Specific research questions:
How do land use, natural disturbances, and climate change affect three key ecosystem properties: carbon dynamics, biodiversity, and hydrology?
Mountain meadows comprise a small portion of the largely forested western Cascade landscape, but serve many important ecological and societal functions. However, decades of fire suppression and changes in climate and/or grazing pressure have led to recent (and often dramatic) expansion of forest into meadow.
For more information see Ecology and Restoration of Montane Meadows in Western Oregon : Research and Adaptive Management at Bunchgrass Ridge
How did historical fires shape specific old growth stand conditions including density of species, relative frequencies of tree species and ground vegetation, and importance value of tree species?
The interplay of disturbances due to fire drive succession and other ecosystem dynamics; what are the frequencies, severity, duration, and spatial pattern of natural disturbance processes of the Andrews Forest and other parts of western Oregon; how does fire history disturbance create the ecological conditions in today’s forest stands?
Is fire necessary to inhibit the future encroachment of trees into the montane meadow?
Is removal of trees sufficient? Treatments include a control, complete over-story removal, and complete over-story removal plus prescribed burning of residual slash.
For more information, see the Temporal and Spatial Variability of Fire Occurrence in Western Oregon, A.D. 1200 – 2000
Do clear cuts have adverse effects on the diversity of species that hatch in streams?
Because small order streams make up a great portion of watersheds, these streams have great impact on the health of the watershed ecosystem. Any changes in the small order streams can have significant impact on the large order streams. With forest harvest (logging) and road building, the environments surrounding these small order streams are dramatically altered. Insects are important part of the food chain that retains important nutrients in the stream.
See Sample Report: Comparison of insect diversity in three types of 1st order streams: Clear-cut, buffered, and forest
