Phillip van Mantgem
Biography
EDUCATION
- Ph.D., Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 2001
- M.S., Plant Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 1996
- B.S., Botany, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 1991
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Conservation biology
- Fire ecology
- Forest ecology
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Research Ecologist, USGS, Redwood Field Station, Arcata, CA, 2008 - Present
- Ecologist, USGS, Sequoia and Kings Canyon Field Station, Three Rivers, CA, 2000 - 2008
Science and Products
WERC Fire Science
WERC scientists are defining the past, present, and future of wildfires for wildlife and human communities. Explore this webpage to learn about specific, ongoing projects across California and parts of Nevada.
Understanding Fire-caused Vegetation Type Conversion in Southwestern Conifer Forests under Current and Future Climate Conditions
Fire size, frequency, overall area burned, and severity are increasing across many vegetation types in the southwestern U.S. In many cases, large contiguous areas are burning repeatedly at high severity, triggering vegetation type conversions (VTC), where once-dominant coniferous forests fail to return to their pre-fire state, often transitioning to shrub- or grass-dominated systems. Loss of...
Drought and Western Forests
USGS WERC's Dr. Phil van Mantgem and his collaborators are using plot-based methods to describe change and vulnerability to drought in the forests of the western United States. A focus of this work is the installation and maintenance of large (1 ha) monitoring plots. Many other vegetation monitoring strategies are based on small (0.1 ha) plots, which may not be sufficient to detect changes in...
Forest Restoration in the Western U.S.
This project uses new and existing field data to assess forest restoration treatment effects across broad spatial and temporal scales. WERC's Dr. Phil van Mantgem and project partners are considering the effects of restoration treatments in terms of forest structure, forest stand development, subsequent tree mortality patterns mortality, and how climate influences the success or failure of...
Fire Severity Trends in the Western U.S.
How will increased drought affect forest fire severity? WERC’s Dr. Phil van Mantgem is testing the idea increased drought stress may affect forest fire severity independent of fire intensity. Drought stress prior to fire can affect tree health, potentially resulting in a higher sensitivity to fire-induced damage. Thus, with drought there may be ongoing increases in fire severity (the number of...
Redwood Field Station
The Redwood Field Station is located in Arcata, CA. Click on the following tab to learn more.
Characterizing a link in the terrestrial carbon cycle: a global overview of individual tree mass growth
Forests sequester the majority of the terrestrial biosphere’s carbon and are key components of the global carbon cycle, potentially contributing substantial feedbacks to ongoing climatic changes. It is therefore remarkable that no consensus yet exists about the fundamental nature of tree mass growth (and thus carbon sequestration rate). Specifically, does tree mass growth rate increase,...
Forest resistance to extended drought enhanced by prescribed fire in low elevation forests of the Sierra Nevada
Prescribed fire reduces fire hazards by removing dead and live fuels (small trees and shrubs). Reductions in forest density following prescribed fire treatments (often in concert with mechanical treatments) may also lessen competition so that residual trees might be more likely to survive when confronted with additional stressors, such as drought...
van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Caprio, Anthony C.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Das, Adrian
U.S. Geological Survey wildland fire science strategic plan, 2021–26
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 Vegetation community monitoring: Species composition and biophysical gradients in Klamath Network parks
The Klamath Network of the National Park Service consists of six park units located in northern California and southern Oregon. The Network began implementing a vegetation monitoring protocol in 2011 to identify ecologically significant vegetation trends in the parks. The premise of the protocol is that multivariate analyses of species composition...
Smith, Sean B.; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Odion, Dennis Patterns of conifer invasion following prescribed fire in grasslands and oak woodlands of Redwood National Park, California
The invasion, or “encroachment”, of native conifers commonly occurs in the absence of frequent fire in deciduous woodlands and grasslands of the Pacific Northwest, USA. To effectively target restoration activities, managers require a better understanding of the outcomes of prescribed fire and the spatial patterns of conifer invasions. We examined...
van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Wright, Micah Charles; Engber, Eamon A Seed production patterns of surviving Sierra Nevada conifers show minimal change following drought
Reproduction is a key component of ecological resilience in forest ecosystems, so understanding how seed production is influenced by extreme drought is key to understanding forest recovery trajectories. If trees respond to mortality-inducing drought by preferentially allocating resources for reproduction, the recovery of the stand to pre-drought...
Wright, Micah Charles; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Das, Adrian; Keeley, Jon Effects of postfire climate and seed availability on postfire conifer regeneration
Large, severe fires are becoming more frequent in many forest types across the western United States and have resulted in tree mortality across tens of thousands of hectares. Conifer regeneration in these areas is limited because seeds must travel long distances to reach the interior of large burned patches and establishment is jeopardized by...
Stewart, Joseph A E; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Young, Derek J N; Shive, Kristen L.; Preisler, Haiganoush K.; Das, Adrian; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Keeley, Jon; Safford, Hugh D.; Wright, Micah Charles; Welch, Kevin R; Thorne, James H. Integrating the evidence for a terrestrial carbon sink caused by increasing atmospheric CO2
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]) is increasing, which increases leaf‐scale photosynthesis and intrinsic water‐use efficiency. These direct responses have the potential to increase plant growth, vegetation biomass, and soil organic matter; transferring carbon from the atmosphere into terrestrial ecosystems (a carbon sink). A...
Walker, Anthony P.; De Kauwe, Martin G; Bastos, Ana; Belmecheri, Soumaya; Georgiou, Katerina; Keeling, Ralph F.; McMahon, Sean M.; Medlyn, Belinda E.; Moore, David J P; Norby, Richard J.; Zaehle, Sönke; Anderson-Teixeira, Kristina J.; Battipaglia, Giovanna; Brienen, Roel J W; Cabugao, Kristine G; Cailleret, Maxime; Campbell, Elliott; Canadell, Josep G; Ciais, Philippe; Craig, Matthew E; Ellsworth, David S; Farquhar, Graham D; Fatichi, Simone; Fisher, Joshua B.; Frank, David C; Graven, Heather; Gu, Lianhong; Haverd, Vanessa; Heilman, Kelly A; Heimann, Martin; Hungate, Bruce A; Iverson, Colleen M.; Joos, Fortunat; Jiang, Mingkai; Keenan, Trevor F.; Knauer, Jurgen; Korner, Christian; Leshyk, Victor O; Leuzinger, Sebastian; Liu, Yao; MacBean, Natasha; Malhi, Yadvinder; McVicar, Tim R; Penuelas, Josep; Pongratz, Julia; Powell, A Shafer; Riutta, Terhi; Sabot, Manon E B; Schleucher, Juergen; Sitch, Stephen; Smith, William K.; Sulman, Benjamin N.; Taylor, Benton; Terrer, Cesar; Torn, Margaret S.; Treseder, Kathleen K; Trugman, Anna T; Trumbore, Susan E.; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Voelker, Steve L; Whelan, Mary E; Zuidema., Peiter A Whitebark pine in the national parks of the Pacific states: An assessment of population vulnerability
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a long-lived tree found in high-elevation forests of western North America that is declining due to the non-native white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) and climate-driven outbreaks of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB). The National Park Service established a monitoring program for...
Jules, Erik S; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Iberle, Benjamin G; Nesmith, Jonathan C B; Rochefort, Regina M A large database supports the use of simple models of post-fire tree mortality for thick-barked conifers, with less support for other species
BackgroundPredictive models of post-fire tree and stem mortality are vital for management planning and understanding fire effects. Post-fire tree and stem mortality have been traditionally modeled as a simple empirical function of tree defenses (e.g., bark thickness) and fire injury (e.g., crown scorch). We used the Fire and Tree...
Cansler, C. Alina; Hood, Sharon M.; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Varner, J. Morgan The Fire and Tree Mortality Database, for empirical modeling of individual tree mortality after fire
Wildland fires have a multitude of ecological effects in forests, woodlands, and savannas across the globe. A major focus of past research has been on tree mortality from fire, as trees provide a vast range of biological services. We assembled a database of individual-tree records from prescribed fires and wildfires in the United States. The Fire...
Cansler, C. Alina; Hood, Sharon M.; Varner, J. Morgan; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Agne, Michelle C.; Andrus, Robert A.; Ayres, Matthew P.; Ayres, Bruce D.; Bakker, Jonathan D.; Battaglia, Michael A.; Bentz, Barbara J.; Breece, Carolyn R.; Brown, James K.; Cluck, Daniel R.; Coleman, Tom W.; Corace, R. Gregory; Covington, W. Wallace; Cram, Douglas S.; Cronan, James B.; Crouse, Joseph E.; Das, Adrian; Davis, Ryan S.; Dickinson, Darci M.; Fitzgerald, Stephen A; Fule, Peter Z.; Ganio, Lisa M.; Grayson, Lindsay M.; Halpern, Charles B.; Hanula, Jim L.; Harvey, Brian J.; Hiers, J. Kevin; Huffman, David W.; Keifer, MaryBeth; Keyser, Tara L.; Kobziar, Leda N.; Kolb, Thomas E.; Kolden, Crystal A.; Kopper, Karen E.; Kreitler, Jason R.; Kreye, Jesse K.; Latimer, Andrew M.; Lerch, Andrew P.; Lombardero, Maria J.; McDaniel, Virginia L.; McHugh, Charles W.; McMillin, Joel D.; Moghaddas, Jason J.; O'Brien, Joseph J.; Perrakis, Daniel D. B.; Peterson, David W.; Pritchard, Susan J.; Progar, Robert A.; Raffa, Kenneth F.; Reinhardt, Elizabeth D.; Restaino, Joseph C.; Roccaforte, John P.; Rogers, Brendan M.; Ryan, Kevin C.; Safford, Hugh D.; Santoro, Alyson E.; Shearman, Timothy M.; Shumate, Alice M.; Sieg, Carolyn H.; Smith, Sheri L.; Smith, Rebecca J.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Stuever, Mary; Stevens, Jens; Stoddard, Michael T.; Thies, Walter G.; Vaillant, Nicole M.; Weiss, Shelby A.; Westlind, Douglas J.; Woolley, Travis J; Wright, Micah Charles Tree-ring evidence of forest management moderating drought responses: Implications for dry, coniferous forests in the southwestern United States
Drought, coupled with rising temperatures, is an emerging threat to many forest types across the globe. At least to a degree, we expect management actions that reduce competition (e.g., thinning, prescribed fire, or both) to improve growth of residual trees during drought. The influences of management actions and drought on individual tree growth...
van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Kerhoulas, Lucy P; Sherriff, Rosemary L.; Wenderott, Zachary James Subalpine sentinels: Understanding & managing whitebark pine in California
A hardy inhabitant of the subalpine zone of western North America, whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a keystone tree species in California’s subalpine forests, where it regularly defines the upper treeline in the Sierra Nevada, Cascade, Warner, and Klamath Mountains. Walking portions of the John Muir Trail in the southern Sierra Nevada, moving...
Slaton, Michèle; Mayer, Marc; Gross, Shana; Nesmith, Johathan; Dudney, Joan; van Mantgem, Phillip J.; Butz, Ramona J.
SneakPeek: USGS Public Lecture, Can Our Western Forests Take the Heat?
- Tree death rates have more than doubled over the last few decades in old-growth forests of our western states, possibly reflecting increasing temperatures, with potentially serious consequences for wildlife, fire risks, and the global carbon cycle
- Rising regional temperatures have lengthened the summer drought, likely stressing trees and leading to higher
12 Days of Conifers: Where the Forest Meets the Sea: Seabirds, Conifers, and Wildfire
It’s Day 12 of 12 Days Of Conifers and today we feature a tale of land and sea, involving two conifers and the little seabird that nests in their highest branches.
12 Days of Conifers: Whitebark at Risk
It’s Day 8 of 12 Days Of Conifers, and our featured species today is the whitebark pine (Pinus albucaulis), a high elevation species that often forms the upper treeline in the Sierra Nevada, Cascade, Warner, and Klamath ranges.
12 Days of Conifers: Coring the Prickly Ponderosa
For Day 2 of 12 Days Of Conifers, we’re going to start with the stately Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and explore how scientists use tree rings to learn about tree growth.
Research Spotlight: New Models Demonstrate the Role of Climate and Seed Production in Post-fire Forest Regeneration
A new publication from USGS scientists and collaborators assessed how post-fire climate and seed production influence conifer regeneration following severe wildfire. The results allow researchers and managers to predict where forests will recover from future fires and where management action may be appropriate.