Geneva W Chong, Ph.D.
Biography
Ph.D. in Ecology, 2002, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. Dissertation: Multi-scale sampling of native and non-native plant diversity: examples of data analyses and applications.
M.S. in Biology, 1994, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thesis: Recommendations to improve revegetation success in a piñon-juniper woodland in New Mexico: a hierarchical approach.
B.S. in Agriculture, 1991, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Research Interests:
Geneva Chong is an ecologist whose worldview is shaped by undergraduate training in plant genetics and traditional agricultural systems and graduate training in landscape ecology. Her current work examines the interactions between climate and land-use change on ecological processes such as fire regimes and plant productivity, which influence habitat quality and use by mammals such as mule deer and birds such as Greater sage-grouse. Previous work ranged from testing methods to restore pinyon-juniper woodlands with native grass species in New Mexico to designing methods to quantify plant diversity and detect rare native and non-native (early detection) plant species. Geneva was born in New Hampshire; earned a B.S. in Agriculture from Cornell University, an M.S. in Biology from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in Ecology from Colorado State University; and she has been located at the Jackson, Wyoming, Field Station of the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center since 2005. She began her career with the National Park Service in New Mexico as a Student Conservation Association (SCA) intern and then a coop student. She has worked across the western US, in Szechuan Province, China, the Peruvian Amazon, and the Mosquito Coast of Honduras.
Science and Products
Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI)
The WLCI is a long-term science based effort to enhance aquatic and terrestrial habitats at a landscape scale in Southwest Wyoming, while facilitating responsible development.
Impacts of climate change on habitat quality: plant phenology interactions with animal use and fitness
Weather and climate impact terrestrial wildlife habitat through their influences on plant productivity. Plant phenology – the timing of life-history events such as green-up, flowering and senescence – provides one indicator of the timing and magnitude of productivity. Changes and variability in plant phenology in space and time are indicators of habitat quality, which is a driver of fitness...
Identification of Fire Refugia in Rocky Mountain Ecosystems of the U.S. and Canada: Development and Application of the Refugium Concept for Biodiversity Conservation over Large Spatial and Temporal Scales
We described the climate space of fire regimes in northwestern North America (Whitman and others 2015), and we are refining an approach to identify fire refugia – areas that do not burn or burn with lower severity through multiple fire events. We continue our collaboration to test the function of refugia for biodiversity conservation under current and future climate and fire scenarios. We...
Geneva Chong's Past Projects
These are Geneva Chong's past projects.
Continued Capacity Building in the North-Central U.S.: Tribal Engagement and PhenoCam Analysis
Climate change is poised to alter natural systems, the frequency of extreme weather, and human health and livelihoods. In order to effectively prepare for and respond to these challenges in the north-central region of the U.S., people must have the knowledge and tools to develop plans and adaptation strategies. This project was a continuation of an effort begun in 2013 to build stakeholders’...
Human activities and weather drive contact rates of wintering elk
Wildlife aggregation patterns can influence disease transmission. However, limited research evaluates the influence of anthropogenic and natural factors on aggregation. Many managers would like to reduce wildlife contact rates, driven by aggregation, to limit disease transmission. We develop a novel analytical framework to quantify how management...
Janousek, William Michael; Graves, Tabitha; Berman, Ethan; Chong, Geneva W.; Cole, Eric K; Dewey, Sarah; Johnston, Aaron; Cross, Paul Comparative performance and trend of remotely sensed phenology and productivity metrics across the Western United States
Vegetation phenology and productivity play a crucial role in surface energy balance, plant and animal distribution, and animal movement and habitat use and can be measured with remote sensing metrics including start of season (SOS), peak instantaneous rate of green-up date (PIRGd), peak of season (POS), end of season (EOS), and integrated...
Graves, Tabitha; Berman, Ethan Edward; Mikle, Nathaniel; Merkle, J. A.; Johnston, Aaron; Chong, Geneva W. Influence of fire refugia spatial pattern on post-fire forest recovery in Oregon’s Blue Mountains
ContextFire regimes in many dry forests of western North America are substantially different from historical conditions, and there is concern about the ability of these forests to recover following severe wildfire. Fire refugia, unburned or low-severity burned patches where trees survived fire, may serve as essential propagule sources that enable...
Downing, William M; Krawchuk, Meg A.; Meigs, Garrett W; Haire, Sandra L.; Coop, Jonathan D.; Walker, Ryan B; Whitman, Ellen; Chong, Geneva W.; Miller, Carol
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2017 annual report
The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) was established in 2008 to address the scientific and conservation questions associated with land use changes because of energy development and other factors in southwest Wyoming. Over the past decade, partners from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), State and Federal land management agencies,...
Zeigenfuss, Linda C.; Aikens, Ellen; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Anderson, Patrick J.; Assal, Timothy J.; Bowen, Zachary H.; Chalfoun, Anna D.; Chong, Geneva W.; Eddy-Miller, Cheryl A.; Germaine, Stephen S.; Graves, Tabitha; Homer, Collin G.; Huber, Christopher; Johnston, Aaron; Kauffman, Matthew J.; Manier, Daniel J.; McShane, Ryan R.; Miller, Kirk A.; Monroe, Adrian P.; Ortega, Anna; Walters, Annika W.; Wyckoff, Teal B.
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2016 annual report
This is the ninth annual report highlighting U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) science and decision-support activities conducted for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI). The activities address specific management needs identified by WLCI partner agencies. In fiscal year (FY) 2016, there were 26 active USGS WLCI science-based projects...
Bowen, Zachary H.; Aikens, Ellen; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Anderson, Patrick J.; Assal, Timothy J.; Chalfoun, Anna D.; Chong, Geneva W.; Eddy-Miller, Cheryl A.; Garman, Steven L.; Germaine, Stephen S.; Homer, Collin G.; Johnston, Aaron; Kauffman, Matthew J.; Manier, Daniel J.; Melcher, Cynthia P.; Miller, Kirk A.; Walters, Annika W.; Wheeler, Jerrod D.; Wieferich, Daniel J.; Wilson, Anna B.; Wyckoff, Teal B.; Zeigenfuss, Linda C. Vegetation responses to sagebrush-reduction treatments measured by satellites
Time series of vegetative indices derived from satellite imagery constitute tools to measure ecological effects of natural and management-induced disturbances to ecosystems. Over the past century, sagebrush-reduction treatments have been applied widely throughout western North America to increase herbaceous vegetation for livestock and wildlife....
Johnston, Aaron; Beever, Erik A.; Merkle, Jerod; Chong, Geneva W.
Monitoring the southwestern Wyoming landscape—A foundation for management and science
Natural resource monitoring involves repeated collections of resource condition data and analyses to detect possible changes and identify underlying causes of changes. For natural resource agencies, monitoring provides the foundation for management and science. Specifically, analyses of monitoring data allow managers to better understand effects...
Manier, Daniel J.; Anderson, Patrick J.; Assal, Timothy J.; Chong, Geneva W.; Melcher, Cynthia P. Ecology and space: A case study in mapping harmful invasive species
The establishment and invasion of non-native plant species have the ability to alter the composition of native species and functioning of ecological systems with financial costs resulting from mitigation and loss of ecological services. Spatially documenting invasions has applications for management and theory, but the utility of maps is...
Brunn, Stanley D.; Dodge, Martin; David T. Barnett; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Chong, Geneva W.; Stohlgren, Thomas J.; Sunil Kumar; Holcombe, Tracy R. Topographic and fire weather controls of fire refugia in forested ecosystems of northwestern North America
Fire refugia, sometimes referred to as fire islands, shadows, skips, residuals, or fire remnants, are an important element of the burn mosaic, but we lack a quantitative framework that links observations of fire refugia from different environmental contexts. Here, we develop and test a conceptual model for how predictability of fire refugia varies...
Krawchuk, Meg A.; Haire, Sandra L.; Coop, Jonathan D.; Parisien, Marc-Andre; Whitman, Ellen; Chong, Geneva W.; Miller, Carol
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2015 annual report
This is the eighth annual report highlighting U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) science and decision-support activities conducted for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI). The activities address specific management needs identified by WLCI partner agencies. In 2015, USGS scientists continued 24 WLCI projects in 5 categories: (1)...
Bowen, Zachary H.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Anderson, Patrick J.; Assal, Timothy J.; Bartos, Timothy T.; Chalfoun, Anna D.; Chong, Geneva W.; Dematatis, Marie K.; Eddy-Miller, Cheryl A.; Garman, Steven L.; Germaine, Stephen S.; Homer, Collin G.; Kauffman, Matthew J.; Huber, Christopher C.; Manier, Daniel J.; Melcher, Cynthia P.; Miller, Kirk A.; Norkin, Tamar; Sanders, Lindsey E.; Walters, Annika W.; Wilson, Anna B.; Wyckoff, Teal B. The climate space of fire regimes in north-western North America
Aim. Studies of fire activity along environmental gradients have been undertaken, but the results of such studies have yet to be integrated with fire-regime analysis. We characterize fire-regime components along climate gradients and a gradient of human influence. Location. We focus on a climatically diverse region of north-western North America...
Whitman, Ellen; Batllori, Enric; Parisien, Marc-André; Miller, Carol; Coop, Jonathan D.; Krawchuk, Meg A.; Chong, Geneva W.; Haire, Sandra L.
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2014 annual report
This is the seventh report produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) to detail annual activities conducted by the USGS for addressing specific management needs identified by WLCI partners. In FY2014, there were 26 projects, including a new one that was completed, two others that were...
Bowen, Zachary H.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Anderson, Patrick J.; Assal, Timothy J.; Bartos, Timothy T.; Biewick, Laura R; Boughton, Gregory K.; Chalfoun, Anna D.; Chong, Geneva W.; Dematatis, Marie K.; Eddy-Miller, Cheryl A.; Garman, Steven L.; Germaine, Stephen S.; Homer, Collin G.; Huber, Christopher; Kauffman, Matthew J.; Latysh, Natalie; Manier, Daniel J.; Melcher, Cynthia P.; Miller, Alexander; Miller, Kirk A.; Olexa, Edward M.; Schell, Spencer; Walters, Annika W.; Wilson, Anna B.; Wyckoff, Teal B.