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
Contributions to the development of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Sagebrush Conservation Strategy
Workshops and Collaborations to Improve Biodiversity and Climate Modeling
Understanding Extreme Climate Events in the North Central U.S.
Science and Products
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Contributions to the development of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Sagebrush Conservation Strategy
USGS scientists are contributing to the development of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Sagebrush Conservation Strategy, a strategy intended to provide guidance so that efforts to conserve the iconic greater sage-grouse can be expanded to the entire sagebrush biome to benefit the people and wildlife that depend on it.Workshops and Collaborations to Improve Biodiversity and Climate Modeling
As our world changes and communities are faced with uncertain future climate conditions, decision making and resource planning efforts can often no longer rely on historic scientific data alone. Scientific projections of what might be expected in the future are increasingly needed across the country and around the world. Scientists and researchers can develop these projections by using computer moUnderstanding Extreme Climate Events in the North Central U.S.
The climate of the North Central U.S. is driven by a combination of factors, including atmospheric circulation patterns, the region’s complex topography which extends from the High Rockies to the Great Plains, and variations in hydrology. Together, these factors determine the sustainability of the region’s ecosystems and the services that they provide communities. In order to understand the vuln - Multimedia
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