Resource Management:
The Climate Connection
Effective resource management hinges on the broader understanding of how an ecosystem responds to human and natural perturbations across a range of time and spatial scales. Managers must anticipate disturbances on scales ranging from local to landscape-wide and foresee both the short- and long-term behavior of the natural system. One of the most difficult phenomena to predict is the response of vegetation to future climate change, making imperative studies of the paleoecological proxy record to determine how communities have responded to past events.
Research initiatives by Sara Hotchkiss, the Bryson Distinguished Professor, aim to inform resource managers about the complexities of climate-ecosystem dynamics on both historic and prehistoric time scales. She and her colleagues are undertaking studies in Wisconsin, the Midwest and Hawaii that examine the patterns and rates of environmental change important to decision makers.
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Vegetation Reconstructions on the northwest Wisconsin sand plain.
Modern oak-dominated vegetation is more similar to vegetation from 4000 years ago than to vegetation at any time in the past 4000 years. |
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The Marching Bear Mound Group at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa was built by Native Americans during the Late Woodland Period, 1400-750 years ago. CPEP scientists are studying lake sediments from the park to reconstruct fire and vegetation patterns at the time the mounds were built.
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Research Projects
Sensitivity of Tropical Island Montane Cloud Forests to Climate Change
- Lloyd Loope (USGS Haleakala National Park), Tom Giambelluca (University of Hawaii-Manoa), David Foote (USGS Hawaii Volcanoes National Park), Sara Hotchkiss, Shelley Crausbay
Effects of Sphagnum Expansion on Hawaiian Wet Forests
- Sara Hotchkiss and Peter Vitousek (Stanford University)
Soils and Society in the Hawaiian Ecosystem
- Patrick Kirch (University of California-Berkeley), Michael Graves (University of Hawaii-Manoa), Thegn Ladefoged (University of Washington-Seattle), Shripad Tuljapurkar and Peter Vitousek (Stanford University), Oliver Chadwick (University of California-Santa Barbara), Sara Hotchkiss, Marjeta Jeraj.
Complex Interactions of Land, People, and Lakes
- Sara Hotchkiss, Steve Carpenter, Monica Turner, Tony Ives, William Brock, Tim Kratz, Tim Allen, Jim Kitchell, John Magnuson, William Provencher, Eric Tripplett, Mara Alexander.
Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of a Disturbance-Dominated Landscape
- Sara Hotchkiss, Randy Calcote (University of Minnesota), Beth Lynch (Loras College), Michael Tweiten, David Alexander, Robert Booth.
Fire and Vegetation History of Effigy Mounds National Park
- Sara Hotchkiss, Sarah McGuire Bogen
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