Brian W Miller, Ph.D.
Dr. Brian Miller is a USGS Research Ecologist with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, one of nine centers in the United States charged with providing the best-available climate science to resource managers.
Brian's current focus is on using scenario planning and simulation modeling (state-and-transition simulations, agent-based models) to inform natural resource management in the Rocky Mountains and northern Great Plains. He is also a co-organizer of the Indigenous Phenology Network and an instructor with the National Conservation Training Center. He has an interdisciplinary background in social-ecological systems, and has used a broad range of methods – including simulation modeling, institutional analysis, fluvial geomorphology, livelihood decision modeling, and remote sensing – to examine the interactions of climate, ecosystems, and resource management in East Africa, the Galápagos Islands, and the western U.S.
Brian earned a B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he also worked at the Carolina Population Center. His dissertation focused on how conservation areas and land use changes have affected access to drought resource areas in East Africa, how these changes in resource access have influenced the livelihood decisions of Maasai pastoralists, and how livelihood decisions and resource management institutions have affected rangeland rivers.
Science and Products
Supporting the National Park Service Midwest Region Bison Management Plan
Refining Guidance for Incorporating Climate Science and Scenario Planning into National Park Service Resource Stewardship Strategies
Understanding Species' Range Shifts in Response to Climate Change: Results from a Systematic National Review
Improving Projections of Wildlife and Landscapes for Natural Resource Managers
Informing Climate Change Adaptation Planning in National Parks
Webinar: Using State-and-Transition Simulation Models to Guide Sustainable Management of Ecosystems: Three Case Studies from across the US
Science and Products
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Supporting the National Park Service Midwest Region Bison Management Plan
The bison, which has long served as the symbol of the Department of the Interior, became the official national mammal of the United States in 2016. Bison played a key role in shaping the grasslands of the Great Plains for millennia, but today they are confined to unnaturally small ranges. National parks, including four in the Great Plains, provide a major last bastion for wild bison. Herds in BadlRefining Guidance for Incorporating Climate Science and Scenario Planning into National Park Service Resource Stewardship Strategies
One of the biggest challenges facing resource managers today is not knowing exactly when, where, or how climate change effects will unfold. To help federal land managers address this need, the North Central CASC has been working with the National Park Service to pioneer an approach for incorporating climate science and scenario planning into NPS planning processes, in particular Resource StewardshUnderstanding Species' Range Shifts in Response to Climate Change: Results from a Systematic National Review
Climate change represents one of the foremost drivers of ecological change, yet its documented impacts on biodiversity remain uncertain and complex. Although there have been many published studies on species shifting their geographic ranges in response to climate change, it is still challenging to identify the specific mechanisms and conditions that facilitate range shifts in some species and notImproving Projections of Wildlife and Landscapes for Natural Resource Managers
Managing natural resources is fraught with uncertainties around how complex social-ecological systems will respond to management actions and other forces, such as climate. Modeling tools have emerged to help grapple with different aspects of this challenge, but they are often used independently. The purpose of this project is to link two types of commonly-used simulation models (agent-based modelsInforming Climate Change Adaptation Planning in National Parks
One of the biggest challenges facing resource managers today is not knowing exactly when, where, or how climate change effects will unfold. In order to plan for this uncertain future, managers have begun to use a tool known as scenario planning, in which climate models are used to identify different plausible climate conditions, known as “scenarios”, for a particular area. In a previous project,Webinar: Using State-and-Transition Simulation Models to Guide Sustainable Management of Ecosystems: Three Case Studies from across the US
View this webinar to learn more about species distribution modeling, management of Southeast ecosystems, and Greater sage-grouse habitats. - Data
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