Stephen T Jackson, Ph.D.
Dr. Stephen Jackson is the Senior Advisor on Biodiversity and Climate Change for the Climate Adaptation Science Center network.
Stephen T. Jackson is Senior Advisor on Biodiversity and Climate Change. Prior to this role, he served as Director of the Southwest and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers, partnerships between the U.S. Geological Survey and multi-university consortia respectively led by the University of Arizona and the University of Oklahoma. In this position, he worked to foster effective engagement between researchers and resource-management decision-makers. He is also Adjunct Professor of Geosciences and of Natural Resources & Environment at the University of Arizona. Before joining USGS in 2012, he was at the University of Wyoming, where he was founding Director of the Program in Ecology and is now Professor Emeritus of Botany.
Jackson is currently a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science, the Advisory Editorial Board for Trends in Ecology and Evolution, and the Editorial Advisory Board for The Holocene, and has previously served on editorial boards for Ecology, Ecology Letters, Frontiers in Ecology & Environment, Ecological Monographs, Ecosystems, Journal of Vegetation Science, Diversity & Distributions, Wetlands, and New Phytologist. He is a past Fellow of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program (2006), a Visiting Research Fellow at Merton College, University of Oxford (2012), and a Scholar in Residence at the Ucross Foundation (2012). He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009) and the Ecological Society of America (2014). Jackson was awarded the 2011 George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Medal from the University of Wyoming, and the 2015 Excellence in Leadership Award from the U.S. Geological Survey. He was listed as a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2016, 2017, and 2019.
Jackson’s research has focused on using the past 25,000 years of earth history as a source of natural experiments to explore ecological responses to environmental changes of various kinds, rates, and magnitudes. His interests also include the history of science, and he has edited two English translations of classic works by Alexander von Humboldt, with a third nearing completion.
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington
M.S. in Botany, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
B.A. in Botany, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 48
Vegetation history since the last glacial maximum in the Ozark highlands (USA): A new record from Cupola Pond, Missouri Vegetation history since the last glacial maximum in the Ozark highlands (USA): A new record from Cupola Pond, Missouri
The timing and drivers of vegetation dynamics and formation of no-analog plant communities during the last deglaciation in the unglaciated southeastern US are poorly understood. We present a multi-proxy record spanning the past 19,800 years from Cupola Pond in the Ozarks Mountains, consisting of replicate high-resolution pollen records, 25 AMS radiocarbon dates, and macrofossil, charcoal...
Authors
Rachel Jones, John Williams, Stephen Jackson
The first 100 years of pollen analysis The first 100 years of pollen analysis
In 1916, Swedish geologist Ernst Jakob Lennart von Post delivered a provocative lecture in Oslo, Norway, advocating the use of pollen grains in bog sediments as indicators of past vegetation and climate. The lecture spawned many applications and represents a landmark in multidisciplinary science.
Authors
Kevin Edwards, Ralph Fyfe, Stephen T. Jackson
Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems
The current impacts of humanity on nature are rapid and destructive, but species turnover and change have occurred throughout the history of life. Although there is much debate about the best approaches to take in conservation, ultimately, we need to permit or enhance the resilience of natural systems so that they can continue to adapt and function into the future. In a Review, Barnosky...
Authors
Anthony Barnosky, Elizabeth Hadly, Jason Head, Patrick Gonzalez, P. Polly, A. Lawing, Jussi Eronen, David Ackerly, Ken Alex, Eric Biber, Jessica Blois, Justin Brashares, Gerardo Ceballos, Edward Davis, Gregory Dietl, Rodolfo Dirzo, Holly Doremus, Mikael Fortelius, Harry Greene, Jessica Hellmann, Thomas Hickler, Stephen Jackson, Melissa Kemp, Paul Koch, Claire Kremen, Emily Lindsey, Cindy Looy, Charles Marshall, Chase Mendenhall, Andreas Mulch, Alexis Mychajliw, Carsten Nowak, Uma Ramakrishnan, Jan Schnitzler, Kashish Das Shrestha, Katherine Solari, Lynn Stegner, M. Stegner, Nils Stenseth, Marvalee Wake, Zhibin Zhang
Toward a national, sustained U.S. ecosystem assessment Toward a national, sustained U.S. ecosystem assessment
The massive investment of resources devoted to monitoring and assessment of economic and societal indicators in the United States is neither matched by nor linked to efforts to monitor and assess the ecosystem services and biodiversity that support economic and social well-being. Although national-scale assessments of biodiversity (1) and ecosystem indicators (2) have been undertaken...
Authors
Stephen Jackson, Clifford Duke, Stephanie Hampton, Katharine Jacobs, Lucas Joppa, Karim-Aly Kassam, Harold Mooney, Laura Ogden, Mary Ruckelshaus, Jason Shogren
Managing climate change refugia for climate adaptation Managing climate change refugia for climate adaptation
Refugia have long been studied from paleontological and biogeographical perspectives to understand how populations persisted during past periods of unfavorable climate. Recently, researchers have applied the idea to contemporary landscapes to identify climate change refugia, here defined as areas relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time that enable persistence of...
Authors
Toni Morelli, Stephen Jackson
The precision problem in conservation and restoration The precision problem in conservation and restoration
Within the varied contexts of environmental policy, conservation of imperilled species populations, and restoration of damaged habitats, an emphasis on idealized optimal conditions has led to increasingly specific targets for management. Overly-precise conservation targets can reduce habitat variability at multiple scales, with unintended consequences for future ecological resilience. We...
Authors
J. Hiers, Stephen Jackson, Richard Hobbs, Emily S. Bernhardt, Leonie Valentine
External influences on ecological theory: Report on organized oral Session 80 at the 100th Anniversary Meeting of the Ecological Society of America External influences on ecological theory: Report on organized oral Session 80 at the 100th Anniversary Meeting of the Ecological Society of America
The 100‐year history of the Ecological Society of America spans most of the major advances in the field of ecology, from the “niche” of Grinnell and others, to Lotka and Volterra's models of predation and competition based on the logistic growth equation, to the concept of competitive exclusion developed from experimental ecology, to genetics and evolutionary ecology and all the...
Authors
M.A. Huston, Aaron M. Ellison, Stephen Jackson, David Frank, X. Jiang, Matthew Lau, Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Steven Prager, Derek Reiners, William Reiners, Ernst-Detlef Schulze, J.H. Vandermeer, Patricia Werner
The effects of anthropogenic land cover change on pollen-vegetation relationships in the American Midwest The effects of anthropogenic land cover change on pollen-vegetation relationships in the American Midwest
Fossil pollen assemblages provide information about vegetation dynamics at time scales ranging from centuries to millennia. Pollen-vegetation models and process-based models of dispersal typically assume stable relationships between source vegetation and corresponding pollen in surface sediments, as well as stable parameterizations of dispersal and productivity. These assumptions...
Authors
Ellen Kujawa, Simon Goring, Andria Dawson, Randy Calcote, Eric Grimm, Sara Hotchkiss, Stephen Jackson, Elizabeth Lynch, Jason McLachlan, Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques, Charles Umbanhowar, John Williams
Late Holocene expansion of Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) in the Central Rocky Mountains, USA Late Holocene expansion of Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) in the Central Rocky Mountains, USA
"Aim: Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) experienced one of the most extensive and rapid post-glacial plant migrations in western North America. We used plant macrofossils from woodrat (Neotoma) middens to reconstruct its spread in the Central Rocky Mountains, identify other vegetation changes coinciding with P. ponderosa expansion at the same sites, and relate P. ponderosa migrational...
Authors
Jodi Norris, Julio Betancourt, Stephen T. Jackson
Quantifying pollen-vegetation relationships to reconstruct ancient forests using 19th-century forest composition and pollen data Quantifying pollen-vegetation relationships to reconstruct ancient forests using 19th-century forest composition and pollen data
Mitigation of climate change and adaptation to its effects relies partly on how effectively land-atmosphere interactions can be quantified. Quantifying composition of past forest ecosystems can help understand processes governing forest dynamics in a changing world. Fossil pollen data provide information about past forest composition, but rigorous interpretation requires development of...
Authors
Andria Dawson, Christopher Paciorek, Jason McLachlan, Simon Goring, John Williams, Stephen Jackson
Novel and lost forests in the Upper Midwestern United States, from new estimates of settlement-era composition, stem density, and biomass Novel and lost forests in the Upper Midwestern United States, from new estimates of settlement-era composition, stem density, and biomass
EuroAmerican land-use and its legacies have transformed forest structure and composition across the United States (US). More accurate reconstructions of historical states are critical to understanding the processes governing past, current, and future forest dynamics. Here we present new gridded (8x8km) reconstructions of pre-settlement (1800s) forest composition and structure from the...
Authors
Simon Goring, David Mladenoff, Charles Cogbill, Sydne Record, Christopher Paciorek, Michael Dietze, Andria Dawson, Jaclyn Matthes, Jason McLachlan, John Williams
Conservation paleobiology: Leveraging knowledge of the past to inform conservation and restoration Conservation paleobiology: Leveraging knowledge of the past to inform conservation and restoration
Humans now play a major role in altering Earth and its biota. Finding ways to ameliorate human impacts on biodiversity and to sustain and restore the ecosystem services on which we depend is a grand scientific and societal challenge. Conservation paleobiology is an emerging discipline that uses geohistorical data to meet these challenges by developing and testing models of how biota...
Authors
Gregory Dietl, Susan Kidwell, Mark Brenner, David Burney, Karl Flessa, Stephen Jackson, Paul Koch
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 48
Vegetation history since the last glacial maximum in the Ozark highlands (USA): A new record from Cupola Pond, Missouri Vegetation history since the last glacial maximum in the Ozark highlands (USA): A new record from Cupola Pond, Missouri
The timing and drivers of vegetation dynamics and formation of no-analog plant communities during the last deglaciation in the unglaciated southeastern US are poorly understood. We present a multi-proxy record spanning the past 19,800 years from Cupola Pond in the Ozarks Mountains, consisting of replicate high-resolution pollen records, 25 AMS radiocarbon dates, and macrofossil, charcoal...
Authors
Rachel Jones, John Williams, Stephen Jackson
The first 100 years of pollen analysis The first 100 years of pollen analysis
In 1916, Swedish geologist Ernst Jakob Lennart von Post delivered a provocative lecture in Oslo, Norway, advocating the use of pollen grains in bog sediments as indicators of past vegetation and climate. The lecture spawned many applications and represents a landmark in multidisciplinary science.
Authors
Kevin Edwards, Ralph Fyfe, Stephen T. Jackson
Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems
The current impacts of humanity on nature are rapid and destructive, but species turnover and change have occurred throughout the history of life. Although there is much debate about the best approaches to take in conservation, ultimately, we need to permit or enhance the resilience of natural systems so that they can continue to adapt and function into the future. In a Review, Barnosky...
Authors
Anthony Barnosky, Elizabeth Hadly, Jason Head, Patrick Gonzalez, P. Polly, A. Lawing, Jussi Eronen, David Ackerly, Ken Alex, Eric Biber, Jessica Blois, Justin Brashares, Gerardo Ceballos, Edward Davis, Gregory Dietl, Rodolfo Dirzo, Holly Doremus, Mikael Fortelius, Harry Greene, Jessica Hellmann, Thomas Hickler, Stephen Jackson, Melissa Kemp, Paul Koch, Claire Kremen, Emily Lindsey, Cindy Looy, Charles Marshall, Chase Mendenhall, Andreas Mulch, Alexis Mychajliw, Carsten Nowak, Uma Ramakrishnan, Jan Schnitzler, Kashish Das Shrestha, Katherine Solari, Lynn Stegner, M. Stegner, Nils Stenseth, Marvalee Wake, Zhibin Zhang
Toward a national, sustained U.S. ecosystem assessment Toward a national, sustained U.S. ecosystem assessment
The massive investment of resources devoted to monitoring and assessment of economic and societal indicators in the United States is neither matched by nor linked to efforts to monitor and assess the ecosystem services and biodiversity that support economic and social well-being. Although national-scale assessments of biodiversity (1) and ecosystem indicators (2) have been undertaken...
Authors
Stephen Jackson, Clifford Duke, Stephanie Hampton, Katharine Jacobs, Lucas Joppa, Karim-Aly Kassam, Harold Mooney, Laura Ogden, Mary Ruckelshaus, Jason Shogren
Managing climate change refugia for climate adaptation Managing climate change refugia for climate adaptation
Refugia have long been studied from paleontological and biogeographical perspectives to understand how populations persisted during past periods of unfavorable climate. Recently, researchers have applied the idea to contemporary landscapes to identify climate change refugia, here defined as areas relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time that enable persistence of...
Authors
Toni Morelli, Stephen Jackson
The precision problem in conservation and restoration The precision problem in conservation and restoration
Within the varied contexts of environmental policy, conservation of imperilled species populations, and restoration of damaged habitats, an emphasis on idealized optimal conditions has led to increasingly specific targets for management. Overly-precise conservation targets can reduce habitat variability at multiple scales, with unintended consequences for future ecological resilience. We...
Authors
J. Hiers, Stephen Jackson, Richard Hobbs, Emily S. Bernhardt, Leonie Valentine
External influences on ecological theory: Report on organized oral Session 80 at the 100th Anniversary Meeting of the Ecological Society of America External influences on ecological theory: Report on organized oral Session 80 at the 100th Anniversary Meeting of the Ecological Society of America
The 100‐year history of the Ecological Society of America spans most of the major advances in the field of ecology, from the “niche” of Grinnell and others, to Lotka and Volterra's models of predation and competition based on the logistic growth equation, to the concept of competitive exclusion developed from experimental ecology, to genetics and evolutionary ecology and all the...
Authors
M.A. Huston, Aaron M. Ellison, Stephen Jackson, David Frank, X. Jiang, Matthew Lau, Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Steven Prager, Derek Reiners, William Reiners, Ernst-Detlef Schulze, J.H. Vandermeer, Patricia Werner
The effects of anthropogenic land cover change on pollen-vegetation relationships in the American Midwest The effects of anthropogenic land cover change on pollen-vegetation relationships in the American Midwest
Fossil pollen assemblages provide information about vegetation dynamics at time scales ranging from centuries to millennia. Pollen-vegetation models and process-based models of dispersal typically assume stable relationships between source vegetation and corresponding pollen in surface sediments, as well as stable parameterizations of dispersal and productivity. These assumptions...
Authors
Ellen Kujawa, Simon Goring, Andria Dawson, Randy Calcote, Eric Grimm, Sara Hotchkiss, Stephen Jackson, Elizabeth Lynch, Jason McLachlan, Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques, Charles Umbanhowar, John Williams
Late Holocene expansion of Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) in the Central Rocky Mountains, USA Late Holocene expansion of Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) in the Central Rocky Mountains, USA
"Aim: Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) experienced one of the most extensive and rapid post-glacial plant migrations in western North America. We used plant macrofossils from woodrat (Neotoma) middens to reconstruct its spread in the Central Rocky Mountains, identify other vegetation changes coinciding with P. ponderosa expansion at the same sites, and relate P. ponderosa migrational...
Authors
Jodi Norris, Julio Betancourt, Stephen T. Jackson
Quantifying pollen-vegetation relationships to reconstruct ancient forests using 19th-century forest composition and pollen data Quantifying pollen-vegetation relationships to reconstruct ancient forests using 19th-century forest composition and pollen data
Mitigation of climate change and adaptation to its effects relies partly on how effectively land-atmosphere interactions can be quantified. Quantifying composition of past forest ecosystems can help understand processes governing forest dynamics in a changing world. Fossil pollen data provide information about past forest composition, but rigorous interpretation requires development of...
Authors
Andria Dawson, Christopher Paciorek, Jason McLachlan, Simon Goring, John Williams, Stephen Jackson
Novel and lost forests in the Upper Midwestern United States, from new estimates of settlement-era composition, stem density, and biomass Novel and lost forests in the Upper Midwestern United States, from new estimates of settlement-era composition, stem density, and biomass
EuroAmerican land-use and its legacies have transformed forest structure and composition across the United States (US). More accurate reconstructions of historical states are critical to understanding the processes governing past, current, and future forest dynamics. Here we present new gridded (8x8km) reconstructions of pre-settlement (1800s) forest composition and structure from the...
Authors
Simon Goring, David Mladenoff, Charles Cogbill, Sydne Record, Christopher Paciorek, Michael Dietze, Andria Dawson, Jaclyn Matthes, Jason McLachlan, John Williams
Conservation paleobiology: Leveraging knowledge of the past to inform conservation and restoration Conservation paleobiology: Leveraging knowledge of the past to inform conservation and restoration
Humans now play a major role in altering Earth and its biota. Finding ways to ameliorate human impacts on biodiversity and to sustain and restore the ecosystem services on which we depend is a grand scientific and societal challenge. Conservation paleobiology is an emerging discipline that uses geohistorical data to meet these challenges by developing and testing models of how biota...
Authors
Gregory Dietl, Susan Kidwell, Mark Brenner, David Burney, Karl Flessa, Stephen Jackson, Paul Koch
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.