Achievement

Ecosystem Informatics IGERT trainee Alan Tepley (Forest Science and Geosciences) has been collaborating with IGERT co-PI Enrique Thomann (Mathematics), IGERT PI Julia Jones (Geosciences), and faculty advisors in the US Forest Service (F.J. Swanson and T.A. Spies) to understand how variable severity fire influences forest stand structure and development. Many forests do not have a simple fire regime with only high or only low severity fire; instead, in variable severity fire systems fire may be low severity in some locations or times and high severity at other locations or times. Existing analytical mathematical models do not work well for variable severity, so researchers have had to use simulation modeling Alan’s work has shown that it is possible to extend existing analytical mathematical models to the case of variable severity fire, producing rich insights about the process and the resulting forest conditions.