Douglas J Shinneman
Biography
Education
Ph.D. 2006, University of Wyoming
M.A. 1996, University of Wyoming
B.S. 1989, Michigan State University
Postdoc (2009) The Nature Conservancy - U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station
Specialty
Fire ecology, landscape ecology, restoration ecology, plant ecology, landscape modeling
Science and Products
Cheatgrass and Medusahead
Invasive annual grasses, such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), are one of the most significant stressors to rangeland ecosystems in the western U.S. Their expansion and dominance across this area are the most damaging ecosystem agents on this iconic landscape.
Fire Ecology in Dynamic Ecosystems Team (FRESC)
Understanding how fire and other disturbances affect ecosystem health and resiliency is critically important for land managers and for society as a whole.
Role of Fire and Fuels in Ecological Restoration
Fuel loads are important drivers of fire behavior, and fire is an important natural process that can also be used as a tool for ecological restoration purposes. Land managers and fire experts attempt to track and manipulate fuel loads in order to assess fire risk, control fire behavior, and restore ecosystems. Thus, understanding the relationships between fire, vegetation dynamics, and fuel...
Modeling Disturbance and Ecosystem Change at Landscape Scales
Models can be used to investigate changes in ecosystems and disturbance regimes across large landscapes and over long periods of time, i.e., at spatial and temporal scales that are typically not possible or practical using field-based observational or experimental methods. These spatially explicit models can also be used to investigate complex relationships and interactions among various...
Disturbance History in Natural Communities
Disturbance is an important process in most natural communities, shaping ecosystem composition, structure, and function. Studying and quantifying natural disturbance regimes (e.g., fire) often reveal complex relationships with climate, vegetation, and topography, as well as with other disturbance agents (e.g., insects and wind). Characterizing and quantifying past disturbances regimes is also...
Long term persistence of aspen in snowdrift-dependent ecosystems
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests throughout the western United States have experienced significant mortality in recent decades, much of which has been influenced by climate variability, especially drought. In the western portion of its range, where most precipitation arrives during winter as snowfall and summers are dry, snowdrifts that...
Kretchun, Alec M; Scheller, Robert M; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Soderquist, B; Maguire, Kaitlin C.; Link, Timothy E; Strand, Eva K.Developing and optimizing shrub parameters representing sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the Northern Great Basin using the Ecosystem Demography (EDv2.2) model
Ecosystem dynamic models are useful for understanding ecosystem characteristics over time and space because of their efficiency over direct field measurements and applicability to broad spatial extents. Their application, however, is challenging due to internal model uncertainties and complexities arising from distinct qualities of the ecosystems...
Pandit, Karun; Dasthi, Hamid; Glenn, Nancy; Flores, Alejandro; Maguire, Kaitlin C.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Flerchinger, Gerald; Fellow, AaronClimate and disturbance influence self-sustaining stand dynamics of aspen (Populus tremuloides) near its range margin
Species that are primarily seral may form stable (self-sustaining) communities under certain disturbance regimes or environmental conditions, yet such populations may also be particularly vulnerable to ecological change. Aspen (Populus spp.) are generally considered seral throughout the northern hemisphere, including P. tremuloides, the most...
Shinneman, Douglas J.; McIlroy, SusanIntegrating anthropogenic factors into regional-scale species distribution models — A novel application in the imperiled sagebrush biome
Species distribution models (SDM) that rely on regional-scale environmental variables will play a key role in forecasting species occurrence in the face of climate change. However, in the Anthropocene, a number of local-scale anthropogenic variables, including wildfire history, land-use change, invasive species, and ecological restoration...
Requena-Mullor, Juan M.; Maguire, Kaitlin C.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Caughlin, T. TrevorThe ecological uncertainty of wildfire fuel breaks: examples from the sagebrush steppe
Fuel breaks are increasingly being implemented at broad scales (100s to 10,000s of square kilometers) in fire‐prone landscapes globally, yet there is little scientific information available regarding their ecological effects (eg habitat fragmentation). Fuel breaks are designed to reduce flammable vegetation (ie fuels), increase the safety and...
Shinneman, Douglas J.; Germino, Matthew J.; Pilliod, David S.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Vaillant, Nicole; Coates, Peter S.Fuels guide and database for intact and invaded big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) ecological sites—User manual
The Fuels Guide and Database (FGD) is intended to provide fuel loading and vegetation information for big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) ecological sites in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (hereinafter the NCA) in southern Idaho. Sagebrush ecosystems in the NCA and throughout much of the Great Basin are...
Shinneman, Douglas J.; Welty, Justin L.; Arkle, Robert S.; Pilliod, David S.; Glenn, Nancy F.; McIlroy, Susan K.; Halford, Anne S.Intraspecific niche models for ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) suggest potential variability in population-level response to climate change
Unique responses to climate change can occur across intraspecific levels, resulting in individualistic adaptation or movement patterns among populations within a given species. Thus, the need to model potential responses among genetically distinct populations within a species is increasingly recognized. However, predictive models of future...
Maguire, Kaitlin C.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Potter, Kevin M.; Hipkins, Valerie D.A conservation paradox in the Great Basin—Altering sagebrush landscapes with fuel breaks to reduce habitat loss from wildfire
Interactions between fire and nonnative, annual plant species (that is, “the grass/fire cycle”) represent one of the greatest threats to sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems and associated wildlife, including the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). In 2015, U.S. Department of the Interior called for a “science-based strategy to...
Shinneman, Douglas J.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Coates, Peter S.; Germino, Matthew J.; Pilliod, David S.; Vaillant, Nicole M.Estimating vegetation biomass and cover across large plots in shrub and grass dominated drylands using terrestrial lidar and machine learning
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has been shown to enable an efficient, precise, and non-destructive inventory of vegetation structure at ranges up to hundreds of meters. We developed a method that leverages TLS collections with machine learning techniques to model and map canopy cover and biomass of several classes of short-stature vegetation...
Anderson, Kyle E.; Glenn, Nancy F.; Spaete, Lucas P.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Pilliod, David S.; Arkle, Robert; McIlroy, Susan; Derryberry, DeWayne R.Methodological considerations of terrestrial laser scanning for vegetation monitoring in the sagebrush steppe
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) provides fast collection of high-definition structural information, making it a valuable field instrument to many monitoring applications. A weakness of TLS collections, especially in vegetation, is the occurrence of unsampled regions in point clouds where the sensor’s line-of-sight is blocked by intervening...
Anderson, Kyle E.; Glenn, Nancy; Spaete, Lucas; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Pilliod, David S.; Arkle, Robert; McIlroy, Susan; Derryberry, DeWayne R.Lidar aboveground vegetation biomass estimates in shrublands: Prediction, uncertainties and application to coarser scales
Our study objectives were to model the aboveground biomass in a xeric shrub-steppe landscape with airborne light detection and ranging (Lidar) and explore the uncertainty associated with the models we created. We incorporated vegetation vertical structure information obtained from Lidar with ground-measured biomass data, allowing us to scale shrub...
Li, Aihua; Dhakal, Shital; Glenn, Nancy F.; Spaete, Luke P.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Pilliod, David S.; Arkle, Robert; McIlroy, SusanPotential influence of wildfire in modulating climate-induced forest redistribution in a central Rocky Mountain landscape
IntroductionClimate change is expected to impose significant tension on the geographic distribution of tree species. Yet, tree species range shifts may be delayed by their long life spans, capacity to withstand long periods of physiological stress, and dispersal limitations. Wildfire could theoretically break this biological inertia by killing...
Campbell, John L.; Shinneman, Douglas J.Pre-USGS Publications
Disentangling the Effects of Multiple Fires on Spatially Interspersed Sagebrush Communities
There is a need to better assimilate local landscape-scale research on vegetation characteristics within a broader understanding of fire regimes to aid management and treatment responses to fire.
Long Term Persistence of Aspen in Snowdrift-Dependent Ecosystems
Quaking aspen forests throughout much of the western United States have experienced significant mortality in recent decades, and one cause is moisture deficit.
Post-fire Aspen Regeneration Varies in Response to Winter Precipitation
Aspen is generally considered an early-seral species that benefits from fire, but increases in fire activity across the western United States could affect aspen in unpredictable ways.
Adapting a Model to Estimate Gross Primary Production of the Sagebrush Ecosystem
The sagebrush-steppe in western North America is a spatially heterogeneous ecosystem shaped by complex dynamics, making modeling characteristics such as ecosystem primary production extremely difficult.
Encyclopedia Chapter Focuses on North American Sagebrush Steppe and Shrubland
In a chapter of The Encyclopedia of World’s Biomes titled “North American Sagebrush Steppe and Shrubland,” USGS Research Fire Ecologist Doug Shinneman documents the unique characteristics of the sagebrush biome.
Climate and Disturbance Influence Dynamics of Aspen Near its Range Margin
Recent declines in aspen populations have occurred in the western U.S., especially along drought-sensitive margins of its range or where fire exclusion and herbivory have promoted community transition.
Integrating Anthropogenic Factors into Regional-Scale Species Distribution Models
Species distribution models help researchers explore how environmental conditions influence the spatial pattern of species occurrence over large areas.
A Database Tool for Estimating Fuel Loadings Across a Range of Intact to Degraded Sagebrush Habitats in Southern Idaho
USGS researchers created an interactive Fuels Guide and Database, providing vegetation and fuel loading information and photographs for big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) ecological sites in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA) in southern Idaho.
Altering Sagebrush Landscapes with Fuel Breaks to Save Them from Wildfire
Linear fuel breaks have long been used to help suppress fire in the Great Basin, and thousands of miles of new fuel breaks may be constructed in coming years to protect sagebrush ecosystems, including greater sage-grouse habitat.