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
Fighting wildfires and reducing their negative effects on natural resources costs billions of dollars annually in the U.S. We will develop the Wildfire Trends Tool (WTT), a data visualization and analysis tool that will calculate and display wildfire trends and patterns for the western U.S. based on user-defined regions of interest, time periods, and ecosystem types. The WTT will be publicly...
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.
Understanding how fire and other disturbances affect ecosystem health and resiliency is critically important for land managers and for society as a whole.
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...
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 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...
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wildland Fire Science Strategic Plan defines critical, core fire science capabilities for understanding fire-related and fire-responsive earth system processes and patterns, and informing management decision making. Developed by USGS fire scientists and executive leadership, and informed by conversations with...
Steblein, Paul F.; Loehman, Rachel A.; Miller, Mark P.; Holomuzki, Joseph R.; Soileau, Suzanna C.; Brooks, Matthew L.; Drane-Maury, Mia; Hamilton, Hannah M.; Kean, Jason W.; Keeley, Jon E.; Mason, Robert R.; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Meldrum, James R.; Molder, Edmund B.; Murphy, Sheila F.; Peterson, Birgit; Plumlee, Geoffrey S.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; York, Alison
Increased fire frequency in semi-arid ecosystems can alter biochemical soil properties and soil processes that underpin ecosystem structure and functioning, thus threatening native plant communities and the species that rely on them. However, there is much uncertainty about the magnitude of change as soils are exposed to more fires, because soil...
Nichols, Leslie; Shinneman, Douglas J.; McIlroy, Susan; de Graaff, Marie-Anne Dryland ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle, including regulating the inter-annual global carbon sink. Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) are essential tools that can help us better understand carbon cycling in different ecosystems. Currently, there is limited knowledge of the performance of these models in drylands...
Dashti, Hamid; Pandit, Karun; Glenn, Nancy F.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Flerchinger, Gerald N.; Hudak, Andrew A.; de Graaf, Marie Anne; Flores, Alejandro N; Ustin, Susan L.; Ilangakoon, Nayani; Fellows, Aaron W. QuestionsRelative to a landscape with a mosaic of two sagebrush community types and increasing fire frequency, we asked: (a) do vegetation characteristics vary significantly with number of times burned for each sagebrush community; (b) how do vegetation responses to different fire frequencies compare between the two sagebrush communities?...
Shinneman, Douglas J.; McIlroy, Susan; de Graaff, Marie-Anne 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. Wildfires in sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) dominated semi-arid ecosystems in the western United States have increased dramatically in frequency and severity in the last few decades. Severe wildfires often lead to the loss of native sagebrush communities and change the biogeochemical conditions which make it difficult for sagebrush to regenerate....
Pandit, Karun; Dashti, Hamid; Hudak, Andrew A.; Glenn, Nancy F.; Flores, Alejandro N; Shinneman, Douglas J. Altered climate and changing fire regimes are synergistically impacting forest communities globally, resulting in deviations from historical norms and creation of novel successional dynamics. These changes are particularly important when considering the stability of a keystone species such as quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), which...
McIlroy, Susan; Shinneman, Douglas J. 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, Aaron The principal motivation for this study is that sagebrush-steppe ecosystems are undergoing significant state changes, and land managers are challenged with optimizing their resources for both short- and long-term use. Yet, limited knowledge is available regarding how the sagebrush-steppe will respond to environmental changes related to...
Glenn, Nancy F.; Flores, Alejandro N; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Pilliod, David 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, Susan 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. Trevor 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.
There is uncertainty about the magnitude of change semi-arid soils experience as they are exposed to more fires.
Dynamic global vegetation models can reveal much about carbon cycling in different ecosystems, yet the performance of these models in drylands is complicated partly by the heterogeneity of the vegetation and hydrometeorological conditions.
There is a gap in understanding the impacts of wildfire on vegetation at broad spatial and temporal scales, highlighting the need for accurate global dynamic vegetation models.
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.
Quaking aspen forests throughout much of the western United States have experienced significant mortality in recent decades, and one cause is moisture deficit.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Species distribution models help researchers explore how environmental conditions influence the spatial pattern of species occurrence over large areas.
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.
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.