interns are on the case. 🕵️
Let's dive into this a bit. A short and very incomplete thread on US Forest Service research. 1/
Using a technoeconomic approach we found that emissions were cut by 57% vs. direct land 💩 application. From an economic standpoint, increasing P % of recovered CB is critical. Current recovery costs ~$119/kg P - room to improve.
A step toward a more circular and sustainable nutrient economy!
It was a fun experience teaming up with UW engineers to explore the biogeochemistry of phosphorus recovery from dairy waste using cyanobacteria!
Can cow poop and cyanobacteria help close the nutrient loop? 💩🧪♻️
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Mondo!
An incredible wildcard gift from a student today—a hand-knit blanket for my newborn son, designed to mimic a soil profile! She hasn’t taken my soils course yet, so horizons were a creative shot in the dark. Thick, dark mollic epipedon up top, or clay- and Fe-rich kandic Bt? Mollisol or Ultisol?
New required reading for our soil lab sections next fall?!
What a resource! The overwhelmingly favorite topic in my physical geography course this year was atmospheric processes & clouds. This looks like a banger.
Some of us worship the old gods.
#FireCon2025 CALL FOR PROPORSALS is OPEN 🔥submit your proposal by May 15th to host a workshop, special session, or fire circle discussion with us in NOLA⚜️
Details here: afefirecongress.org/call-for-pro...
Have you ever had someone you care about the impacted by a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake, a wildfire?
Evidence based decision-making helps keep us safe and ecosystems healthy.
Science helps protect us. Now it’s our turn to fight to protect the scientific enterprise in the US. #missoula 🧪
As above, so below? It’s quite clear western conifer forests are facing substantial environmental forcing from both climate and associated fire regimes changes. How are below ground support systems for trees - such as beneficial mycorrhizae being impacted? How does this impact regeneration?
In 2022, 68% of US faculty were non-tenure track, up from 47% in 1987, yet the “vanishing tenure-track” trend remains largely absent from graduate student recruitment conversations. An important reality to confront, especially over these next 4 years. www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/re...
Today I submitted my first research proposal as a PI. Not for a big grant, but a v v small one I helped write with an undergraduate. It may not be the typical career metric in my field, but for me, it feels like success. Especially in this new political climate. Early UG research support is 🔑
Wow! Talk about an A+ conceptual figure 👏🏽
Fighting everyday here @umontana.bsky.social to combat “the extinction of experience” for my students - education doesn’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) a textbook. To quote Leopold “Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?”
Congrats Nathan. Great work!
New paper in #EcologicalMonographs w/ @monicagturner.bsky.social & E. Mavencamp! Among sparse/non-forested areas 34 years after the severe 1988 Yellowstone Fires:
- ~1/2 appear “locked in”;
- Plant communities shifted to resemble meadows;
- Aboveground C repartitioned w/ 96% stored in dead wood.
Compelling data from Leuthold et al. highlighting the importance of pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) in soil C stabilization in grasslands. Over 60% of labeled PyOM-C and 50% of PyOM-N remained after 10 years. Needless to say, fire is critical for biogeochem function. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Our new paper in #Ecosystems! Short-interval #fires in lodgepole pine change aboveground N stocks (a lot) but not total ecosystem N, tho available NO3- goes up. #GreaterYellowstone #FireEcology #NSFfunded W/ @nathankiel.bsky.social C Cleveland, J Warren, R Heumann
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Unsettling that the location of the lab will change but potentially not the science?
The Association for Fire Ecology is now on Bluesky!🦋 Follow us to stay up-to-date with Fire Ecology Journal articles, fire ecology news and job posts, and Fire Ecology Chats podcast episodes. Learn more about us here: fireecology.org
The W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation is hiring an Assistant Teaching Professor of Geographic Information Systems (NTT). Come be my colleague! I’d be happy to share more insights with those interested.
apply.interfolio.com/160413
