Amy Symstad
Biography
Amy Symstad is a plant ecologist whose research seeks to advance the understanding of prairie plant communities, their natural and anthropogenic drivers, and management practices to sustain and restore them. Most of her work serves National Park Service units in the northern Great Plains, where altered fire and grazing regimes, invasive species, and climate change present conservation and management challenges.
Education
- Ph.D., Ecology, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 1998.
- S.B., Environmental Engineering Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992
Professional Experience
- 2003-present: Research Ecologist, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
- 1998-2002: Prairie Restoration Ecologist, Lost Mound Field Station, Illinois Natural History Survey
Partners
- National Park Service
- North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
- USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station Forest and Grassland Laboratory
Science and Products
Support the Development of a National Park Service Midwest Region bison stewardship strategy
Bison have played a key role in shaping the grasslands of the Great Plains for millennia. National Parks are a major last bastion for wild herds of the national mammal and symbol of the Department of the Interior. However, even as the National Park Service aims to maintain as natural as possible ecosystem conditions within its parks’ boundaries, managers regularly make decisions affecting...
Grazing resources for integrated conservation of bison and native prairie at Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Badlands National Park (BADL) contains one of the largest protected expanses of mixed-grass prairie in the United States, much of which supports a herd of nearly wild bison. The park nevertheless is too small to accommodate bison’s natural nomadic behavior, which in the past resulted in their ephemeral but intense influence on Great Plains grasslands. This research is assessing the spatial...
An adaptive management framework to control invasive annual brome grasses in Northern Great Plains parks (ABAM)
Invasion by annual brome grasses (cheatgrass and Japanese or field brome) into National Park Service units (parks) in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) impacts park historical and ecological integrity by reducing native plant diversity and altering ecosystem functioning. Parks currently implement few management actions targeting annual bromes, and consequently these species persist and have even...
What role does prescribed fire play in managing annual bromes in Northern Great Plains grasslands?
Prescribed fire is used in grasslands throughout the Northern Great Plains National Park Service units (parks) to manage fuel loads, control nonnative species, and maintain a vital ecosystem process. Questions about its effects in areas with invasive annual brome grasses require answers to ensure its application produces desired results. Using an experimental approach at two parks in South...
Integrating climate change scenario planning into National Park Service resource management
Resource managers are tasked with managing complex systems with inherent uncertainty around how those systems might change with time and respond to management actions in a changing climate. Scenario planning—often implemented as a qualitative, participatory exercise for exploring multiple possible futures—is a valuable tool for addressing uncertainty. At the same time, quantitative information...
Integrated conservation of bison and native prairie at Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Badlands National Park contains the largest contiguous bison range in the core of the species’ historic range on the northern Great Plains. The park nevertheless is too small to accommodate natural movements of free-ranging bison. As a result, historically intense-but-ephemeral effects of grazing by nomadic bison have been supplanted by relatively consistent effects of grazing by resident...
Projecting the Future Encroachment of Woody Vegetation into Grasslands of the Northern Great Plains by Simulating Climate Conditions and Possible Management Actions
Maintaining the native prairie lands of the Northern Great Plains (NGP), which provide an important habitat for declining grassland species, requires anticipating the effects of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and climate change on the region’s vegetation. Specifically, climate change threatens NGP grasslands by increasing the potential encroachment of native woody...
Management opportunities and research priorities for Great Plains grasslands
The Great Plains Grassland Summit: Challenges and Opportunities from North to South was held April 10-11, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. The geographical focus for the summit was the entire Great Plains. The summit was designed to provide syntheses of information about key grassland topics of interest in the Great Plains; networking and learning...
Finch, Deborah M; Baldwin, Carolyn; Brown, David P; Driscoll, Katelyn P.; Fleishman, Erica; Ford, Paulette L.; Hanberry, Brice; Symstad, Amy; Van Pelt, Bill; Zabel, Richard Implications of climate scenarios for Badlands National Park resource management
Badlands National Park (BADL) hosts a myriad of natural and cultural resources, including bison and black-footed ferrets, the mixed grass prairie they live in, 37-75 million-year-old fossils, and historic buildings, trails, and roads. All are sensitive to climate, but anticipating precisely how each will be affected by climate change is difficult...
Miller, Brian W.; Symstad, Amy; Schuurman, Gregor Co-producing simulation models to inform resource management: a case study from southwest South Dakota
Simulation models can represent complexities of the real world and serve as virtual laboratories for asking “what if…?” questions about how systems might respond to different scenarios. However, simulation models have limited relevance to real-world applications when designed without input from people who could use the simulated scenarios to...
Miller, Brian W.; Symstad, Amy J.; Frid, Leonardo; Fisichelli, Nicholas A.; Schuurman, Gregor W.
Model-based scenario planning to inform climate change adaptation in the Northern Great Plains—Final report
Public SummaryWe worked with managers in two focal areas to plan for the uncertain future by integrating quantitative climate change scenarios and simulation modeling into scenario planning exercises.In our central North Dakota focal area, centered on Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, managers are concerned about how changes in...
Symstad, Amy J.; Miller, Brian W.; Friedman, Jonathan M.; Fisichelli, Nicholas A.; Ray, Andrea J.; Rowland, Erika; Schuurman, Gregor W. Multiple methods for multiple futures: Integrating qualitative scenario planning and quantitative simulation modeling for natural resource decision making
Scenario planning helps managers incorporate climate change into their natural resource decision making through a structured “what-if” process of identifying key uncertainties and potential impacts and responses. Although qualitative scenarios, in which ecosystem responses to climate change are derived via expert opinion, often suffice for...
Symstad, Amy J.; Fisichelli, Nicholas A.; Miller, Brian W.; Rowland, Erika; Schuurman, Gregor W. Woody encroachment in northern Great Plains grasslands: Perceptions, actions, and needs
The United States Northern Great Plains (NGP) has a high potential for landscape-scale conservation, but this grassland landscape is threatened by encroachment of woody species. We surveyed NGP land managers to identify patterns in, and illustrate a broad range of, individual managers' perceptions on (1) the threat of woody encroachment to...
Symstad, Amy J.; Leis, Sherry A. Resource management and operations in central North Dakota: Climate change scenario planning workshop summary November 12-13, 2015, Bismarck, ND
The Scaling Climate Change Adaptation in the Northern Great Plains through Regional Climate Summaries and Local Qualitative-Quantitative Scenario Planning Workshops project synthesizes climate data into 3-5 distinct but plausible climate summaries for the northern Great Plains region; crafts quantitative summaries of these climate futures for two...
Fisichelli, Nicholas A.; Schuurman, Gregor; Symstad, Amy J.; Ray, Andrea; Friedman, Jonathan M.; Miller, Brian; Rowland, Erika Resource management and operations in southwest South Dakota: Climate change scenario planning workshop summary January 20-21, 2016, Rapid City, SD
The Scaling Climate Change Adaptation in the Northern Great Plains through Regional Climate Summaries and Local Qualitative-Quantitative Scenario Planning Workshops project synthesizes climate data into 3-5 distinct but plausible climate summaries for the northern Great Plains region; crafts quantitative summaries of these climate futures for two...
Fisichelli, Nicholas A.; Schuurman, Gregor W.; Symstad, Amy J.; Ray, Andrea; Miller, Brian; Cross, Molly; Rowland, Erika Preserving prairies: Understanding temporal and spatial patterns of invasive annual bromes in the Northern Great Plains
Two Eurasian invasive annual brome grasses, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus), are well known for their impact in steppe ecosystems of the western United States where these grasses have altered fire regimes, reduced native plant diversity and abundance, and degraded wildlife habitat. Annual bromes are also abundant...
Ashton, Isabel; Symstad, Amy J.; Davis, Christopher; Swanson, Daniel J. Application of MC1 to Wind Cave National Park: Lessons from a small-scale study: Chapter 8
MC1 was designed for application to large regions that include a wide range in elevation and topography, thereby encompassing a broad range in climates and vegetation types. The authors applied the dynamic global vegetation model MC1 to Wind Cave National Park (WCNP) in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota, USA, on the ecotone between...
King, David A.; Bachelet, Dominique M.; Symstad, Amy J. Two approaches for incorporating climate change into natural resource management planning at Wind Cave National Park
Wind Cave National Park (WICA) protects one of the world’s longest caves, has large amounts of high quality, native vegetation, and hosts a genetically important bison herd. The park’s relatively small size and unique purpose within its landscape requires hands-on management of these and other natural resources, all of which are interconnected....
Symstad, Amy J.; Long, Andrew J.; Stamm, John; King, David A.; Bachelet, Dominque M.; Norton, Parker A.