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Rachel A Loehman, Ph.D.

My research focuses on understanding complex, multi-scale dynamics of natural and coupled human-natural systems, particularly focused on impacts of disturbance (climate changes, wildfires, insect outbreaks, erosion and sedimentation, invasive species) on landscapes, ecological communities, and natural and cultural resources.

Research summary

My projects integrate field studies, in-situ instrumentation and monitoring, ecosystem and fire models, geospatial and statistical modeling and analysis, and ecological theory to provide new insights into changing climates, disturbance regimes, and landscapes. Applications include development of strategies for restoration of forests and fire regimes, assessments of landscape resilience and vulnerability, reconstruction of long-term human-environment interactions, predictive models of climate-vegetation-disturbance interactions, quantification of fire impacts on above- and belowground cultural and natural resources, and development of new tools and techniques for quantifying and managing shifting environments. I work in coastal, boreal, and tundra ecosystems in Alaska as well as forest and woodland ecosystems in the interior west and southwestern U.S.  

Professional Experience

  • 2014 - Present  Research Landscape Ecologist, US Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, Alaska

  • 2009-2014       Research Ecologist, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station Fire Sciences Lab, Missoula, Montana

  • 2007-2009       Research Scientist, Systems for Environmental Management, Missoula, Montana

  • 2007-2008       Climate Change Analyst, National Center for Landscape Fire Analysis, The University of Montana

  • 2006-2007      Post-doctoral Research Scientist, Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, The University of Montana

  • 2004-2006      National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, The University of Montana

  • 2001-2004      NASA Earth Systems Science Fellow, Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, The University of Montana

  • 1997-2000      GIS/Remote Sensing Specialist, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D.  2006   The University of Montana  Ecosystems Ecology

  • M.A.   1999   University of New Mexico     Biogeography

  • B.A.    1995   University of New Mexico     Anthropology

Affiliations and Memberships*

  • Association for Fire Ecology (Board member, 2017-present)

  • Alaska Fire Science Consortium (Board member, 2016-present)

  • Society for American Archaeology

  • USGS Fire Science Communities of Practice

  • Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) Wildfires Collaboration Team

Science and Products

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Image Collage of Landsat, pollinator, and volcanologist

Synthesis of the new North American tree-ring fire-scar network: using past and present fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire

Increasing wildfire activity in much of North America is having severe impacts on society and ecosystems. Climate change is a key driver of changing fire regimes across North America, with varying expressions across the continent. Modern fire records, while useful, are too short to fully characterize the complex patterns and non-linear dynamics of fire-climate relationships that are required to un
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John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
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Synthesis of the new North American tree-ring fire-scar network: using past and present fire-climate relationships to improve projections of future wildfire

Increasing wildfire activity in much of North America is having severe impacts on society and ecosystems. Climate change is a key driver of changing fire regimes across North America, with varying expressions across the continent. Modern fire records, while useful, are too short to fully characterize the complex patterns and non-linear dynamics of fire-climate relationships that are required to un
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Image Collage of Landsat, pollinator, and volcanologist

Enhancing Climate Adaptation for Native Communities in Western Alaska: Linking Pollinator Diversity and Abundance to Berry Production in a Rapidly Changing Environment

Berry-producing plants, a key resource in Alaska Native communities, provide primary subsistence and have been integral to maintaining cultural cohesion, sense of place, and physical ties to the surrounding landscape. Despite the importance of berry-producing plants, relatively little is known about their vulnerability to changes in climate and environmental conditions. The dynamics of insect popu
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers
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Enhancing Climate Adaptation for Native Communities in Western Alaska: Linking Pollinator Diversity and Abundance to Berry Production in a Rapidly Changing Environment

Berry-producing plants, a key resource in Alaska Native communities, provide primary subsistence and have been integral to maintaining cultural cohesion, sense of place, and physical ties to the surrounding landscape. Despite the importance of berry-producing plants, relatively little is known about their vulnerability to changes in climate and environmental conditions. The dynamics of insect popu
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WERC Forest fire management in Yosemite using prescribed burning

Science to Help Move From Mortality to Recovery in Western Forests and Woodlands

Healthy forests and woodlands in the western United States provide many important benefits, including providing habitat for wildlife, forage for livestock, and clean water for fish and human use. Yet climate change and other stressors, from wildfires and insect attacks to severe droughts, are causing unprecedented tree die offs across the region, threatening many of these ecosystem services. Follo
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers
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Science to Help Move From Mortality to Recovery in Western Forests and Woodlands

Healthy forests and woodlands in the western United States provide many important benefits, including providing habitat for wildlife, forage for livestock, and clean water for fish and human use. Yet climate change and other stressors, from wildfires and insect attacks to severe droughts, are causing unprecedented tree die offs across the region, threatening many of these ecosystem services. Follo
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Flames consume woody fuels in a managed wildfire, New Mexico

Ecosystems on the Edge: Landscape and Fire Ecology of Forests, Deserts, and Tundra

Climate changes and interacting disturbances such as wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, and erosion and flooding can perturb and reorganize ecosystems.
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Land Change Science Program, Land Management Research Program, Alaska Science Center
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Ecosystems on the Edge: Landscape and Fire Ecology of Forests, Deserts, and Tundra

Climate changes and interacting disturbances such as wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, and erosion and flooding can perturb and reorganize ecosystems.
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Land Cover Estimates for the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands; 1973, 2002, and 2017

These raster images represent continuous surfaces of estimated land cover types and probabilities for the western Kenai Peninsula circa 1973, circa 2002, and circa 2017.
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Alaska Science Center
USGS ecologists map and monitor vegetation and landscape characteristics at long-term ecological monitoring sites on the YKD
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Fire ecologists discuss wildfire impacts at a repeat fire site in Wrangells-St. Elias National Park, AK
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Image: Installing Tide Gauges
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Large storm surges in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, AK
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Field camp in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, western AK
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An Alaska Native village on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, western AK
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Fire ecologists record post-fire information
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A smoke plume from a wildland fire rises above a spruce stand in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, AK
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Person writing on a data sheet in a burned area of the Funny River fire on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
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A fire burns in the distance. Looking over muskeg and small previously burned forest.
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Person writing on a data sheet in a burned area of the Funny River fire on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
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A managed wildfire burns in a Ponderosa pine stand, New Mexico
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hand holding a sherd, a fragment of an ancient vessel
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fire burning in a small area of a forest
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Many people placing fire instruments wrapped in fireproof coverings to record data from wildfires
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An archaeologist and fire scientist looking at the burned ground of a forest to assess impacts of wildfires on archaeological si
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A managed wildfire in New Mexico demonstrates application of wildland fire science for forest restoration and risk reduction
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Flames from a managed wildfire consume surface fuels, New Mexico
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Flames consume woody fuels in a managed wildfire, New Mexico
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A convective smoke plume from a managed wildfire rises above Ponderosa pine trees, New Mexico
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Large flames from a controlled fire experiment rise into the air as instruments record data
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Filter Total Items: 33

Modeled interactions of mountain pine beetle and wildland fire under future climate and management scenarios for three western US landscapes

Mountain pine beetle (MPB) is a native disturbance agent across most pine forests in the western US. Climate changes will directly and indirectly impact frequencies and severities of MPB outbreaks, which can then alter fuel characteristics and wildland fire dynamics via changes in stand structure and composition. To investigate the importance of MPB to past and future landscape dynamics, we used t
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Alaska Science Center

A collaborative agenda for archaeology and fire science

Humans have influenced global fire activity for millennia and will continue to do so into the future. Given the long-term interaction between humans and fire, we propose a collaborative research agenda linking archaeology and fire science that emphasizes the socioecological histories and consequences of anthropogenic fire in the development of fire management strategies today.
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Alaska Science Center

Climate and landscape controls on old-growth western juniper demography in the northern Great Basin, USA

Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook.) woodlands have persisted for millennia in semiarid parts of the northern Great Basin, USA, providing critical habitat for plant and animal species. Historical records suggest that the establishment of western juniper is strongly associated with regional climatic variability. For example, the abundance of western juniper pollen and macrofossils measure
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Alaska Science Center, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center

Adaptation strategies and approaches for managing fire in a changing climate

As the effects of climate change accumulate and intensify, resource managers juggle existing goals and new mandates to operationalize adaptation. Fire managers contend with the direct effects of climate change on resources in addition to climate-induced disruptions to fire regimes and subsequent ecosystem effects. In systems stressed by warming and drying, increased fire activity amplifies the pac
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Alaska Science Center

Fire and forests in the 21st century: Managing resilience under changing climates and fire regimes in USA forests

Higher temperatures, lower snowpacks, drought, and extended dry periods have contributed to increased wildfire activity in recent decades. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of large fires, the cumulative area burned, and fire suppression costs and risks in many areas of the USA. Fire regimes are likely to change due to interactions among climate, fire, and other stressors and di
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Alaska Science Center

Improved fire severity mapping in the North American boreal forest using a hybrid composite method

Fire severity is a key driver shaping the ecological structure and function of North American boreal ecosystems, a biome dominated by large, high-intensity wildfires. Satellite-derived burn severity maps have been an important tool in these remote landscapes for both fire and resource management. The conventional methodology to produce satellite-inferred fire severity maps generally involves compa
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Alaska Science Center

Impacts of climate changes and amplified natural disturbance on global ecosystems

Natural disturbances maintain biological diversity and landscape heterogeneity and initiate ecosystem renewal and reorganization. However, the severity, frequency, and extent of many disturbances have increased substantially in recent decades as the result of anthropogenic climate change. Disturbances can be discrete, short-duration events, such as wildfires or hurricanes, or can exert persistent,
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Alaska Science Center

Predicting wildfire impacts on the prehistoric archaeological record of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA

Wildfires of uncharacteristic severity, a consequence of climate changes and accumulated fuels, can cause amplified or novel impacts to archaeological resources. The archaeological record includes physical features associated with human activity; these exist within ecological landscapes and provide a unique long-term perspective on human–environment interactions. The potential for fire-caused dama
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Alaska Science Center

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 external stakeholders, the Strategic Plan is aligned wi
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Alaska Science Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Geologic Hazards Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)

Native American fire management at an ancient wildland–urban interface in the Southwest United States

The intersection of expanding human development and wildland landscapes—the “wildland–urban interface” or WUI—is one of the most vexing contexts for fire management because it involves complex interacting systems of people and nature. Here, we document the dynamism and stability of an ancient WUI that was apparently sustainable for more than 500 y. We combine ethnography, archaeology, paleoecology
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Alaska Science Center

Drivers of wildfire carbon emissions

Increasing fire frequency and severity may shift boreal forests from carbon sinks to carbon sources and amplify climate warming. Analysis indicates that that fuel characteristics are important drivers of wildfire carbon emissions across a broad range of North America’s boreal forest.
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Alaska Science Center

Four decades of land-cover change on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska: Detecting disturbance-influenced vegetation shifts using landsat legacy data

Across Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, disturbance events have removed large areas of forest over the last half century. Simultaneously, succession and landscape evolution have facilitated forest regrowth and expansion. Detecting forest loss within known pulse disturbance events is often straightforward given that reduction in tree cover is a readily detectable and measurable land-cover change. Land-cov
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Alaska Science Center
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May is Wildfire Awareness Month

Learn how USGS scientists provide information, work with partners, and develop tools to help make decisions before, during, and after wildfires in...

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Science and Products

*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government