Todd Hawbaker
Todd J. Hawbaker is a Research Ecologist with the Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center in Denver, Colorado.
Todd received his B.S. degree in animal ecology in 1998 from Iowa State University. After receiving his B.S., he worked for a couple of years burning and restoring tallgrass prairie in southwestern Minnesota and then pursued graduate school. He received his M.S. degree in forestry in 2003 and Ph.D. degree in forestry in 2009 from the University of Wisconsin. He joined the U.S. Geological Survey as a research ecologist in 2008. His current research with the USGS combines remote sensing with statistical and process-based ecosystem simulation models to understand the drivers behind ecosystem disturbances and quantify the impacts of disturbances on human and natural systems.
Professional Experience
Research Ecologist (Oct. 2012 - present), U.S. Geological Survey, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Denver, CO
Research Ecologist (Aug. 2008 - Oct. 2012), U.S. Geological Survey, Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center, Denver, CO
Graduate Research Assistant (Sep. 2004 - July 2008), University of Wisconsin, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, Madison, WI
Research Intern (Sep. 2003 - Aug. 2004), University of Wisconsin, Department of Forest Ecology & Management, Madison, WI
Graduate Research Assistant (Jan. 2001 - Aug. 2003), University of Wisconsin, Department of Forest Ecology & Management, Madison, WI
Restoration Ecologist (May 1998 - Dec. 2000), Salix Ecological Resources, Windom, MN
Software Engineer & UNIX Systems Administrator (May 1993 - Oct. 1997), Engineering Animation Inc., Ames, IA
Education and Certifications
2009, PhD Forestry, University of Wisconsin – Madison. Dissertation title: Fire in the wildland-urban interface, a national comparison of patterns of fire occurrence and fire risk to homes.
2003, M.S. Forestry, University of Wisconsin – Madison. Thesis title: Road density and landscape pattern in Northern Wisconsin, USA; present and past perspectives on environmental constraints and...
1998, B.S. Animal Ecology, Iowa State University.
Science and Products
Resilience of ponderosa and lodgepole pine forests to mountain pine beetle disturbance and limited regeneration
Climate change and wildfire risk in an expanding wildland–urban interface: a case study from the Colorado Front Range Corridor
Projecting the spatiotemporal carbon dynamics of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from 2006 to 2050
Characterizing recent and projecting future potential patterns of mountain pine beetle outbreaks in the Southern Rocky Mountains
Mapping mountain pine beetle mortality through growth trend analysis of time-series landsat data
Simulated impacts of mountain pine beetle and wildfire disturbances on forest vegetation composition and carbon stocks in the Southern Rocky Mountains
Human and biophysical influences on fire occurrence in the United States
An integrated land change model for projecting future climate and land change scenarios
Mountain pine beetle impacts on vegetation and carbon stocks
Wyoming Basin Ecoregion: Chapter 25 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
Effects of ignition location models on the burn patterns of simulated wildfires
Effects of roads, topography, and land use on forest cover dynamics in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest
Science and Products
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Resilience of ponderosa and lodgepole pine forests to mountain pine beetle disturbance and limited regeneration
After causing widespread mortality in lodgepole pine forests in North America, the mountain pine beetle (MPB) has recently also affected ponderosa pine, an alternate host species that may have different levels of resilience to this disturbance. We collected field data in ponderosa pine- and lodgepole pine-dominated forests attacked by MPB in Colorado and then simulated stand growth over 200 yearsAuthorsJenny S. Briggs, Todd Hawbaker, Don VandendriescheClimate change and wildfire risk in an expanding wildland–urban interface: a case study from the Colorado Front Range Corridor
Context Wildfire is a particular concern in the wildland–urban interface (WUI) of the western United States where human development occurs close to flammable natural vegetation. Objectives (1) Assess the relative influences of WUI expansion versus climate-driven fire regime change on spatial and temporal patterns of burned WUI, and (2) determine whether WUI developed in the future will have higAuthorsZhihua Liu, Michael C. Wimberly, Aashis Lamsal, Terry L. Sohl, Todd HawbakerProjecting the spatiotemporal carbon dynamics of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from 2006 to 2050
BackgroundClimate change and the concurrent change in wildfire events and land use comprehensively affect carbon dynamics in both spatial and temporal dimensions. The purpose of this study was to project the spatial and temporal aspects of carbon storage in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) under these changes from 2006 to 2050. We selected three emission scenarios and produced simulations wAuthorsShengli Huang, Shuguang Liu, Jinxun Liu, Devendra Dahal, Claudia Young, Brian Davis, Terry L. Sohl, Todd Hawbaker, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Zhiliang ZhuCharacterizing recent and projecting future potential patterns of mountain pine beetle outbreaks in the Southern Rocky Mountains
The recent widespread mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreak in the Southern Rocky Mountains presents an opportunity to investigate the relative influence of anthropogenic, biologic, and physical drivers that have shaped the spatiotemporal patterns of the outbreak. The aim of this study was to quantify the landscape-level drivers that explained the dynamic patterns of MPB mortality, and simulate areaAuthorsLu Liang, Todd Hawbaker, Yanlei Chen, Zhi-Liang Zhu, Peng GongMapping mountain pine beetle mortality through growth trend analysis of time-series landsat data
Disturbances are key processes in the carbon cycle of forests and other ecosystems. In recent decades, mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks have become more frequent and extensive in western North America. Remote sensing has the ability to fill the data gaps of long-term infestation monitoring, but the elimination of observational noise and attributing changes quantitativeAuthorsLu Liang, Yanlei Chen, Todd Hawbaker, Zhi-Liang Zhu, Peng GongSimulated impacts of mountain pine beetle and wildfire disturbances on forest vegetation composition and carbon stocks in the Southern Rocky Mountains
Forests play an important role in sequestering carbon and offsetting anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, but changing disturbance regimes may compromise the capability of forests to store carbon. In the Southern Rocky Mountains, a recent outbreak of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB) has caused levels of tree mortality that are unprecedented in recorded history. To evaluate thAuthorsMegan K. Caldwell, Todd Hawbaker, Jenny S. Briggs, P.W. Cigan, Susan StittHuman and biophysical influences on fire occurrence in the United States
National-scale analyses of fire occurrence are needed to prioritize fire policy and management activities across the United States. However, the drivers of national-scale patterns of fire occurrence are not well understood, and how the relative importance of human or biophysical factors varies across the country is unclear. Our research goal was to model the drivers of fire occurrence within ecoreAuthorsTodd Hawbaker, Volker C. Radeloff, Susan I. Stewart, Roger B. Hammer, Nicholas S. Keuler, Murray K. ClaytonAn integrated land change model for projecting future climate and land change scenarios
Climate change will have myriad effects on ecosystems worldwide, and natural and anthropogenic disturbances will be key drivers of these dynamics. In addition to climatic effects, continual expansion of human settlement into fire-prone forests will alter fire regimes, increase human vulnerability, and constrain future forest management options. There is a need for modeling tools to support the simAuthorsMichael Wimberly, Terry L. Sohl, Aashis Lamsal, Zhihua Liu, Todd HawbakerMountain pine beetle impacts on vegetation and carbon stocks
In the Southern Rocky Mountains, an epidemic outbreak of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB) has caused levels of tree mortality unprecedented in recorded history. The impacts of this mortality on vegetation composition, forest structure, and carbon stocks have only recently received attention, although the impacts of other disturbances such as fires and land-use/land-cover changeAuthorsTodd Hawbaker, Jennifer S. Briggs, Megan K. Caldwell, Susan StittWyoming Basin Ecoregion: Chapter 25 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Wyoming Basin Ecoregion (Omernik 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1999) covers approximately 128,914 km2 (49,774 mi2) in Wyoming and parts of northwestern Colorado, northeastern Utah, southeastern Idaho, and southern Montana (fig. 1). The ecoregion is bounded on the east by the Northwestern Great Plains Ecoregion; on the south and east by the Southern Rockies Ecoregion; on the southAuthorsTodd HawbakerEffects of ignition location models on the burn patterns of simulated wildfires
Fire simulation studies that use models such as FARSITE often assume that ignition locations are distributed randomly, because spatially explicit information about actual ignition locations are difficult to obtain. However, many studies show that the spatial distribution of ignition locations, whether human-caused or natural, is non-random. Thus, predictions from fire simulations based on random iAuthorsA. Bar-Massada, A.D. Syphard, Todd Hawbaker, S. I. Stewart, V. C. RadeloffEffects of roads, topography, and land use on forest cover dynamics in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest
Roads and topography can determine patterns of land use and distribution of forest cover, particularly in tropical regions. We evaluated how road density, land use, and topography affected forest fragmentation, deforestation and forest regrowth in a Brazilian Atlantic Forest region near the city of São Paulo. We mapped roads and land use/land cover for three years (1962, 1981 and 2000) from historAuthorsSimone R. Freitas, Todd Hawbaker, Jean Paul Metzger - Web Tools
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